I have been dealing with ants in my house all summer, but lately they have seemed more plentiful. My go-to ant response is Terro, but it seems I can’t keep up.
I had put some Terro on my kitchen counter to deal with some ants coming from the window sill by the sink. They stopped coming, so I thought maybe they were taken care of. Then yesterday, there were suddenly LOTS of ants eating on the dried up Terro. I added fresh Terro, but ran out, so I unscrewed the top and left the bottle. They cleaned it all up.
So… many… ants!
It was not only weird how many ants there were, but also that they were clumping into these dense piles. I had previously seen some ants try to build a colony on my counter. Maybe these ants were starting to do that too…
What the heck are they doing?
I decided it was time for the nuclear option: I got out the 409 cleaning spray. I don’t know if I’ve said it before, but 409 instantly kills ants. They don’t kick or move at all… the spray hits them, and they immediately die. It’s really quite amazing.
I sprayed the counter and killed every ant there. Then I followed their trail, bringing death as I advanced. The trail went across the counter, down the cabinet, under the front of the refrigerator, along the wall, out the door, and into the living room, where it went halfway across the wall, then disappeared under the floor trim. At their point of entry, I sprayed and sprayed and sprayed, hoping the 409 would run into any little cracks or holes and discourage any future incursions.
I spent the next hour or so smashing every stray ant I saw. Will this be a big enough loss of population that the colony will die, or at least move? Will the 409 erase the pheromone trail so the ants don’t come back again? Will I have to keep dealing with ant invasions like this forever?
Your last line reads like the end of a novel. I am in such suspense! The dense piles look like they are trying to spell something out. Maybe they are writers, too.
We had ants in the condo in Branson, but nothing like that. The guy who came to ‘fix’ it just sprayed them with a mixture of vinegar and dish soap. Sure, it killed the ants on the counter, but they kept coming in. You have a better approach: send poison back first, then vigilantly kill and get rid of the trail.
I thought the same thing, Lauren, about the bodies seeming to be trying to spell out something (you know – ala “Surrender, Dorothy!”).
I have lots of spiders this year. I should send you some to take care of your ant problem.
Cheesh – even after seeing Sunday’s movie I do not read any sympathy or compassion in this posting. Maybe we met some of these creatures – Anthony, et alia – and yet you unfeelingly exterminate them all (sniffle). Cruel, cruel man.
*jibblie*
Maybe they were upset that you didn’t take them to see Ant Man!
Ha! This could have been MY post a few weeks ago!
Same place under the microwave each year … here they come … down goes the Terro.
I get will a HEAPING pile of ants on the nickel size Terro blob on the right side of the microwave, but just a few stragglers on the same size blob on the left side! I stand there and talk to them. “Hey guys! There’s another Terro party over here!” But they do not listen.
I asked my husband if he thought it was like the “cool kids table” on the right and the “nerd table” on the left. He thinks I’m crazy for caring. As long as within 12 hours the ants have vanished, we are happy.