The Night of Ten Thousand Ants!

Since I am a sculptor, I have my studio in an old warehouse in downtown Los Angeles at an artist community.  When you live in a warehouse, you get used to a life that is not as cushy as living in a regular home.  For example I can't have carpeting because when it rains hard I get water flowing through my studio like rivers.  I make paths for the water to follow with piles of T shirts to direct the water away from the computer and such.  Once in a while I get some wild animal invasions as well.  I have had a possum in the kitchen, several feral cats have snuck in (one who stayed a month!), and a few various birds.  With the exception of that one cat who wouldn't leave, these creatures are fairly easy to get back outside.  Insects are another story.  One day I saw the largest millipede I have ever seen walking across my floor.  It had to be ten inches long as least.  Luckily there has only been one sighting of those nasty looking creatures.  So, one night I went to bed, and something felt not quite right.  I realized there was something crawling on me, and in several places.  I threw off the covers and turned on the light and to my horror there were gazillions of ants everywhere.  My body was covered in them.  I ran downstairs and took a shower to get them off me, then spent the rest of the entire night spraying insect killer all around my bed and entire studio.  Next came the shop vac, and I vacuumed up ants all over the place.  Finally I was rolling a roll of duct tape over my sheets to pick up the rest of the ants.  Not a pleasant way to spend a night.  It took me a long time before I got into bed without a good inspection beforehand.  Oddly enough, this only happened one time, and I found out later that a friend of mine had the same thing happen to him, on  the other side of the artist complex, and on the same night.   So, they are out there, and when you least expect it, they may come out of a crack in your floor by the thousands.  


Pleasant Dreams!


Stay tuned for tomorrows story about my day of 1000 eels!