Last Friday evening, we had put the kids to bed and were sitting and talking with Joseph and Annah and their son, Silas. All of a sudden, from over the top of the wall (yes there is a space between the roof and the wall), several thousand safari ants came marching into the room! Joseph quickly grabbed the bug killer and started spraying them. He then ran outside to attack the source.
Rick and I, not knowing what safari ants were, were relatively surprised but not afraid. We didn’t find out until the next morning that Joseph spent a good part of the night battling them to keep them away from the house with ‘Doom’ – the bug killer.
So, Safari ants are these amazing creatures that plan and strategize attacks on certain areas. They march in lines and follow the very large commander ants. Each commander leads a troupe of ants. The commander stands erect on his back legs with his very large pincers open wide. All of the smaller ants march in front of him. They plan their ‘attacks’ during the day and they always attack at night. They will go great distances around and area to surround their prey. They have been known to surround and kill large animals. And they bite hard! Unfortunately we have all experience this…
Sunday afternoon, Julia and Msuni accidentally stumbled across their new nest, which was about 20 yards below the house. In a matter of seconds, they were both crawling with ants and started screaming. We stripped them down and got all of the ants off. And then we went to work.
Being uninformed Americans, we followed Annah and Naimutie, one of the 12 year old girls living here. They gathered hot coals from the ‘jico’ and started pouring them over the piles of ants. Then we gathered dried grasses and lit them on fire and placed them all along their trail. We were trying to create a barrier to drive them down the hill towards the creek. Some people here actually leave their houses for several days when these ants come. The ants kill every living thing in their path, including spiders, bugs and unwanted creatures living in the remote corners of the house. They see it as a blessing!
This morning, we found them near the dish-washing station in the back yard. Caleb and Emmanuel worked to light them on fire today. We are wondering where they will turn up tomorrow! Anyone want to come and visit Kenya?
1 comment:
Instead of using biological warfare (your spray) or napalm (the coals), why not try psychological torture? Have Caleb put a boombox outside blasting Barbara Streisand or Zamfir, or whatever...
Miss you all
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