Invasion of the ants
Last year, when our apartment (well, duplex, but they insist on calling it an apartment) was new, we had no bug problems. Zippo. This year, the exterior defenses, whatever they might be, have been penetrated. Ants first showed up in my bathroom. I was surprised, but I figured the ants would realize they’d made an awful mistake and leave in despair.
A few days later, they came out through an electrical outlet in the kitchen. So much for them leaving in despair. As you might imagine, finding the kitchen is essentially jackpot for the ants, and we’ve been waging a losing battle against them. We didn’t want to spray the kitchen down with Raid, because of the elderly cat. I went and got some ant bait traps (also by Raid) from Rite Aid, but the ants seem only vaguely interested and certainly still quite alive.
Well, Joe the Orkin Man, who just left the paper after a monthly visit, may have the answer: Windex. Apparently, spritzing with Windex will kill the ants dead due to the ammonia, and also disrupt their scent trails, meaning we won’t have little lines of them all over. He also schooled me on bait traps: Apparently, there are sugar-based traps and protein-based traps, and depending on what time of year it is, the ants will have different needs, and the wrong sort of trap (i.e. the kind I have) will do zippo. There are “dual bait” traps, though, that have both types and he recommended a brand (Grant).
Today, we declare our independence (from ants).
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I sympathise. We had an ant problem in a place my wife & I first rented together. We never did win the battle. We made the decision to move to another place once the ants made off with the take-out pizza we just had delivered… 😉
Comment by Tony McMahon — October 25, 2005 @ 0:55
Well, the Orkin man’s advice appears to have been spot-on. I put out the bait goo and put down his new traps, as well as Windexing offenders.
This morning, I woke up and the baits were surrounded by ant corpses, the goo had a ring of them as well, and enough must have made it back to the colony with poison treats, because there were all of two ants out today. Who, of course, got Windexed.
Joe the Orkin Man is going to be getting a nice tip at Christmastime.
Comment by Beau — October 25, 2005 @ 15:28
Still no ants. Those two I Windexed appear to have been the final ants in the colony.
The bait goo and the traps are both MaxForce brand.
Comment by Beau — October 26, 2005 @ 8:10
I love the gel too works pretty well to for ants.
http://www.quicksolutionpestcontrol.com
Comment by Mimi — August 5, 2016 @ 15:52