I think they are very cool and they do interesting things both individually and as a group. I think they are important little clean up critters in this world and I like having them around. As long as "around" is outside. Not in my house. Especially not in my kitchen.
Which is where they tend to show up after a long rain or it turns cold outside. And who can blame them? Its warm, there's food, and its not flooding the nest.
At first I tended to squeal a little bit and then squish as many as possible with a paper towel but there seemed to quite a few more thousand. I tried talking to them but human-ant interspecies conversation doesn't seem to work well.
So I looked on line and read my organic pest books and decided that pretty much my only option was to set out the puddle of death. Its a high viscosity slow acting ant poison. Its sweet so once an ant discover its yummy lethal goodness, pretty much several thousand of its brothers show up to lick it up and take it back to the next to share with the others.
I hate putting it out. I really don't want to kill them. I just want them out in the yard. Not pets. Yet, this is our second invasion in the upstairs bathroom and we've seen two waves this year in the kitchen so far. I noticed a couple wandering around the living room a few days ago but they apparently decided it wasn't worth calling in the gang. You can see how this could go.
So - the night before last when I was reluctantly picking up the bottle of death goo to spread out the banquet of doom, I screamed like a girly girl when I discovered the ants were already sucking on the pour spout. For some reason it makes me think of cars lined up in the McDonalds drive through lane....
Last night, the population was starting to drop. I could see some of the ants carting off the bodies of their brothers back toward where ever it was they came from.
Today there are no ants. Just the placid, still glistening puddle of death gently reflecting the morning light.
Why can't they just stay outside?
2 comments:
Last week when I was home for a SNOW DAY, Ellen DeGeneres was also wailing about ants. It was pretty funny -- she felt like you, hated to kill the buggers but also hated them on her coffee table!! LOL
Our first winter in CA, my step-daughter visited us for Christmas. She was 9 at the time and was totally creeped out by them but got hysterical when I had to obliterate them. . . it was a bonding time for us.
Lars and I had an ant city in our kitchen last year. They were reluctant to eat the poison- but I managed to block them out by sprinkling cinnamon barriers which they did not seem able to cross. I still have cinnamon stains on my wall by the counter!
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