Ants!

[beanielips]

Those innocent little black ants.  They are so orderly, running in lines, bent on a mission.  And they have invaded my house.

It happens every year.  As summer vacation comes to an end I have a house that has crawling ants on surfaces that I just scrubbed clean.  I lay out borax and corn syrup traps and it attracts them like magnets.  The creepy crawly line become ant highways.  They move quickly from their nest to that pile of goo.  While they are distracted I take out vinegar with eucalyptus/tea tree oil and spray any of the stragglers.  After all they aren't really serving the queen well if they aren't in the line right?  Well, maybe those are the scouts, but I really don't want them to find anything else that is invisible to my eyes.  Maybe they are the guards, but I really don't care if this line isn't protected, I really want their little regiment to leave my house.

I replenish what should lead to their their death soon enough.  They continue on their paths.   Not really knowing what they are doing.  I begin my reconnaissance and become obsessed with watching them.   They communicate with each other as they pass.  But they keep moving quickly.  Sometimes I get board at put something in their way, a road block on their highway.  It is interesting to watch them bunch up and then finally one of them finds a way around or over and the highway seamlessly starts back up.

I don't think that ants are the brightest of God's creations though.  While their lines are amazing to watch, they never take the most direct route.  I have seen lines that make my carpet look like it is alive run along the wall, make a wide arc around nothing that my human eye can see only to return to the same wall.  Some of those scouts need to learn how to read a compass. (I think Flick could help with it!)

After watching them for a while I try to draw their long line in by placing the poison closer to get the line out of my sight.  They never really like things moving on them, but they adjust.  Especially when I take out my homemade bug spray and attack the last part of the line.  I vacuum any that are on the carpet.  I feel no remorse for the little black ants that I am getting rid of.  They invaded my house.  I am only protecting myself.

Finally, the line is smaller (and out of my sight) and I can rest.  Well, as much as you can rest when you feel like ants are crawling all over you.  But, I need to rest, because the battle is not done.

I check the areas again.  Yet again the line is going beyond the bounds that I can deal with.  Do you know how ants make their highways?  They make creep a little further out than the last ant and then come back to that last ant.  Then they follow that scent and one stays at the last spot while another creeps out.  It is perfectly cchoreographed... if they would only stay out of my house!

After 3 hours of early morning assault I give up.  Maybe I will just get out the nuke of the bug world... the bug spray.  But for now they have won the battle, but I will win the war!

[Rebeccalynn_dj]

Jul. 29, 2009 at 1:25 PM

LOL  You need to go around the perimeter of your house and find the piles up against the wall.  They are there.  Then get rid of those piles and they won't get in your house.

[beanielips]

Jul. 29, 2009 at 1:42 PM

I live in a modular home (that is fancy for mobile home) with no landscaping, just the weeds that God has put there and some trees the previous owners planted.  Anytime I water the trees the ants get bad.  I think that I am making them think that fall in comming.  I think that they are under the house and I am not going in that crawl space.  But I will check around the outside edge.... do you think my homemade stuff will work out there?

(Original Poster)

[Rebeccalynn_dj]

Jul. 29, 2009 at 1:48 PM

I am not sure.  I think that it might kill some aunts but you really need to get rid of the queen. 

Can you get a bug guy to come out there and treat underneath?

[tess785]

Jul. 29, 2009 at 2:19 PM

I feel your pain with the ants.  We get them every summer too.  Last summer my DH was replacing a window and we figured out why we could never get rid of them.  They are living in our walls.  Hopefully you can get rid of your ants.  I don't think I will ever get rid of ours with out burning the house down.

[Kajenloca]

Jul. 29, 2009 at 5:34 PM

HUGS. I feel your pain.