Wednesday, April 15, 2009

The Ants Go Marching In

We have an ant "situation" at our house. By "situation" I mean "infestation" and by "infestation" I mean if someone would show a picture of our house you could probably watch, in real time, the ants take over the house.

It's gross.

I've been begging Zach to call the pest person that comes out and takes care of the other pests out here. He came out today. Few things about ants I didn't know.

--They like either: protein, sugar, salt or carbohydrates. It changes all the time. I suddenly related a little more to the little devils upon hearing that.

--When the ants started appearing they created what Zach and I dubbed "a superhighway" in our kitchen. There were always 2 lanes moving to and fro the tiniest of crumbs. We found out that when one ant finds a tasty treat it proceeds to go tell all the others. You can actually SEE the first ant bump into the second and on down the line. Fascinating.

--The pest control guy gave us some gel stuff and then sprayed something that will supposedly take out the whole colony. I'm skeptical but the pest guy was freakishly knowledgeable in all things ant so I'll go with it.

In the end, I can't wait to see them die. I was going to take a picture but didn't want to gross you out (ok, I actually didn't want you to see how nasty my kitchen is).

On another note, I cleaned the entire house. Did a good 7 loads of laundry and made dinner today. I even managed to take a shower and use the foot scrubber thingy.

These days of feeling like a good person have to hold me over for 2 weeks or so when I can manage it again.

Must go, dishes can't last in the sink anymore or we will literally be overrun.

9 comments:

Cindy said...

We can picture it...we had the same thing happen when we lived in Vegas. We even resorted to using the lint roller on them (ps...didn't work for long, but gave us some satisfaction).
The worst part is that both our families were in town for Thanksgiving and everyone was too creeped out to sit in our house. The spray worked beautifully and quickly. Have fun!

ChiTown Girl said...

Ugh, I had a similar situation a couple of summers ago. It was awful!! I learned that you can't just try to kill them by stepping on them or "smooshing" them, because they then give off some sort of 'scent' (I guess like a pheromone?) that alerts the rest of the colony that there's been a death, and the rest of them come swarming! So gross!! It was so hard to find something to spray that worked because I was afraid the dog would lick it and get sick. I did find something, though, and tried to keep the dog away from it. Then, I sprayed the perimeter of my house with the same stuff. They finally went away! OK, now I'm all itchy, so I have to go scratch :(

Anonymous said...

If the pest control stuff doesn't work, I can swear for a very natural method to get rid of ants, that only requires some patience: to capture their queen. Attract all the ants to a place where you can easily see them and they have a hard time escaping; for example, a bathtub. If you put a handful of sugar or some honey on the middle of the bathtub, a plank or something simmilar so the little guys can climb there, and you try to guide some of them in the right direction, after some hours you'll have a tub full with ants. Gross, I know. Sooner or later, their queen is gonna join the party: you'll easily notice her, because she's a lot bigger than her subjects. You can kill her or, if you prefer, you can just take her far, far away from your house; let's say, a couple of miles. Without their queen, the other ants are soon going to disappear to never return.

At least in my case, this is the only thing that has been able to stop at once an ant invasion. Besides that, you don't have to use anything toxic, so it's perfect when you have pets and children.

Good luck!

Lyn-Dee said...

I am very impressed with the massive laundry and cleaning that went on today. I barely managed to get the dishes done. :-) Also, sorry about the ants...not sure what is worse when they are moving or there are just lots of dead brown spots all over the room where they just died. hmm...both are pretty gross...but happen to everyone.

Anonymous said...

Let's go back to talking about Body step.........eeeewwwwww

Heather said...

We did five loads of laundry. You and I are the queens of Mount Wash-More this week!

Sharla said...

ants...not fun. I hope the knowledgeable guy has gotten rid of them for good. 7 loads of laundry must feel great to get done. Laundry is exactly what I am procrastinating from as I type this!

Amber said...

I despise ants... so annoying!!! Great job on the crazy loads of laundry... i love when i get rid of those piles :)

cathy said...

C'mon! I LIVE for photos like these. You MUST post so we can all appreciate the crazy nuances of life... Pretty please???