Some of you may know about my resident mysore spider last year. It lived in a corner of the dresser mirror. Freaked me out a bit when I first saw it (pretty big spider) but it had spun such a beautiful web I couldn’t bring myself to destroy it. So, we became room-mates. After a while, getting worried that my spider would die of starvation because it never caught anything, I decided to feed it. Caught a couple of mossies and tossed them into the web. It sprinted to one (moving so fast I got a fright), pounced on it and simultaneously started wrapping the other in a cocoon. I felt like I was watching National Geographic!
This year (same house, different room) … it’s Ants!
Not the little brown ones with the painful bite but the bigger black & brown ones that thankfully don’t bite. Found them streaming into the window my first night and upon further investigation (I must have inherited the skill from Mum who is THE best ant-tracker … many a time we’d find her on her hands & knees looking for ants in the middle of the night, right mum?), discovered that they were disappearing into the top of my wardrobe. I was reasonably alarmed ‘cos they were big and numerous but having no insecticide, had to pretend they didn’t exist. They were gone the next morning. As the days passed, they started to move into other parts of the room. I mentioned it to my landlord who said they come indoors to nest in the rainy season but would disappear eventually. I told him I was fine with them (not wanting to come across as a spoilt, murderous city girl who kills any insect she sees). “Suresh”, I said diplomatically, “my only concern is if they decide to nest in my clothes”. His reply, with a typical Indian shake of the head … “Don’t worry. I’ll spray them!”. So much for ‘ahimsa’ (the yogic ‘commandment’ of non-injury)
Anyway, it’s been 3 weeks and they’re still here. Actually I’m kindof used to them now but I have discovered wood-eating ‘somethings’ in the cupboard!
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