Bugs!

(image from http://www.clker.com/)

I'm not sure if this qualifies as an allegory or not, but here goes...

(Disclaimer: If you are concerned about the killing of bugs, please do not read further)

I came to work this morning to find a half dozen small ants at my desk. I had heard others having the same issue, but they were several desks away.

My first idea was to mash them. I quickly learned that this was pretty ineffective. I then spot-checked desks nearby. A desk on one side had as many (or more) than I did, but nobody else in our immediate vicinity did.

I decided that I needed to get something that would be more effective. Arriving at the store, I went to the home pesticide area. There were lots of pesticides, including about a dozen that would work on the ants.

Fortunately, there was someone who worked there that pointed out a couple products.

"This trap didn't work because they just wouldn't go in"

"I used this other one and it's been two years and they haven't been back"

Sold!

I considered other options while I was there. There were several types of traps that would attract the ants and then keep them from escaping. There were several products that would kill them outright and others that would feed them poison to take back to the colony to kill them and the colony. I stuck with the colony-killing product that was recommended and came back to work.

There were instructions, but I didn't use them :P . I put the poison in several places. As the ants kept coming, I squashed them. Over the course of the day, the ants at both desks dropped dramatically.

The only question remaining is what will my desk look like in the morning? Would they have scattered during the day anyway?