I have successfully moved into my new home and am now starting to notice all the unique characteristics of my house. Mostly normal stuff, like how every bathroom has an air vent right next to the toilet so that you end up freezing while trying to piss or the super industrial springs in our 1950 windows that will occasionally propel the window open with no notice, leaving me scared for my life until I realize the noise was not me getting shot in a drive by, but just the window opening itself. Today I noticed a pile of saw dust that I had already cleaned up. It is a magical little hill that just keeps coming back under the window sill. I started to inspect the wall and there is no sign of where it is coming from except for a tiny little hole underneath the window. I am very familiar with Carpenter Bees, those are the ones that are the size of a dog and will chase you down the street threatening to sting you while flying kamikaze style into your head, attempting to give you a concussion, but we have not seen any of those bees around. I decided that I needed to ask the Google for advice. BIG MISTAKE!
I was able to quickly rule out killer whales, bats, Sasquatch, and midgets. I continued on with a false sense of security that with all those ruled out, the problem could not be too bad. I have not been this wrong since the time I diagnosed myself on WebMD with Foreign Accent Syndrome. The following discovery is proof that ignorance is bliss and you should by no means use the internet to educate yourself.
Turns out I have Carpenter Ants. At first, I got pretty excited because we have been paying a contractor to do a bunch of work on the house, and I had visions of saving money by training the ants to frame out the basement for us. I started doing research on how to train them and I discovered that not only are they untrainable, but they don't actually build anything either. In fact they eat holes through your walls in order to appease the queen by making her a bigger nest. Why is there ALWAYS a woman behind EVERYTHING evil?!!? Normally, I only read the top line of Wikipedia. I find that is normally enough info to claim that I am an expert on any given subject, but the bottom of the article caught my attention.
Also called, Exploding Ants:
'The Ants' feature greatly enlarged mandibular glands that run the entire length of the ant's body. They can release their contents suicidally, rupturing the ant's body and spraying toxic substance from the head, which gives these species the common name "exploding ants." The ant has an enormously enlarged mandibular gland, many times the size of a normal ant, which produces the glue. The glue bursts out and entangles and immobilizes all nearby victims -Wikipedia.
Like most people, I have spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours thinking about what my defense mechanism would be if I had not been lucky enough to be born near the top of the food chain. When it comes to survival tactics, I have always wanted to function like a Sea Cucumber. They can make change forms from liquid to solid and even turn their bodies inside out in order to elude alien evasions, flesh eating bacteria, or being captured by terrorists. They are much like the Wonder Twins without the need of the pesky unitard. I have NEVER once thought about spontaneously blowing my body up in order to attack intruders. This might be the worst defense mechanism in the animal kingdom!
Screw Al Qaeda, I am living with the real terroists!