Hello bug man I have a contender for the worst bug story ever from Atlanta GA
So, I do work for a pest control company, but in my own heart I am very much a live and let live person and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your site! Certain pest (German cockroaches, brown recluses, things like that) I am against, but I do believe there are many beneficial and beautiful pests in nature and in our homes. Well, when I was about 15 we lived in a small trailor in a trailor park outside of Atlanta GA. I happened to be home by myself one night and my mother had left me some money to order pizza. I ordered the pizza and ate a few slices, then left it sitting on the counter. I was sitting in the dark, watching music videos on MTV when I went to go get another slice. I grabbed one out of the box and took a bite. It tasted weird, it smelt weird and suddenly I realized there were things crawling all over my face and arms and I had no idea what it was. I ran to the sink and immediately started throwing up and trying to rinse off my face and arms, as soon as I switched the light on I saw there were millions of the little sugar ants crawling all over my pizza. They were crawling all over my face and arms and when I say millions, I mean MILLIONS!! Til this day I will accidentally smush an ant and the very familiar smell causes my stomach to dry heave. I threw the pizza in the sink and frantically tried to rinse off my face and arms, when my panic finally subsided I opened the pizza box on the counter and it was infested with ants. In a matter of an house they had completely covered my pizza. Needless to say, I never ate anything that I had left sitting on the counter without thoroughly checking it 1 st again. Thanks!!
Jacklyn D. Warren-Gregg
Hi Jacklyn,
We have our own collection of personal reasons the imported Argentine Sugar Ant is our own most reviled insect. One winter after a significant El Niño storm in the 1980s, Argentine Ants had their nest flooded by all the water and they entered the home of our editorial staff long before we began What’s That Bug?. They moved into the box spring that was on the floor. Starving student that we were, we slept on a twin mattress atop the box spring without any bed frame. We awoke covered in Argentine Ants and spent the rest of the night sleepless. The next day after the rain subsided, we took the box spring outside and waited until the ants moved out. Argentine Ant invasions in that particular rental were the worst that we have ever encountered, however we have been troubled by Argentine Ants wherever we have lived or worked in Los Angeles.