Having Ants For Breakfast
October 5, 2006I need to ask some of you out there for a bit of advice. Perhaps you or someone you know have had a similar experience and maybe, just maybe, your nuggets of knowledge and words of wisdom will provide me with the solution to the problem. So here goes:
A few weeks ago, I noticed a few ants leisurely strolling across the windowsill of my bathroom. I removed them and thought nothing of it until I returned later on that day to see that there were more ants on the same sill and on the wall near it.
Remembering that I dealt with this same problem about 6 months earlier, I retrieved from my garage an unused box of ant poison. The way this stuff works is that the ants will eat/drink/whatever this poison and drag it back to their colony and it will poison the lot of them. Allegedly (from what I read on the box), this stuff is not toxic to humans (provided we don’t consume it like halloween candy), so I snipped the ends of the plastic container with scissors and I set down two traps.
The next day I returned, hoping to see no ants, but I saw the near-opposite. There were about 50 or so ants snacking on the stuff (the package is clear so you can see in; it reminds me of animals drinking from a watering hole in the jungle). Some of them appeared to be dead but in retrospect they were just resting because when I returned again later I found that the poison watering hole had all but been abandoned.
Yea, the plan worked.
No, not really.
Two days of no activity later, when I awoke at my usual 5 am on a weekday, and I noticed that now there were like 300 ants frantically gathering around the watering hole. This time, a bunch of them were just laying around and not moving (very un-antlike) and others were climbing over them to get to the nectar. When I returned yet again later on in the day, the hole was abandoned except for the few that had managed to drown themselves in the intoxicating pool of alleged ant-death liquid.
Hoping that perhaps today was the day that no ants would be there when I awoke, I discovered this morning around five am that there were still about 3 or 4 dozen ants imbibing the bittersweet juice.
My question is this: Am I using the right stuff? Is this liquid only temporarily killing them or is it just knocking them out for a few days? Should I try other brands? Do I have to call an exterminator? It’s starting to rain outside these days and I vaguely recall ants seeking shelter when it rains.
Give me a shout out here and drop some knowledge on me. I am tired of having the ants for breakfast every other day.
Your ant-eradication stuff might work. Here’s an alternative/parallel solution that worked for us:
Stick clear tape over the holes where the ants come in. Put pieces of dried bay leaves (Shakespeare’s insect repellent) in the window area to deter ants from finding another way in. Vacuum or wipe the first ants you see for a few days, so they cannot go back to the colony and tell their friends they’ve found a good place to party. (When our next-door neighbour called an exterminator, her ants just moved in with us, until we set the sticky tape and bay leaves in place the first time.) The ants will move out when the rain subsides, unless you provide them food and lodging which is too good to turn down. Sticky tape is quick, cheap, and easy to remove.
P.S. ants do stand still; not sure if they “play dead”, but they do have idle times like the rest of us. We have kept ants as “pets” several times enclosed in traditional ant farms and NASA blue-gel space-age habitats
whoa ants.my locker has ants.and its jammed.it has a Sandwitch Of September in it.Ants WILL die if you shoot a mixture of baby soap and water(dilluted baby soap).THEY WILL DIE like dat Mr.Piccetti.I saw yet another ant crawl out of my locker today.But,use the age old method of Squishing,and you’ll be Ok.
Thanks for updating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*******save the rabbits*******
Hi,
My family has learned that the product “Grant’s Kills Ants” works amazingly well, but you have to be careful not to come in contact with it because it is toxic. Tape it outside the window or on the door. You can buy it at Ace Hardware, it’s cheap, 10 for $8.00.
I’ve learned from many, horrible ant-related experiences that windex is the way to go mr. P
I’ve learned from many, horrible ant-related experiences that windex is the way to go mr. P