My hatred for ants was planted early on, but didn't blossom into maturity until my 20s. As a child, my first exposure to ants was hiking in the Unitah mountains where I stepped into a fire ant hill, right behind my older sister. Ants in my pants? Oui. Oui. Ouch. My second exposure was benign. As a rough and tumble river guide, and a poor student, I prided myself in sleeping outdoors, in every sense of the meaning. All I had was an old pillow and a sleeping bag between me, my patch of dirt and the starry, starry night. Regularly I would awaken in the morning to the soft tickling feeling of ants crawling on my face. Oh, it makes me shudder now. But back then I would just brush them off, get up and make horrible coffee (being a non-drinker myself, I never knew it was horrible until I was curtly informed so by an angry New Yorker).
It was in Irvine that I met my match in the bug kingdom. After spending a fun night away at friends, DH, Max and I returned to our little shoebox apartment on UCI's campus late in the evening. We tucked in Max and climbed into bed ourselves. Being 8 months pregnant with Miss A, I fell asleep quickly. Early in the morning hours, I dreamt I was on the river again, the soft tickling feeling of bugs on my face. But I was pregnant and uncomfortable in my dream. I woke with a start and realized, yes, I was pregnant. And yes, there were bugs crawling on my face! Our room was crawling with ants. They were everywhere. In the laundry. On the bed. All over the walls. It was like the movie Birds, only instead of winged creatures on the attack it was the vile insects.
Since that day I have swore a solemn oath to squash every little black bugger I see. Here in our home, for the past 3 years, we've had minimal problems. Just a few strays every once in a while. But yesterday, the battle cry was raised.
"Ants! Ants! Everywhere momma!"
Yes, there they were swarming out of crack in the moulding in the corner of the family room, drawn inside by the cool air and stray pretzels. And then this morning they were all over the kitchen! Ack! Now it's escalating into a real problem.
I've put out the poisoned peanut butter. They snubbed it. I swept them up. They scattered. I sprayed them with toxic spray. They died for an hour, only to rise again out of spot in the kitchen. But tonight, I put a feast out for them: Cheez-it cracker crumbs mixed with posioned PB for a main course, to be finished off with a deadly sugary gel. They've congregated to discuss. Hopefully, by morning, we can take back the kitchen. If not we'll have to call out the big guns.
P.S. Does any know what the big guns are to ants?
11 comments:
I am so with you. i hate Ants with a passion. I hated the movie Ants and Bugs Life. What did they think we were going to do. Actually start liking them and start giving them a chance to live. No way. I have had success with the ant baits. They take the food or whatever is inside to the home and give it to them. Kind of like Adam and Eve. The tree of good and evil. So who does that make me. The evil serpent that beguiles the Ants.
We've had the same issues since moving to California. Use Ortho Home Defense. It's the only thing that has worked for us and it's safe to use indoors.
I second the Ortho Home Defense spray. You spray it outside around the foundation, and inside along the baseboards (and if you are my husband around windows, and who knows where else). Lets just say when he was single he had some less than clean roommates and ANTS out the wazoo.
Oh, and when we went to the hardware store the spray was only like $8 for a HUGE bottle, so its not that big of an investment. You will have to vacuum up their dead bodies though. A small price to pay.
NONONONO
I am telling you- you have to find them outside and keep them alive long enough to get the poison back to the nest/home/queen.
We used to have an ant problem. Our landlord has been really good about it. The Fry Family is right. If you just spray and kill them, they'll come back. The best thing the exterminator did was put bait inside the walls (took off the outlet coverings). This isn't your normal bait you can get at wal-mart (which, BTW, does NOT work). The nice part about it being inside the walls is that they swarm in there instead of on your counters or floor. The ants take the bait back to the queen and it kills her. If you don't kill the queen, she'll just keep reproducing. Anyway, hope that helps. Good luck!
I share this hatred with you. I HATE THEM. Have you ever eaten an ant? Have you smelled your finger after crushing the little suckers. If not, try it the next time you squash the buggers. It is repulsive and they taste exactly the same way they smell. It makes me sick just thinking about it. I know this because they get into our cereal. I now keep our cereals that have even the most minimal amount of sugar in the fridge because they find their way into it no matter what otherwise. If you know what the big guns are please let me know.
I'll have to say the best luck we've had was when Ryan found the nest in our garage w/ 2 queen ants. After he sprayed them with poison last year, we haven't had any problems since. However, I know it was total luck that it was somewhere we could actually see and reach. But I would agree that killing the Queen's are your best bet.
I am freaked out now when I don't see the ants because the floor and counters are so dark. Could they be running free and breezy finding hidden food where I don't notice them? . . . Freaking out about ants must be an inherited trait. Sorry! Love, mom
We have had the same problems here at the house with ants...especially in the warm weather...I could swear our home was built on an ant hill...
About 5 years ago I finally broke down and hired a pest control service...I just could not take it anymore...it got to a point where I would just cry every time I saw one because they would be EVERYWHERE,kitchen, bathrooms, laundry room, bedrooms...anyway I am happy to report that I have been ant free since...it is so worth the money it costs me...hopefully Idaho will be much kinder and be ant free...
I am so with you! There have been so many times that we would randomly find our bathtub swarming with them. Finally, I just asked the maintenacne guys for an extra tub of caulk, and I caulked all my floor boards, etc. in any area with water access. It did the trick. From my parents' experience, they would hold off on killing the messengers. They would follow the trail right back to the ant hill and kill them there. Good luck! Oh...and I have been bit in the pants by those red ants, and it aint pretty!
I SO agree!! We had "attack of the ants" around Halloween time and it lasted weeks! Every morning I woke up to more ant invasions in strange places and I had to basically throw almost all of our food storage out too!!!
We tried the baits, they didn't work for us. I did find that the Ortho Home Defense did work and killed the ants for us. The haven't come back (yet) and it's been several months. I eventually found some of the places the ants came from outside and sprayed those as well!!!
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