Friday, October 19, 2007

Ants, ants, and more ants

I had hoped to kick off a series of energy-saving posts today. But today, like most days, finds me diverted by homekeeping emergencies.

Yesterday's little playmate dribbled all over the kitchen floor. Overnight a legion of ants found their way to the forgotten juice box. A thick black rope emerged at the door and twisted across the room, cartoon style.
So, if you ever need to attract ants for a science project, may I suggest a juice box?

You might think we had done this on purpose if you had seen yesterday's random reading selection.

18 comments:

Molly said...

What do you do to get rid of ants?

The old Borax and sugar trick always works for me, but I'm always interested in hearing other ways to rid the house of pests.

MommaofMany said...

I have used a home-made ant killer successfully. I blogged about it here:

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Mommaofmany/406294/

Blessings,
Momma

Cyndi Lewis said...

I fight ants almost daily here in Michigan. One little crumb missed after dinner and they stampede it. I just use good old Black Flag. I can't wait till a good hard frost!

Anonymous said...

Meredith,

I feel your pain and I appreciate your humorous take on the situation! Hope the ants don't completely derail your plans for the day!

Susan in San Antonio

Heather said...

Hi,
We had an invasion of those little guys recently. We found out after a little net research that if you mix Joy dish detergent in with water(enough to make the water yellow) in a squirt bottle and then saok the aants when you see them it kills them on contact. An even better it removes the ant's scent so that others don't follow in it's tracks. And best of all, it's not dangerous to have around kids. Just don'te let them drink it!

Indie Pereira said...

Instant grits have worked for every invasion we've had except for one. The ants eat them and it dries them out so they die. If you're lucky, they take it back to the queen. Sprinkle it around wherever they are coming in then vacuum it after they are gone. Its totally safe for children and pets. Its also good to destroy the scent trail. A lot of people use window cleaner, but essential oils or anything that disrupts the scent works well. The one time that we couldn't get this method to work, we sealed up cracks around the window where they were coming in. We just used masking tape because its a rental and I don't feel like doing a bunch of repairs, but probably caulking would be a better long term solution. And of course not leaving out juice boxes helps. :) But that's not so easy with kids.

Anonymous said...

What a bummer for your day! For our ant invasions we try to caulk wherever they are coming in, but sometimes its through the "weep holes" in the window frames and those have to stay open! For a safe, instant killer we have used the citra-solv type (pure citrus based concentrate) cleaner, the same proportion as labeled "heavy duty" on the bottle. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Fortunately, we don't get ants in our current house, but we got them every year in our old one - it didn't matter how clean we thought we had the house, how much we caulked, etc. They got in. I tried all of the preventive things (pepper, lemon, borax, etc., etc. We had a stnadard grocery store brand ant trap one day and I could literally sit there and watch them walk around the darn thing and up my wall, which they were also driving me up - and not slowly! A friend recommended using MAXX Attack Ant Traps, which we bought at Lowe's. We used them the last 3 years we were in the house and were never bothered again after the first night when I presume they took the bait back to the colony and they all died. Cruel, I know, but I'm not cooking for ants. If they had stayed outside, we wouldn't have had this issue!

Joy said...

ohhhh ants! These were a problem for me as well. The last incident was when I left of all things 'infant tylenol' out on the kitchen counter. My son is teething. I went to open it up (unscrewing the dropper top) and ants fell out from under the cap!!! I am in the country and Wal Mart is 25 minutes away to buy another bottle. I so understand.
God bless
Joy

Amy said...

Blech! I hate those little boogers. I hope you can use some of your great suggestions you have gotten to get rid of them. Too funny that was the book you had picked :)

Jenny's Vegcafe said...

Don't you feel tempted to leave a nice leaky juice box outside for them so they stay out there? My daughter gets really upset when I start spraying them with windex to kill them because she thinks every one of them is her friend. I don't have a problem with them until they come into my house and crawl on my kitchen counters... then it's WAR! Good luck!

Anonymous said...

I was looking at one of our walls one day and there seemed to be a line drawn from one end of the room to the other. I was getting ready to yell at my youngest for drawing on the wall in the livingroom when I realized the line was moving all the way to the trash in the bathroom...I have never seen so many ants..Which one of those pest found the thrown away lollipop in the trash and told their friends?

Anonymous said...

Oh, gosh!...it's an invasion!! Once, a few summers ago, we ended up having to throw my daughter's birthday cake away (3/4 of which was left), because ants had found it overnight. It was so creepy...like something out of a movie: across the counter, over the stove, up the cake stand, under the dome...YUCK! Terro is the only thing that gets rid of them for me around here.

Brenda

Anonymous said...

I read on a blog yesterday but can't remember which one, that another blogger had grabbed the first thing she had when she saw ants all over. What she grabbed was her French lavender linen spray and it worked killing them and their scent trail. Just another idea. Thanks for all the others...I will try any and all till I find the magic one for my native ants! Think I will first try a little grits on the ant hills outside. I am the only one in my area with a garden etc and so all the ants come over to drink and play!! :-)

Jenn @ Frugal Upstate said...

cayenne pepper and cinnamon are both natural ant repellents. Last year (not this) when I built my second raised veggie bed and had covered it with black plastic to warm the soil up-I lifted it to find an ant colony had moved in. I mixed a bottle each of cinnamon and cayenne pepper into the soil and they had moved elsewhere by the next day.

Anonymous said...

That has happened to me several times! It's usually juice, lemonade, or ice cream! You had visited my site. Thanks for commenting! I'll definitely be a regular reader of your site because as a mother of six I need to be as frugal as possible! Besides, I think that my husband will be grateful to you for your frugal advice and inspiration! God Bless

In His Love,
Tammy

Mrs. Darling said...

What a funny coincidence between the book and reality! LOL

Janette said...

We were overrun in Hawaii. The exterminator declared my husband was going to kill us all with the bug spray.
He then share that he NEVER used any of his products- and only used Simple Green (yes the cleaning stuff). 20 years and seven houses later- we still use Simple Green. It repels ants, all kinds of bugs, AND rodents!We douse the door stoops everytime we see the beginning of an invasion and Wha la! No more!
Try it.