From “Finding Nemo” and “The Incredibles” to “Toy Story 3” and “Inside Out,” I love just about every Disney Pixar movie. I would’ve done anything for a chance to swim with Dory or go to infinity (and beyond, of course) to help Buzz save the day. All the colors, all the characters and the cute, yet timeless themes somehow make each film one that you could never be too old for. Never have I ever thought that I would be so lucky as to star in my very own sequel to a Pixar classic, but this past week for me has definitely been “A Bug’s Life.” Every girl’s dream — not.
How the population of ants in my room can go from zero to a billion in 15 hours, I still don’t understand. (OK, I’m pretty sure it was somewhere in the hundreds, but when they’re all over your desk and window and right next to the bed you sleep in every night, it feels a lot more like a billion.) I woke up and went to class, and everything was as normal as the long lines at Starbucks for pumpkin spice lattes. When I got back, I found that apparently some ants had decided to sneak in and throw a party — ants that had most certainly not been invited.
Being the paranoid, insect-hating girl that I am, my initial reaction was to completely freak out. Ants. Everywhere. I wanted to wake up from whatever nightmare this was and pretend it wasn’t real. But it wasn’t a dream, and they really were everywhere. Not because I had spilled a bottle of apple juice or had left a lollipop lying around or something. I guess it was because of the rain and the not-so-tightly-installed windows of my residence hall. The world may never know. Regardless, it was gross, it was scary and it was a really, really big problem.
Once I got out of my frozen state of panic and realized standing there and wishing it wasn’t my room that got invaded by the ant army wasn’t going to do anything, I tried killing a bunch. I would squish and stomp and squash, but there were so many that it hardly made a difference. I speed-walked to the front desk, thinking the whole way there that the ants would take over, that all my stuff would be ruined and that I would have to move out. Dramatic much? Well, yes, but you try having your room explode in insects. Then you can judge.
Aside from some unreasonable impatience that I admit to in hindsight, the faculty at NC State got my situation under control a lot faster than I thought was possible. The front desk employee was not only helpful, but also calm and collected despite my urgency. He called the residential director, and she was there to help me within minutes. She personally came up to my room to check out the ants and explained thoroughly what I needed to do to fix the problem. She even submitted a work order for me. Since it was 11 p.m. when I noticed, obviously maintenance couldn’t exactly come right away. Luckily, I found another place to stay, but University Housing offered an emergency room just in case.
The next morning, the pest control guy knocked on my door to “expelliarmus-style” spray them away. (All right, he didn’t actually say that, but who doesn’t love a Harry Potter reference?) By that night, there were only a few crawlers left and shortly they were all gone after a follow-up visit. It’s essential to be able to fix problems on campus quickly, especially regarding housing, to ensure that the students are getting the full potential of what they are paying for. Room and board isn’t cheap, and it’s not fair when a student has to share a room with a billion ants. University Housing must and does understand that the safety and the well-being of the students are priorities, not options.
A disaster turned into a manageable issue, thanks to NC State’s efficient Housing staff and system. Even though I much rather would have lived out a day in the life of Nemo or Woody, I guess meeting Flik and his friends wasn’t the worst thing in the world. That being said though, it better never happen again. Ever.
