(Article) Ant problem really bugs store owner

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http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/metro/kelso/0703/070603.html

 

Ant problem really bugs store owner

MORE JOHN KELSO

 

 

John Kelso

 

 

 

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Sunday, July 6, 2003

 

How do you move ants? Whistle at them? Point and yell, " Westward ho, the

ants? " Get the girl ants to dress up in ant hot pants and walk out the door,

thereby getting the boy ants to follow?

 

Beats me, and it beats Nancy Owen, too. Nancy owns Alegra's Bridal &

Invitations in the Tarrytown Shopping Center. She has an ant problem. " I'm

standing at the counter, and ants are walking over my order forms while I'm

trying to write an order for my customers, " Nancy said. " It got to where I

didn't even want to come to work. "

 

Nancy says Jeanne Daniels, the animal rights maven who owns the mall, won't

let her exterminate her ants the way she would prefer to exterminate the

ants, that is, to spray both inside and outside. She also says she got word

that Daniels would prefer that she move the ants.

 

" The words were, they wanted the ants relocated, " Nancy said. " We really

wanted to move them to her house, but we didn't know where she lived. "

 

So Nancy, who isn't allowed to sell leather products in her store, is

relocating herself on Sept. 1 — to a new shop on Mesa Drive at Spicewood

Springs Road.

 

Nancy put this stipulation in her new lease so that she won't get bugged

again, so to speak: " Tenant will not be hampered from selling any products

due to the dietary habits of the landlord or owner and may exterminate in

any way deemed reasonable. "

 

Nancy has never spoken with Daniels, but she said she got the word that

Daniels wanted the ants relocated from the maintenance man. " We have a

really nice little maintenance guy who comes around, " Nancy said. " And I

said, 'Just tell her we moved them. We'll kill the ants and just tell her we

moved them and that's the end of that.' And he said, 'No, she'll want to

know how we moved them.' "

 

As usual, Daniels, whom I refer to as the Meat Lady, could not be reached

for comment. She doesn't call. She doesn't write. I have done everything but

stalk her to try to interview her. She loves dogs. I'm thinking of putting

on a German shepherd suit so I can sneak up to her house in Houston.

 

" This has become such an uncomfortable place for humans that the shopping

center is facing a downturn of sorts, " Nancy said.

 

At least three businesses — two restaurants and a grocery/deli — have left

the mall over the past few years because they were selling meat and Daniels

wouldn't allow it. The Holiday House, which does burgers and such in the

mall, is remodeling a new location in West Lake Hills, on Bee Cave Road at

Walsh Tarleton, which is expected to open sometime around Aug. 15-20. So

don't be surprised if the Tarrytown Holiday House closes when its lease

expires.

 

So how do you move ants? " I guess you could cover yourself with honey and

lie on the floor, and once you get outside you could shake them off, " said

Steve O'Brien, branch manager for Terminix International, an exterminating

business.

 

" Maybe you could have an ant wedding. Invite the in-laws, and maybe the rest

of them would leave. Or find someone who has an anteater. "

 

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