Brad versus the Ants

Or is it... Brad versus himself? Stupid ants.

If you live in Southern California, you know what I'm talking about. This time of year, the little buggers start moving into the house looking for water.

We have found that Grants Kills Ants stakes work pretty well inside - but there is a catch. I really want to smash every ant I see, but for the bait to be effective, you have to let the ants find the stakes, identify them as food, and start carrying off the bait to feed the colony. If it's really working, the bait will be swarming with ants for a couple days, and then they all die and don't come back. But I want to smash! Must... restrain... index finger of death...

Admittedly it's not quite as dramatic a situation as the one Leiningen* faces, but it's about as close as I'm likely to get in my suburban utopia.

* Cool short story we read in Mrs. Seifried's 7th-grade English class. Also the basis for the 1954 movie The Naked Jungle, starring Charlton Heston and Eleanor Parker.