The first time I saw this, I was sharing a loft on Santa Clara, in Venice, in one of those modern bunker-type buildings. The stripe was all the way from the front door out the back door, which was a pretty long way. My (very human) thought: "Couldn't you just go the hell around?"

In case you have an ant infestation:

http://www.wikihow.com/Kill-Ants

We get scorpions where I live. Not ants or roaches-just scorpions (and some spiders, and wasps.) When we lived on the other side of the city, where the soil has different qualities, it was the roaches we'd have to battle.

Like Ahw some of my area gets scorpions (my vet's house about 2 miles as the crow flys) so YIKES!

We are lucky and get seasonal bug swarms every couple of years.

> with a need to create an ant holocaust.

> Windex holocaust followed.

I will remember to quote you the next time you complain about (say) a comparison of wolf-whistles to rape.

Little known fact, the Bay Area is 35% ants by biomass. I just made that up, but damn did we have ant problems.

That's some wikihow page Sixclaws. I will keep it in mind. The apartment with the ant problem eventually burned down, so I'm ready to try these alternatives next time.

I've had success killing black ants and red ants with boric acid bait when nothing else worked. It's a sugar syrup containing boric acid. You put drops of it on little pieces of cardboard, and leave the pieces near where the ants are appearing from out of the structure. It takes a few days, and you need to keep it up for a week or so to make sure it kills the next generation before they can reproduce.

In Florida especially, but all over the Southeast U.S., nature is not sweet and polite; it runs riot if it's allowed to. We find houses buried under kudzu. There's a local story that goes around about a visit to the local National Space Society chapter from Issac Asimov, back in the 1970s. He was staying at the hosts' house, and one morning they found a red wasp that had gotten into the house. The host got out a flyswatter, but Asimov insisted that one of nature's gentle creatures should be given a chance. As Asimov went to get a piece of paper to try to encourage it out the door, it stung him. He cursed a blue streak. Maybe California wasps are different, but red wasps will sting without provocation. We kill them whenever we find them. It's them or us.

Art, while I understand that calling it a Holocaust made me cringe a little (it comes much better from a Jewish person), the comparison is much more apt than comparing wolf whistles to rape. For the ants, it is mass death ( just like the Holocaust.) on the other hand, a wolf whistle may make some women uncomfortable but should not cause any true physical harm. Rape involves greater psychological and often physical harm. A woman may become pregnant or develop a venereal which is often incurable.

"I say we take the ship up and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

Meh. You don't have a problem until you have mammals. Or reptiles.

We have deer and rabbits, and the occasional turkey, fox, snake and bobcat in the yard.

But CA is SO much better! Now, pavement... Ahhhh!

{not really. duh.}

"Holocaust" as a common noun means a mass slaughter--in this case a mass execution of ants. Also, this post obviously is lighthearted.

Women who say that getting wolf-whistled is a form of rape--or even on the same continuum--typically are not joking. They're not, like, "I got pregnant with twins from all those catcalls!" They're strong-arming others into accepting that /any/ attention they find unwelcome is an equally serious and unlawful violation of their rights.

We all should complain about that.

> with a need to create an ant holocaust.

> Windex holocaust followed.

I will remember to quote you the next time you complain about (say) a comparison of wolf-whistles to rape.

Calm the fuck down. I'm a Jew.

See Insufficient Poison post above.

Oh, and here's this great postcard Gregg made of me -- with Adolf, Rommel and some other dude: http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2005/07/12/vichy_soirs_1.html

I will remember to quote you the next time you complain about (say) a comparison of wolf-whistles to rape.

Art must have a job where they're required to surgically remove your sense of humor. Besides, it's not like she lined them up and marched them into the ovens.

Living in Florida, I can tell you that most of our flora and fauna will either try to bite you, stab you, sting you, or eat you. Hawks, foxes, eagles, owls and on occasion deer or black bears can be seen in town. Don't get me started on fire ants or yeller jackets.

I've gotten used to the fire ants. But those crazy ants are damned annoying. Seriously, stay the fuck out of the power outlets you tiny mobile fuses.

Amy, that's not Rommel in the photo. Adolph only got part of one day in Paris. Hope you & Gregg did better than that. Too many wines, cheeses, restaurants and museums for one day. But, Adolph was a teetotaler vegetarian and a crappy artist, with some other objectionable beliefs, so a day trip to The City of Lights was wasted on him. Pick better traveling companions, next time.

I can't believe Amy doesn't know what Rommel looks like. Admittedly, the document holder on my desk is decorated with my version of a motivational poster: a photo of Rommel looking steely-eyed, with the words "Mach Dich an die Arbeit!" ("Get to work!") underneath. But still ... sheesh.

My other motivational go-to guy is Theodore Roosevelt. If Amy couldn't pick him out of a photographic line-up, I don't even want to know about it.

Oh, and here's this great postcard Gregg made of me -- with Adolf, Rommel and some other dude

I believe the other dude is Paul Ryan.