Thursday, November 3, 2011

Invasion of the Argentine Ants - Part One


        A month ago, while I was away visiting my friend Beth and her sweet baby Samantha, Pete called me and told me, "We had an ant invasion, but don't worry, I am keeping things clean and killing them." I didn't think much of it, other than feeling a little sorry for Pete because he was so busy, but happy that I would come home to a clean house. And I came home to a very clean house - not a crumb in sight! but there...were....lots....of....ants. In the shower, in the kitchen, even a few coming in through a light socket in the bedroom. Which was weird, because like I said, the house was spotless!
       So we killed them with some Murphy's Oil Soap and cleaned them up. The next morning I woke up to  find hundreds of them swimming in our Brita water filter, and hundreds more coming in and out. The little buggers weren't after food, they were after water! We killed those. Then I went to take a shower and saw hundreds more in the shower. Pete had to go to work, so I very bravely killed them myself.
    I went about my normal routine, and a few hours later noticed more ants coming in the bedroom. So I put child safety locks in all the sockets. That should help, I thought. But then a few hours later, hundreds more ants were in the kitchen. Pete came home from work, and I was trying to not be frustrated at him for how many ants there were when he had said it wasn't that bad, but he assured me the problem was getting worse. We talked about calling our land lords to send an exterminator, but I didn't want to breathe the toxic fumes, nor did I want to pay the hundreds of dollars for an organic exterminator. So we decided to give it the weekend, and see if we could track down where the ants were coming in and plaster all of the holes they were coming in through.
     No success. Everytime we plastered an entrance, the ants found another crack or crevice. And we tracked their path back to under the kitchen and bathroom sink, and inside the kitchen and bathroom.   There were literally thousands. They must be in the walls, we figured.  When we came home from church and found hundreds swarming the refrigerator and freezer, I broke down crying. We decided to call our landlord first thing Monday morning.

(Stay tuned for Part Two)

6 comments:

  1. oh now I can't wait to find out what happens! By the way, what size are these ants? I'm not familiar with them. In Australia we have so many different ants, its fascinating to see all the different sizes and colours (until they bite you!), but only the smallest ones come inside, usually in summer, and I can usually control them by spraying their trails with vinegar (so they get lost) and keeping the kitchen clean. Not so easy if they are looking for water though, this sounds far more serious! Looking forward to the next installment....

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  2. Goodness me, that is a massive ant invasion!

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  3. How frustrating for you. Am waiting to here the outcome. Jumped over from D2E.

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  4. Oh dear.. ...that is a real ant invasion. I know how frustrating it can be but my ant problems have never been as bad as what you describe. When I have too many ants on my patio, I've sprinkled Arm & Hammer borax around the area where the ants travel. It seems to work. I'm looking forward to hearing how you dealt with yours.

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  5. Farmer Liz, these ants were small, normal sized black ants! They just kept coming and coming.

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  6. Deb and Joyful, it was very frustrating, but it is over now

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