Ants

This morning I cleaned out my closet and cleaned out some of the kids play room.  Currently Jacob is sleeping and the rest of the house is calling me and just waiting and wanting to be cleaned.  

However I would much rather sit and talk/write about ants.  (What's new?  I can always find some distraction to get out of doing dishes or mopping floors.  LOL)

Ants are very interesting little insects.  I never thought much of them until I moved into my current home.  In October we will have lived here for 5 years.  Emma was just two and David wasn't even walking yet.  That seems like such a long time ago, time flies!!

Oh yes, I was talking about ants.  When we first moved in I remember thinking that there are a lot of ants in the yard.  Our yard was nothing but dirt eucalyptus and mesquite trees, thorns, nails and ANTS!!  

Funny that ya'll would mention that our yard is kid friendly... we have come a long way.  Side note, I used to sweep the top dirt away just to get rid of the thorns.  It worked!!

We had a very big surprise the end of July and into August.  Our house was under ATTACK!! We had ants coming into our kitchen, one of the kids bedrooms, and the master room closet.

I would wake up in the morning and find ants all over the kitchen floor.  I would sweep them up very carefully and throw them outside, in hopes that they wouldn't get on me or on the kids.  I tried using things like.

• Red Pepper, the sent of red pepper supposedly is the sent of the black ants enemy... the red ant.  The black ants that wanted to live with me didn't mind the red pepper.
• I then heard that if you draw a line with chalk that the ants will not pass it.  Ya, right!!  My black ants didn't care about that either!
• Oh, another thing that I tried was corn meal.  Now, if the corn meal does not get wet before the ant consumes it then the corn meal will swell in the ants tummy and the ant will get a bad tummy ache and die, explode... not sure.  That worked for a little while.  But I have very smart ants.
• I had a pile of red ants in the front yard and you see I learned that black and red ants don't get along.  So I got a shovel and took a pile of red ants to mingle with my black ants in the back yard.  Very entertaining.  However it didn't get rid of them.  For some reason the red ants moved on though.  Hmm?
• Someone told me that ants WILL move if they get too big for their residence.  So I thought, I will feed them, ya know beef them up.  That was a funny idea.
• I also tried vinegar, supposedly they don't like to go where vinegar has been because the vinegar is such a strong sent they lose there way and can't smell the trail that they leave. Poor things. lol

Did you know you can never get rid of ants, ever?  This is true.  Sure you can kill the colony, but a new queen will move in and wham you get more ants.  Not only do I know this from 

experience, but I read it in a book too.

You see when one buys a house you don't have anyone but yourself to turn to for answers. Sure, if you have plenty of money then you could hire an exterminator and let him worry about it. But at that time in our lives our little princess Abby was born and with new babies, you have lots of doctors appointments and copays that add up way too quick.  So back then it was a money issue and now it is a I am gonna get you ants one way or another.

So, back to August 2005.  Abby and I had been home from the hospital for just a few days after she was born.  My Mom was with us.  We woke up one morning and there were hundreds, hundreds, hundreds of ants all over my kitchen counters and floor.  My mother was in shock. She said that we need to get an exterminator out immediately.  My older brother had a friend that was an exterminator.  The friend came out, sprayed the house and they yard.  This kept the ants out.

The following year same thing happened, end of July and into August.  Our house was under attack.  I called the exterminator friend.  He never called back.  I called and called and called. That is when I realized I was on my own.  Sure I could have called another company, but then they make you sign a contract to have them come back every month... no thank you!

So I go to the local Home Depot and buy Home Defense.  That is some really good stuff.  It kept the ants out of the house.  And if I sprayed the ant hill it made them move to another spot.  ha ha!

So, I am still battling the ants.  It is currently attack season.  Only this time, last night we got little black ants, not the normal medium ants.  I ran out of Home Defense and I just don't want to go out in the heat to get more at this time.  So I cleaned the kitchen really good last night and wiped the counter and window seal with vinegar water.  They haven't come back... yet.

Out by the garden I have been using jars filled with sugar and yeast.  They can't resist the sugar and the yeast has the same effect that the corn meal has.  This sugar and yeast just makes the ants move about a foot away from the jar, or some move closer.  Strange.

If you are still reading I will tell you some interesting things about ants.  My Mom was telling me that in South Africa people go on vacation during the season that the ants "attack" or invade homes.  They say that the ants do a great job of spring cleaning.  I guess the ants are much larger there then they are here at my house.

In a book about ants I read that if you mark on your calender when the ants attack you can almost pin point the day that they will try to invade your home.  I think this is very true.

Something else that I think is very interesting.  I was at my Moms in Prescott.  We were on the patio.  I put my feet up on the bar under the table because I noticed the ants... I didn't want to get bit.  But I noticed that my Mom kept her feet on the ground.  Hmm I thought, that is interesting.  The ants aren't getting on her.  So I put my feet down.  The ants stayed away from my.  Now, my ants, those horrible things.  If you are six inches away from the entrance to their home they will run to get on your feet and bite profusely.  I ask  what is wrong with my ants??

We have recently been told of a product that works wonderfully.  But, we have to wait till the monsoon season is over.

But, till then I know where each colony is and most of the kids do too.  Jacob wears boots so he is usually safe!    

Now that my discussion of ants is over, I wonder how much time I have to clean the house before Jacob wakes.  It was nice to get this frustration off my chest.  -Ma