The Ants Go Marching And I Lose My Mind
He said it as if he was saying, "Water is wet" or "Puppies are cute." The words were completely lacking the appropriate amount of panic and disdain, disgust and horror.
"Did you see that there are ants in the kitchen?" my husband asked as he swept an ant off of the kitchen counter and onto the floor.
When I was finally able to shove my eyeballs back into place and find my voice, there was questioning about the appropriate way to deal with an ant WHO HAS INVADED MY HOUSE.
The correct answer involves fire, a sledgehammer, poison, and possibly the entire Steelers defensive line.
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Every year, without fail, the ants invaded our prior home. We actually lived in that community in two different townhomes and yet both locations had the exact same issue. Every spring the carpenter ants invaded. Huge, ugly, persistent carpenter ants. We went through months and months of battling to get rid of them, only to have them return each and every year without fail.
The last spring that we lived there was the worst. That was the year that the ants weren't just visiting. They moved into our walls. Every single time I see an ant, I think of the time that I stood in the hallway with a vacuum in my hands sucking up hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of ants. I wish I were exaggerating, but truly, they were POURING out of the wall.
It. Was. Horrifying.
I ended up winning the war that year, but it truly was a war.
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As I scurried across the kitchen floor looking for the ant that had just flown across the room, I realized these are not the same sort of ants I have battled in the past. While that ant survived his free-fall, he was too tiny to survive a little squirt with Method spray.
It's really very satisfying to watch an ant drown and die in something as mild as Method, especially after you've poured poison on ants and watched them laugh at you. Really. Very. Satisfying.
These new ants are after Penny's puppy food. Once it had been moved, the ants became scattered and unfocused. They became easy targets for me and my Method.
The Good Stuff is on hand. I'm waiting to see if it's needed. If the ants aren't completely gone by the weekend, it'll be time to go Chuck Norris on their asses.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Reader Comments (8)
Trick: put the food bowl in a tray filled with water (a cookie tray will also work). They can't walk on water and.cant gt to the food when they find it's new spot.
I despise ants with a white-hot passion. Our entire neighborhood has been infested to the point that the Orkin man told us that sure...he could treat our house - but it wouldn't do any good unless the whole neighborhood treated as well. The first couple of years we had the carpenter ants that had to face my wrath. At one point they were doing just what you said - pouring out of the wall...it was the window in what was once our office (oy, our family was once small enough for us to have an office)...once we sealed up that window the carpenter ants became less of a problem....
Now it's the little bastards that face my wrath. Tiny, yes....easy to kill, sure...but so bloody many. HATE. Must.Kill.ALL. stalks off to kill more frickin' ants
Here, we deal with ants 365 days a year. I recommend Terro. We get the liquid baits, and leave them out around hot spots. I haven't seen one ant in the house since we started using it.
I saw three large black ants here yesterday. I drowned them in non-toxic cleaner (spray bottle meant I could keep my distance.) Now I read this post and I'm thinking it may be some kind of a sign. Wikipedia has given me more to be concerned about. (Apparently carpenter ants love wet wood because it's easier to tunnel through, and when our house was inspected we were told that the current landscaping would make moisture a problem.) Oh, goody!
Carpenter Ants are evil. I finally called Orkin to come take care of them. I could see them marching up the side of my house. Now every year I spread ant dust around the perimeter of my house. It actually works.
Sounds like the same sort of ants we have at our house. Tiny, and they like dog food. And cereal. And anything we haven't closed up very tightly. Or any tiny particle of food that a certain 3 yr old has dropped on the floor without me noticing. I have yet to figure out how to get rid of them. We move / remove one food source, they find another. We've sprayed, done ant traps, sealed up food & wiped everything down w/ bleach to remove any trace... nothing's worked so far.
Since we got chickens this year, we're hoping to find their ant kingdom & plop the chickens right on top of it. Feed the chickens for free AND get rid of our ant problem? That... would be awesome.
Good luck!
The ants make me crazy down here in the south. I finally gave in and call an exterminator every spring. She sprays. They die. We are all happy. Well, maybe not the ants.
bugs are NOT my friends. kuck.