7/22/07

BATTLE OF THE ANTS

For several days last week, the left portion of my kitchen counter bordering the sink, as well as the lower left portion of the window frame and sill behind it, were laid siege to by a swarm of teeny tiny ants marching up through the drain.

After the initial shock wore off, a battle plan was put into action. Baking soda mixed with vinegar was poured down the drain, followed by pots of boiling water, and for a few short hours it seemed to have worked. The victory was short lived, however, and the swarm reappeared with gathered forces.

More baking soda and vinegar were poured down the drain, followed by even more pots of boiling water, but by the end of the day a new battalion was steadily marching up the drain.

I repeated the procedure a third time, and still the troops kept escalating, so on to Plan B, which was to put bay leaves in and around the infested areas. This proved to be a total waste of time, and didn't daunt them one bit.

At this point I turned to Google (which is probably where I should have started), and was informed that whereas my previous strategies had been good, there could be no long lasting results until the queen had been destroyed. I didn't know ants had a queen. My visiting granddaughter assured me that they did. So now how to go about toppling her from her throne?

After surfing through various sites for new strategies, I decided on the following.



Mix 1 cup of warm water with 1/2 cup of sugar (I used brown since it's all I had available), and 2 tablespoons of Borax. Then soak the mixture up with cotton balls and place those cotton balls near any trails the ants have established.

I placed the cotton balls in strategic places along the counter, window sill, and ledge behind my sink. Then I turned off the light and went to bed.

The next morning, I could hardly believe my eyes. No trace of an ant anywhere. All was still, and my kitchen resembled a ghost town dotted with mini mountain peaks of brown sugar fudge. The battle was over, and I had won!

5 comments:

  1. Yay!
    Every once in a while I see a random roach - when I mention it to people I know here - they say "welcome to the south" - I refuse to think that I have to live with them. There are also spiders - and trails of Borax are one remedy!

    ReplyDelete
  2. congrats on defeating the ants! they put up a good fight! I remember when I was in the apartment before this one (the one with D) and we had ants in our kitchen - as soon as I got rid of them in there, they moved to our bathroom and I had to start all over again. The trick was finding where they were coming from because often times it seemed they had just randomly appeared. I ended up having to cement cracks on our patio outside the bathroom before I won the battle. ants are a pain!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I will have to try the borax. We had some more of those microscopic ants this morning.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I battle the ants every year but the big ones. Wonder if your treatment would work on them?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oi, achei teu blog pelo google tá bem interessante gostei desse post. Quando der dá uma passada pelo meu blog, é sobre camisetas personalizadas, mostra passo a passo como criar uma camiseta personalizada bem maneira. Se você quiser linkar meu blog no seu eu ficaria agradecido, até mais e sucesso.(If you speak English can see the version in English of the Camiseta Personalizada.If he will be possible add my blog in your blogroll I thankful, bye friend).

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you enjoyed your visit and found something to make your day a little bit brighter.