*Gag retch* ant infestation (warning against weak stomaches)

[Talon]

Someone, please get me a 10mm explosive-tip caseless-round pulse rifle w/grenade launcher attachment and motion tracker? Better yet, just take off and nuke my entire house from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Spring is here, even though it's not that warm. But it's warm enough to attract ants. Carpenter ants I think they are. They're black, almost a full cm long. Good news is they don't bite. Bad news is they're mobile enough to get anywhere and everywhere. On tables, walls, kitchen counter-tops, even the ceiling. On that note, the worse news: they've found a way inside the house. They're inside the perimeter!

We first encountered them last summer. Ant baits got rid of them. But they're back, and like last year they pretty much showed up overnight. And not small numbers of 1-2 either, as I just discovered.

When I woke up this morning, their numbers in the kitchen really put me off breakfast. I grabbed my flyswatter and went on a rampage. By the time I was done there were about a dozen ant corpses, most on the ground and a few on the kitchen counters. I knew there was more, but at least I could eat breakfast and hold it down.

Lunchtime. As I was grabbing food, I spotted what the ants were so interested in. A jam container with jam residue on the outside. Mom suggested I put it in a bowl of water, as an ant trap. Good idea, so I put on a glove and snatched the jam jar. I only saw a handful of ants on the jar, but it was partly hidden.

It's a good thing I have no insect-phobias. The jar was *crawling*. Plus the floor of the cupboard around the jar was also crawling with the little bastards, like they were waiting in a queue line. Jesus, they're wall-to-wall in there! Lucky they weren't interested in me - I got the jar in a water bowl, and gave them a nice insecticide bath.

Later I did a body-count. There were thirty ant-corpses in the bowl. And that's not counting the dozen more I saw on the cupboard floor. Oh, did I forget to mention the peanut butter jar I used for lunch was located right next to the... hive? I know I have a strong stomach, but I think I need to

Maybe I'll go on another flyswatter-rampage, because they're still out there. Or maybe I'll amuse myself by watching this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HWf0...eature=related

So, how was everyone else's day?

[JLRodgers]

I'm a vegetarian, don't like killing things...... but I kill those little ant bastards with anything at my disposal (side note: using a canned air thing as a flame thrower is highly, highly, not advised.... it might kill the little bastards in a second, but two seconds later you're being poisoned with fluorine gas/acid if I looked it up right… uh… let's just say it's bad…. And you notice it quick…. The ants made the mistake of shocking me when I was blowing out a spice grinder when they hit the stove in the hundreds).

Anyway..... around two thousands dead ants later.... they've rued the day they ever entered my home… well maybe if they have souls, otherwise they're just dead.

[Der Cute]

Those are sugar ants.
Little, tiny, black ants that go for food particles/crumbs on the floor.

Tips:
Do a damn good cleaning in kitchen, find ANYTHING that's edible (or was) and throw it away.

Get boric acid powder from hardware or gardening store. It's in a cylindrical bottle with a pointy nozzle. Puff that stuff into all the cracks and perimeters you can.

Vacuum and sweep after dinner every night to ensure no crumbs are around.

Mop a LOT to erase ant trails. The ones that find the food will leave little trails /footprints behind for the others to follow. Erase!

Cutenoob

[Talon]

Err slight correction, I couldn't find my old ruler anywhere. These critters aren't a half-cm long, more like almost a full cm long. They're big fuckers, plus I've seen them outside before, around wood and tree stumps. Hence my identification.

Soon as the insect-nightmares lurking in my limbic-node have returned to being dormant, I plan on doing a sweep of those cupboards for any other ant-food sources. Given the swarm I found last time, I doubt any further food-stained containers will be hard to spot.

I'm not sure how effective mopping will be, as I've not seen these suckers follow a pattern. I've seen them mostly on the floor, but also the cupboards, walls, even the ceiling.

[Aethian]

Sounds like it's past time to call in the professionals.

[LillFilly]

The nice thing is though, those ants have cleaned-up any old food you had hanging-around or anything dead that was around the house or in the walls, and probably ate any other insects that were around. They're nature's cleaning crew (army ants swarm through whole villages; the people evacuate, the ants move through and kill vermin, and the people move back a few days later to nice clean healthy houses)! But yeah, no respect for personal space or home boundries those little guys.

In the scheme of things, ants aren't bad at all. Could have been flies, or termites, ticks, bedbugs or other nasties that carry disease.

(And yeah, I'm a nature person and watch the Discovery channel!)

[digilight]

pst, ants can't cross a powder line for some reason. We have tried this with everything from Comet (powdered cleanser), to cinnamon. Its the damndest thing but it actually works. Oh yeah, and napolm works great too...what ya gotta have a use for that left over styrifom...its recycling I tell you.

[JLRodgers]

pst, ants can't cross a powder line for some reason. We have tried this with everything from Comet (powdered cleanser), to cinnamon. Its the damndest thing but it actually works. Oh yeah, and napolm works great too...what ya gotta have a use for that left over styrifom...its recycling I tell you.

Ants I've seen must be unusual then -- they all cross powdered lines like it wasn't even there. Now if the line is something with a strong scent (like cloves/etc) they run away, but I think it's said it's because they just don't like the smell or something.

[wagegoth]

Depends on what the powder is. I found the ants around me do not like cinnamon. I don't keep any kind of food they might like out, except for a couple of things on my kitchen altar. So I put all the food items on a plate that I have put a layer of cinnamon on.

Chili powder is another good choice.

Many years ago, I worked for Shaklee at their headquarters and I used to buy the organic bug killer. All it was was pepper oil in an oil base. Very messy. Stick with the powder if you can.

Also, I don't know if this is what is doing it, but we got some high frequency pest repellers at Costco, and I've noticed a real drop in all types of insect activity in the kitchen (we have two plugged in in there).