ant motel

It was the early 50’s and as my dad drove south on vacation along A1A to Florida, there were motels here and there as we traveled. And when my dad got tired he would select one of the motels to stop in for the night. Motels back then were just simply called motels. Now days, these very same motels are affectionately referred to as “mom & pop” motels. They were small by today’s standards and consisted of around fifteen rooms. A husband and wife usually owned and operated them. No big chain motels back then with the buffet breakfast in the morning and jacuzzi within the swimming pool area. The rooms of the mom & pops were laid out in a string in a long linear building. No square design architecture with a central courtyard, just a long building or two. These mom and pop motels were meant for sleeping only and then moving on in the morning. How does all of this tie into the ant picture above? Well, all of those ant holes in a long line in the cracks in the driveway, is sort of like the motel rooms aligned in a long building. So here is our ant motel in our driveway.

Unlike the “roach motel” “where they check in but they don’t check out” (Hotel California song by the Eagles), our ants can come and go as they please. We have tried everything in the world to make them “check out” but they just seem to persist. The major problem is that the ants are removing sand from under the concrete slab of the driveway and thereby undermining it. So remember that there are three different kinds of motels: mom and pop motels, roach motels, and ant motels. And now you have seen a picture of an ant motel. How many rooms are there? You have to count the holes along the crack to get the answer. But hurry, because every day there are a few more holes. And if you want to learn more about the life of bugs, just go to Disney and see the show It’s Tough to be a Bug. It is really good and I have seen it hundreds and hundreds of times. Really! (I use to work there). Be cool and enjoy the outside temperatures. Lew