You know the song- “The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah”? Well, in my house during the past week, they have been marching 100 by 100 and hurrah is not exactly the word I use when I see them. We have been hit by a Moses type plague. It’s making me crazy (maybe the correct word here is crazier).
Our best guess is that when the water pipe broke last week it flooded under the house. Since we are built on an anthill they had no where to go but up! They are crawling up behind the paneling to find tiny gaps near the woodwork. They are crawling across ceilings. They are getting into my high cupboards as well as my low.
As soon as we see them we swoop down with the vacuum, ant traps and cinnamon. Cinnamon will not kill them but they won’t cross it. I’ve sprinkled it everywhere. We have spent several hours just tracking them to their entry point. I then fill the crack with caulking. Battle won!! But not the war- the next day we wake up to find a new invasion area and the next battle ensues.
I even took the war outside and sprinkled poison around the base of the house. This is not my usual MO. I have a kind of treaty with the natural world especially insects- I won’t bother them in their habitat if they won’t bother me in mine. These ants have broken the pact and all is fair in love and war!
So, Wednesday, we decided to drop the bomb and put an end to this for good! We prepared the house, set up foggers in the house, set up foggers under the house, locked the cats in the garage and the dogs in their kennel and BAM, we set them off. We left the property for 8 hours. It was late when we returned home. Opened all the windows, turned on all the fans to air out the overpowering insecticide stench and began detox procedures. There were dead insects everywhere but we saw something moving…. we crept over…..moved the things on the counters……….it was the stinking ants!!! They were trying to get into my sugar canister!!!! DAMN!
However, today, I get up and check the kitchen.. no ants….garbage..no ants..outside patio..no ants…it’s too good to be true…..maybe the $80.00 of poison that lays all over the place is working!!! But I won’t get my hopes up. I think I’ll just enjoy the reprieve today and finally get something else done. My happy thoughts about the situation- my girls finally realized why their rooms need to be clean and all my cupboards are clean and organized. Now, I hope we don’t all die from insecticide overdose!
That’s the view from my side of the street, what’s yours?
No comments:
Post a Comment