Today has been yet another beautiful California day – clear blue skies, warm sunshine. Yet it is winter, and that means that it gets a bit cold outside of an evening. Consequently all those multi-legged critters that are quite happy to live outside during the summer tend to impose on the hospitality of us two-legged folks over the winter.
Thus it was that I arrived home from shopping today to find the kitchen floor swarming with ants. I reached into the cupboard for the Terro traps and found – an empty box.
Fortunately for him, Kevin is elsewhere right now, so I can’t strangle him. Furthermore, because he is elsewhere, I’m not faced with cooking him a Thanksgiving dinner in an ant-infested kitchen. And best of all, the nice folks at Dale Hardware across the road were still open when I dashed over there, so hopefully the little beggars will be gone by Friday when I had foolishly promised Kevin I’d baked cookies in time for his return.
Okay, so those really work? We live in a VERY old house (105) and when we bought it, even though it had been spotlessly clean and empty for over three months, there were ants. NOTHING I try (i.e. traps) works and I don’t like sprays.
And for the record, you are a much more forgiving person than I. Those cookies would’ve been laced with the little buggers.
Yeah, Terro ant traps work. They’ll not get rid of the ants permanently. Nothing can do that. But if there is a concerted invasion at a particular spot then Terro will a) distract the ants from their original target and b) kill off a very large number of them.
The cookies were laced with chocolate chips, not ants. They sort of worked, but I’m not convinced that Splenda is a viable alternative for sugar in cooking. It doesn’t have the same bulk or physical properties.
Ah, yet more good advice. I had recently thought about making a diabetic relative something with Splenda. I’ll still try it, but will know not to get my hopes up.
For the ants I suppose I’ll have to cave and call Orkin for a permanent solution… Sigh.
Btw, I so enjoy your blog (and sfaw). Not just the interesting, fun, curious, enlightening things you share, but as much your ‘voice’, the way you share them. So glad you’re back.
My impression is that there’s no way you can get rid of ants permanently unless you live in several acres of ground and are prepared to have the whole lot concreted over to a depth of several feet.
Either that or you bribe them to stay away by keeping a sugar mountain in the yard.
As to my ‘voice’, all I can say is that I’m delighted it works for you. Hopefully I will keep on doing what you enjoy.