We have been dealing with these little creatures ever since we moved here in May. I thought they would die off in the winter, but so far they are going strong. This post is a long time coming, so today I am going to blog my plight with the ants... Jeff Foxworthy style:If you have to kill 20-30 ants before preparing any given meal, regardless of how clean your kitchen counters are...you may have a problem with ants.
If you find ants crawling up your refrigerator to the lollypop stash...you may have a problem with ants.
If you find ants inside the cellophane wrapper of aforementioned lollypops...you may have a problem with ants.
If you find ants crawling up the door seal in your freezer...you may have a problem with ants.
If you have ants crawling across your desk while you are trying to blog...you may have a problem with ants.
If you are doing your daughter's hair and see an ant crawl across her headband...you may have a problem with ants.
If you are taking a shower and there are ants running around your shower head...you may have a problem with ants.
If you are watching a movie on your couch and an ant crawls across your arm...you may have a problem with ants.
If you go to pour your son a bowl of Cheerios, but when the cereal hits the bowl, ants crawl up onto the bowl...you may have a problem with ants.
If your baby is teething and you go to give him some liquid Tylenol, but there are ants hanging out along the inside rim of the dropper lid...you may have a problem with ants.
If you wash your hands in the bathroom sink and notice ants coming up from the hole in the sink...you may have a problem with ants.
If you are sick and want to make some honey lemon tea, but there are ants swimming in your jar of honey...you may have a problem with ants.
If you are sleeping and are woken by an ant crawling on your forehead...you may have a problem with ants.
If you go to fill the cat dish with kitty food and notice there are ants in her dish...you may have a problem with ants.
So, do you think we have a problem here?
9 comments:
Hmmm, I'm no ant expert, so I'll have to defer to the one person I know who has overcome a similar situation...
A guy named Lucien Trumbo had a pretty bad ant problem, to the point that they were actually causing property damage and were a health hazard. He enlisted the help of an expert, and they were finally able to stop the ants by flooding them.
Could you maybe use the pool water in some way to flush them out? For more info, check out ant problem page.
that is so gross!!!!! I cant even imagine. Sounds a lot like africa, only without the spiders the size of your hand. What you need is a good drought
Maybe Dan can rig up an ant killer for your wall using only some duck tape, a dirty tube sock and a pen cap
Well, I know where to find a dirty tube sock...in the Honda. He leaves his gym clothes in there...gross!
That is just nasty - I am so sorry - for the few times we have had to deal with those little stinkers - we have done the borox and sugar...took them away - but you may need to call the professionals - good luck with that.
Ahhh...so you finally blogged about those little "buggers"!
I am so sorry Alyssa about those darn ants! We had them at our old house but not as bad as you and my Mom (at her old house) have them. My Mom and Dad constantly had the bug people come out to spray and set out poision and it was just a CONSTANT battle. They were in to everything, she had to put everything in it's own little container and they were always in the cat's food dish. Oh, she hated those ants!!!!!
The borax, corn starch and sugar, all in equal portions seems to work. We have done it at times, but not lately.
Mom made pancakes this morning and did not finish all of hers and when she looked at the plate this afternoon it was full of ants.
You or Dan may also want to spray around the whole foundation of the house as well. I have done this in the past and it does help.
Unfortunately I have not been able to take care of some of these things around the house. The surgery and follow on radiation has taken its toll on me.
Good Luck!
Dan has sprayed along the house and windows and doors. When I had my girl's night he sprayed that night, but they were back that next day. I'm pretty sure they are in the walls...I try not to think about that part! Yuck...at least they're not spiders or roaches!
Well, you asked me (as I was killing the buggers at your house today) if I had read your ant blog and I hadn't for a couple of days. Such eloquence :-).
I think the problem with those little buggers is that they are incomprehensible - using the "archaic" definition: Having no limits - boundless. You can't easily get rid of them. I imagine that when they have nothing to feed on they would discover something unknown to previous ants that would cause them to thrive.
Like he said, your dad used to spray for them outside then I would come along and pour Borateem on the damp sprayed area. The spray didn't seem to do much good but that borax snuffed them. One time I picked up a mat on the back step and there was an ant colony there in just the dirt that had accumulated over the winter. I know we have them under the driveway pavement. How to get rid of those without tearing out the cement, I don't know.
I just found an interesting bug site - BUGSPRAY.COM It explains the difficulty of getting rid of them and some methods they've found to work.
I'll give you a few "at least they're not ____ s":
Carpenter ants - they eat your house - maybe not as quickly as termites but hollow timbers are hollow timebers.
Red-headed ants - they have a powerful pinch. The same red-headed ant hills were still at my dad’s place in 1999 that I remember from the 1950’s. We used to stick firecrackers in the hills to blow them up and then watch them carry the eggs back to the hill. It was a dumb kid-thing but much safer than shooting hornets' nests with a pellet gun.
Fire ants - they like to bite YOU - not pleasant, stings, itches and worse if you're allergic and are everywhere down South.
Army ants - lovely :-( see lokoyan's link.
At least we don't have Fire and Army ants (yet).
These little sweet/odorous house ants are persistent (maybe the word comes from “persist ant”) and really taste bad if you don't have your glasses on when grabbing a handful of something they've invaded.
Good luck. Most people I know who had sewers installed when we did have a problem. If you could solve this one, the world would like to know.
One last thought... what 'good' do they do outside of giving God and Aesop excellent examples of the virtue of tireless workers?
Love ya,
Mom
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