Ants Like Me
Where as mosquitoes here have a casual disregard for me, the ants seem to find me irresistible.
We arrived at lovely guesthouse in Vellore late. My boss and I ate a quick dinner that was laid out for us and headed our separate ways to sleep. While brushing my teeth and casually inspecting my bed, I noticed a tiny insect… an India Ant I was latter told, trekking across the vast world that was my pillow. I brushed her aside, only to discover another. Interested, I moved the pillow and found a few more milling about, to which I turned over the entire pillow and found a score of the tiny creatures walking this way and that. I quickly finished brushing my teeth, and provided to remove the sheets. More of the little buggers where beneath the covers, but the mass of the critters where around the pillow, seemingly enthralled by it.
Luckily, the room had two beds (I assume for just this sort of happenings), which I inspected thoroughly and only found one ant. They seemed to be less interested in this bed, and this pillow, so I deemed it habitable. After dispatching the creature, I made myself comfortable and prepared to sleep.
Now, my internal clock had been off since arriving. The day before I went to bed a 2 am after watching a parade of delightful movie (one being a kung-fu movie about amazons). I was set to wake up at 10am and explore the streets of Chennai, but instead woke up at 3:30 PM to a call from the driver who was taking me to Vellore… I had slept 13 hours and managed to miss our 3 PM meeting time. The poor man had been parked outside since 2:30… I had apparently I slept through his first call to my room and ringing my doorbell. Therefore, tonight I decided to set my internal clock straight by working till midnight and going to bed, while setting several alarms to wake myself.
The nights in the guesthouse were lovely. Birds and crickets chirped outside the window, and geckos slithered about the ceiling. I settled down for a nice rest, but the jet lag would not let me sleep. I lay in bed restlessly, scratching a small itch here, and itch there. After 4 hours of restlessly laying in bed, the itches began to accumulate, and it dawned on me that something was wrong. At first, I equated it with the half dozen mosquito bites I had accumulated in the last two days, but decided to investigate my room for mosquitoes, just to be safe. I could find none, but did find many very small black and brown pebbles stuck to my skin. After much squinting, these turned out to be the tiny heads of ants. Next to me, the adjacent bed had accumulated five times the number of ants during my hours of tossing a turning as were there before.
There was no malice in their action, which brings me some comfort. Apparently some of the ants were exploring the room, had wandered on to my bed, where they were rolled over during my tossing and turning. My scratching had removed all but there strong little mandibles. Their bites were not enough to hurt, just to cause slow growing itchy red lumps.
So, at 5 am, I removed the blankets, pillows, and covers from both beds, and spent the next 2 hours waiting for my alarm to go off; staring at the ceiling fan as the world around me slowly got lighter and my insect bites grew larger and itchier. Covered in a rash or red bug bites, and with less sleep than before, I embarked on my first day of work in India.
We arrived at lovely guesthouse in Vellore late. My boss and I ate a quick dinner that was laid out for us and headed our separate ways to sleep. While brushing my teeth and casually inspecting my bed, I noticed a tiny insect… an India Ant I was latter told, trekking across the vast world that was my pillow. I brushed her aside, only to discover another. Interested, I moved the pillow and found a few more milling about, to which I turned over the entire pillow and found a score of the tiny creatures walking this way and that. I quickly finished brushing my teeth, and provided to remove the sheets. More of the little buggers where beneath the covers, but the mass of the critters where around the pillow, seemingly enthralled by it.
Luckily, the room had two beds (I assume for just this sort of happenings), which I inspected thoroughly and only found one ant. They seemed to be less interested in this bed, and this pillow, so I deemed it habitable. After dispatching the creature, I made myself comfortable and prepared to sleep.
Now, my internal clock had been off since arriving. The day before I went to bed a 2 am after watching a parade of delightful movie (one being a kung-fu movie about amazons). I was set to wake up at 10am and explore the streets of Chennai, but instead woke up at 3:30 PM to a call from the driver who was taking me to Vellore… I had slept 13 hours and managed to miss our 3 PM meeting time. The poor man had been parked outside since 2:30… I had apparently I slept through his first call to my room and ringing my doorbell. Therefore, tonight I decided to set my internal clock straight by working till midnight and going to bed, while setting several alarms to wake myself.
The nights in the guesthouse were lovely. Birds and crickets chirped outside the window, and geckos slithered about the ceiling. I settled down for a nice rest, but the jet lag would not let me sleep. I lay in bed restlessly, scratching a small itch here, and itch there. After 4 hours of restlessly laying in bed, the itches began to accumulate, and it dawned on me that something was wrong. At first, I equated it with the half dozen mosquito bites I had accumulated in the last two days, but decided to investigate my room for mosquitoes, just to be safe. I could find none, but did find many very small black and brown pebbles stuck to my skin. After much squinting, these turned out to be the tiny heads of ants. Next to me, the adjacent bed had accumulated five times the number of ants during my hours of tossing a turning as were there before.
There was no malice in their action, which brings me some comfort. Apparently some of the ants were exploring the room, had wandered on to my bed, where they were rolled over during my tossing and turning. My scratching had removed all but there strong little mandibles. Their bites were not enough to hurt, just to cause slow growing itchy red lumps.
So, at 5 am, I removed the blankets, pillows, and covers from both beds, and spent the next 2 hours waiting for my alarm to go off; staring at the ceiling fan as the world around me slowly got lighter and my insect bites grew larger and itchier. Covered in a rash or red bug bites, and with less sleep than before, I embarked on my first day of work in India.