Yes, the day before yesterday, I saw an Ant, strolling along on my kitchen wall. This guy was not small, nor was he in a hurry. My kids and I actually stared at it for a few seconds before I got up and got the vacuum.
After I had disposed of the intruder, I went back to getting the kids to bed. Now, in the following hours, we found three more ants inside our home.
Obviously, there was a problem.
Coming from Iceland, we don't have many ants and very few ant problems. So, I started by googling ants. (Eeeeeeew!) I found out so much more than I needed to know.
After confirming a vague memory of them leaving some sort of trail (it's a scent trail, in case you wanted to know. If you didn't... Sorry!) I started to google how to keep them out. How to prevent them from entering your home and so on and so forth.
I don't like bugs, as I've mentioned on this blog before, but I really don't have an issue with them as long as they stay out of my domain. No joke. My home is my domain and they are not allowed entry. They live outside and I will try not to step on them when I leave my house and they stay out of my home. This seems totally fair to me.
Now, I read some interesting stuff about how to keep them away. I wanted to try something natural and repellent. The internet did not disappoint in terms of ideas.
One person suggested chalk. Something in the chalk is supposed to repel ants from crossing a line you make with it. Well, I put that to the test. (There are soooo many ants near my house, I live next to the woods, so I had plenty of guinea pigs.)
Turns out, these critters didn't give a hoot about a line, or a circle drawn in chalk. Ok, let's try something else.
Someone suggested salt. Oh, I loved that idea. I wanted to get my flannel shirt and pie on right there, it was soo Supernatural. The ants were ghosts and I spread the salt around a few of them.
Well... If I had been Dean Winchester, I would have had to fight my way out of this. Those bastards didn't care at ALL about the salt, just strolled right over it.
Next on the list, lemon juice!
I squeeze lemons and did a little test run. This had some effect. For about 10 minutes. Then they seemed to like the taste of it.
After a few trials like this, I admitted defeat. I would have to get some pesticide.
There was a mind-boggling array of these things. I picked two and got back to the Hubs. (What? You didn't think I was fighting this war alone, did you?)
People who fight bugs together, stay together... Right?
We tackled each room of the house along with the outside permiter, windows, doors, and ventilation. Basically, any place they could be getting in.
We cleaned everything, and I do mean Everything, with a blend which is supposed to erase the scent trail and keep others from coming after them.
To say we were exhausted by the time the kids came home, would be an understatement.
After all our efforts, we found one ant crawling on our ceiling. Probably looking to escape, the poor thing.
So, far that and a turbo spider who got in this morning, it's looking better. I hope I can stop looking at the wall every three seconds soon. That spider, though, I will be having nightmares about that thing.
At least, I can take comfort in the fact the spider doesn't have friends who will come looking for it.
Right???
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