I've just been so busy this last week. Crazy busy. Working on some new music for church, making plans for the new house, going to various appointments, and just generally keeping the house running.
Speaking of keeping the house running, I've had to call the pest control people out twice and I STILL HAVE AN ANT PROBLEM. It's driving me crazy. We've been living here almost two years, and only in this last month have ants been a problem. If a crumb of food falls to the floor and stays there for a maximum of ten minutes, the ants have already found it. That just seems a little extreme. We're talking a single cheerio here, people. Lance drops one. I don't notice it, so we go play in the other room for awhile. The other room gets boring, so we go back to the living room where a veritable colony of ants have descended upon this single, lonesome, vulnerable, unprepared cheerio.
Or imagine for a moment that I have used a knife to slice up a block of cheddar cheese. Since Lance is hungry, I immediately go feed him and I leave the knife laying on the cutting board while he eats. In 15 minutes I return to the kitchen to clean up, and there are ants crawling all over this knife trying to get up the last bits of the residue clinging to the knife for its very life.
First, the pest control people squirted this goopy stuff in corners of the kitchen. Apparently it was food for the ants which they would take back to the nest, share it with the queen, and everyone would die.
They didn't.
Then they came again at the end of the week and sprayed some icky, smelly chemicals all over my house.
Those ants are still alive and kickin'. I swear, they have a conspiracy against me. They just won't die!!
I guess the only good thing to come out of this is that I have suddenly been forced to become a much better housekeeper. I'm using up an insane amount of Clorox disinfecting wipes, and I ensure that all leftovers get packed up or thrown away immediately. After Lance eats his meals, I lay down on the floor and wriggle on my belly like a snake, examining every square inch of floor to make sure that not a single stray crumb is allowed to draw the attention of The Ants. After I slice cheese, I immediately rinse off the knife and submerge the cutting board in hot, soapy water.
I declare war.
Or imagine for a moment that I have used a knife to slice up a block of cheddar cheese. Since Lance is hungry, I immediately go feed him and I leave the knife laying on the cutting board while he eats. In 15 minutes I return to the kitchen to clean up, and there are ants crawling all over this knife trying to get up the last bits of the residue clinging to the knife for its very life.
First, the pest control people squirted this goopy stuff in corners of the kitchen. Apparently it was food for the ants which they would take back to the nest, share it with the queen, and everyone would die.
They didn't.
Then they came again at the end of the week and sprayed some icky, smelly chemicals all over my house.
Those ants are still alive and kickin'. I swear, they have a conspiracy against me. They just won't die!!
I guess the only good thing to come out of this is that I have suddenly been forced to become a much better housekeeper. I'm using up an insane amount of Clorox disinfecting wipes, and I ensure that all leftovers get packed up or thrown away immediately. After Lance eats his meals, I lay down on the floor and wriggle on my belly like a snake, examining every square inch of floor to make sure that not a single stray crumb is allowed to draw the attention of The Ants. After I slice cheese, I immediately rinse off the knife and submerge the cutting board in hot, soapy water.
I declare war.
11 comments:
I hate bugs! UGH! I don't understand how they multiply so quickly! I'm not going to say anything about me needing to be a better housekeeper...I'm afraid the ants will hear me. Good Luck getting rid of those darn pests! And keep them far away from me! :)
Ugh! We had ants really bad at one of our apartments. We called the property management company and they sent us a guy with a can of Raid!!! I was pissed to say the least. It was so bad that they would swarm in our dishwasher and we would have to wash our dishes a second time to get all the ant bodies off of them. Gross! Luckily after that summer they never came back as bad.
Maybe ants are getting cockroach traits (you know, can survive a nuclear blast, etc). Oh my, scratch that thought from my brain. Ick!
I'll tell you what is way worse, though. When I lived in Bakersfield, California, twice I found black widow spiders in my kitchen. I so freaked out, I sprayed them with windex for about ten minutes, until I was absolutely sure they were dead.
And then I went into my bedroom and cried.
p.s. I wasn't trying to freak you out. I really hope your ants are blasted away soon!!
Are they pharaoh ants? We had a huge problem with them a few years ago. They don't die the same way as other types of ants. They need to live near water, so they built a huge colony in the wall under my bathtub. Very difficult to get out of there. But finally they did it, and now they're living at my neighbor's house, I hear. :)
I HATE ANT INFESTATIONS.
That said: have you tried the Borax cure? It's my mom's secret weapon against ants, and it's non-toxic to pets and small humans.
You mix up some Borax and some powdered sugar. Put it in a plastic bag or something and shake it around. (Start the proportions about 50/50; if the ants die right away there's too much Borax, if they just keep coming back there's too much sugar.) Anyway, they take the sugar and carry it back to the anthill, and then when they all try to eat it the Borax kills the whole nest. Done right, it's very effective on many kinds of ants.
Yuck! We have never had a bug problem but back home, my parent's house is on a golf course and the mice are everywhere.
I hate to say it but I'd take bugs any day over rodents.
Now, don't you feel better? :-)
amber, don't say it! It might come true! :o
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Does the fact you haven't posted for a while mean you have lost the war?....
Yeah, I hope she didn't get et by the ants! :o Or driven out of her home!
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