I haven't posted since my new pattern went up.
I'm totally useless at blogging right now.
But that's because a war is going on!
A war . . . against ANTS!
I don't like bugs. But as long as they're outside and not actively trying to suck my blood, I generally just
Especially "pizzy" ants, as my cousins called them growing up, because they're so harmless.
But these suckers are waging an all-out offensive on my home, so all bets are off.
It started while we were on vacation. A friend who was taking care of the kitties while we were away noticed a troop of ants invading the breakfast room and attacking the cat food. She very kindly vacuumed them all up (no easy feat, as our vacuum was in the basement and she's 7 months pregnant!) and sprayed some Windex to deter them, and by the time we got home, just a few stray ants remained.
Or so we thought.
But they came back.
(Cat food--manna from heaven, apparently.)
More vacuuming, more spraying vinegar.
Still more ants.
I came home Monday to find a trail of ants making their way into my trash can.
I vacuumed, I vinegar'd, I poured boiling water on the area outside that they seemed to be coming from. I taped up the baseboard they seemed to be emerging from.
Yesterday, no ants in the breakfast room.
Hurrah!
But as I prepared to make dinner, I noticed an ant on the counter.
And another.
And another.
And finally a small swarm, marching swiftly from the kitchen window into the dishwasher, where I found, yes, more ants.
(Honestly, all the ant control advice involves keeping your kitchen spotless, but how can I possible keep dirty dishes out of the DISHWASHER??)
I quickly filled the dishwasher with dirty dishes and slammed it shut, locking the ants in for their steam bath. I vinegar'd and pepper'd and cleaned up every speck of food I could find.
This morning, no ants.
But I know the war isn't over.
2 comments :
Wandering ants leave a scent trail, like a map which others follow. Wash away the scent trails. Also spray ant killer on the outside of the _house_, both around the foundation and around windowsills. This is for small sugar ants. If they are bigger, you may need to find out whether you have carpenter ants in the house or only in the yard. Look also for mud tubes up the foundation.
Here's a recipe to eradicate them. I've never tried this but kept the recipe as the reviews were amazing....all the best.
Mix 1 cup of sugar with 3 tablespoons boric acid and then slowly add 3 cups of warm water. Soak cotton wool balls in this mixture and place them in jar lids along the ant tracks. After a few days, apparently they all die and never come back. Yippee!!
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