Thursday, November 10, 2011

Do Moms Still Do This? Get That Kettle Going. Ants.


When I was a kid, there always seemed to be groups of ants around. Usually from someone dropping a popsicle or some other food. I remember being fascinated with them. Sometimes I would flick a stick into the group and to see if they'd come back to the food.

Then, my Mom would come out and see the ants and freak out, "Oh no! Get away from the ants! They'll get in the house."

She always claimed that "once you have ants you never get rid of them." But I think she was also afraid people would see ants in our house and think that we're "dirty people."

Then she'd going inside, start the "kettle" - as she called it - until water was boiling. Once I heard the kettle whistling I knew the end was near. She'd then come out and pour the scalding water onto the ants and in a June Cleaverish voice say, "OK. That should do it."

Do people still do this?

10 comments:

Kristen said...

The message here is don't mess with your mom.

sybil law said...

Hahahaha!
No. My mom never did that.

diane said...

Yes, my mom did that too. She also used to squish flies with her bare hands. huh.

A good way to keep ants away is by misting red vinegar around your windows and doorways, they hate that stuff. If that doesn't work, invest in one of those ant traps where they carry the poison back to the nest and it kills the colony (ants in pilgrim suits come to mind, haha).

It is heartwarming to know that we share scary moms.

The Jules said...

There's water boarding, which is bad enough, but doing it with boiling water is just cruel.

I hope she at least got some valuable information out of them.

"When are you planning to invade? Tell me or I'll get the kettle!"

Dr Zibbs said...

Diane - I KNEW it wasn't just her!

Anonymous said...

Your mom kicked ass. My hippie mom only used boiling water to kill weeds.

Jill said...

Here if you do that, they just move two feet down the lawn. Or if you poison they move two feet down the lawn. And they're fire ants, so if you get bitten, it really, really hurts. But that doesn't stop the kids from being mesmerized by them, so that when they show up on the school playground you have to continually chant something along the lines of "Go play somewhere else! There's ants! Go play somewhere else! There's ants!"

Dr Zibbs said...

Jill- do you live in the Amazon?

Jill said...

Houston. Is that the same thing?

Dr Zibbs said...

Jill - Gotcha.