Public Service Announcement

About a month ago, we discovered we had termites. It was a huge surprise to us. Enormous. For some reason, I always thought there'd be some clue that they had taken up residence. Tiny piles of saw dust, maybe. Faint munching sounds, only heard when the house was quiet. I don't know. But it turns out they can co-habit with you for years and never leave a clue. Just another example of "How Dumb Can I Be?" (see Jan. 9, 2019) when I have no idea there's a problem. Two or three years ago we had what we thought were ants--tiny, picnic-type-ants--swarm into the back of the family room. A soaking with Raid and they died. It happened once again and my husband found what he thought was the likely entry point outside and put poison there. Job done. No more issues. Here's the Public Service Announcement: Have your home checked once in a while so you don't get this same surprise. A month ago we got slightly larger "ants," with wings and weren't at all sure what we were looking at. We went online for information and found that on one insect the antennae had a bend in them. That wasn't particularly helpful . They're dead and curled up and even with a good magnifying glass we couldn't see it. It also wasn't clear whether the tiny front wings were tinier than the back wings. That's another telltale sign. So we called a professional. The first person we talked to assured us they were just flying ants. My husband insisted on having someone come look in person and that person said it was the worst infestation of termites he'd seen in his fifteen years of business. Well it's nice to hit the heights, or I supposed the depths is more appropriate, in some way during one's lifetime. The fix was easy. My husband simply had to move the vegetable plants that were growing along the garage--the poison would make them inedible. He had to remove several boards from the deck and take down the drywall in the affected area inside. The offending insects were then foamed to death by the professional and we're now figuring out the best way to put the room back together. I'm sure it won't take more than a couple of months. And really ... what else do we have to do with ourselves these days?