There is an ant-ita joke in there somewhere, but I am not sure how to make it.

The wandering tribes of ants, searching for their promised land, destined to spend 40 years in the land of ita.

And, unlike Jews at Passover Seder, ants eat pizza.*

• See recent natter posts.

Robin, I'm glad your niece s getting the help she needs.

Susan, I'm agreeing with the people who told you to quit obsessing. Annabel is fine. She has parents who love her and an ability to amuse herself, both of which will keep her happy for a long time. (Though I'm sure that when/if I have kids, I'll worry as much as you do, if not more.)

Aimee, what did the cats do?

destined to spend 40 years in the land of ita

Their timing sucks, since I'm out of here in under two weeks.

They probably only have to wander until the current generation has died out. However long an ant generation is. Feel free to smite them, it builds character.

Sometimes ants just wander for no reason at all, great highways of streaming ants going nowhere, presumably looking for something that is not there.

I read in the paper that they are looking for not-wet. They always appear indoors during rainy season. Thus proving that ants, unlike some people, do have the sense to come in out of the rain.

The times I've had major ants have previously been in the summer. I thought it was heat driving them out. The sorties this year have been tentative, and they haven't actually made it into the food.

In the summer? They're hunting. I couldn't leave food on the counter during their season for more than ten minutes without losing it to the hordes.

My fingers are crossed that the new place has better pest control.

I've had ants come inside looking for water (clusters of them around droplets in the sink) when it's dry and escaping water when it's wet. I've also had them eat my soap. my mom has had to keep her sugar in the freezer to keep the ants out of it (once they get into the sugar, putting it in the freezer only stuns them, they wake back up when they thaw out) but they effectively drown in flour - they'll crawl into the canister for whatever reason and die, so you just have to sift their little bodies out.

I've also heard that having ants makes it less likely you'll have roaches, as the first somehow keep the second away. If those are the choices, I'll take ants.

I have neither right now, through no action of my own. My landlord and neighbor might spray. We do have a lot of lizards, that might explain it.

We do have a lot of lizards, that might explain it.

Ooooh, I'd take lizards over ants and roaches. Lizards are nifty.

I vastly prefer the lizards. Poor things keep losing their tails to the cats, and we occasionally find little lizard mummies under the furniture, but they manmage to maintain a pretty sizable population.

If those are the choices, I'll take ants.

I'd prefer roaches. Easier to kill. Once either one gets into the food, it's over. But I've never had roaches in my fridge, nor in my dishwasher.