The Ant(s) Story. FOR YOU KARA
A couple days ago kutie_kara posted about an ant being discovered on her bed and her visceral reaction to it. It immediately made me think of the first place I lived in out here after I moved out of Anne's place.
Cindy and I lived in a 2bd 2.5 ba on the Glendale/Burbank border. The place was HUGE. In addition, it was on the 2nd and 3rd floor, so one would imagine there would be no bug issues. However, there was a reason why it was so cheap. Our landlord was a slum lord for all intense and purposes.
The building itself was infested with the small black ants. The fun thing is the apartments were arranged in a circle. So, one neighbor would complain of ants, spray, and the ants would just move to the next apartment over. Because of the ant issue, we had to really watch how we operated in the house. Food was not left out. Counters were religiously wiped down. And no food was brought upstairs to the bedrooms.
This did not help though as the ants seemed to be attracted to sweaty clothing. I still remember the day I moved in. After moving, I striped down leaving the sweaty clothes in a pile in the bathroom, showered and went out to dinner. I came back a couple hours later to discover ants ALL OVER the clothing. I was horrified. I do not like them, but I also didn't want to be spraying poison where I brush my teeth. Mint oil and Chinese chalk were invested in. http://articles.latimes.com/2003/sep/11/home/hm-ants11
While this kept things under control for a while, after the rains in February, things got worse. The ants came out in droves. In addition, there was water damage to the property from excessive rains. Later in the spring, termites were discovered in our apartment. They would flutter and die on my roommate's bed. They ate the wood of our futon leaving small sawdust piles. They would then die, and the ants would come and eat their bodies. My roommate carefully collected the dead termites in a baggie to show the property manager telling him the property needed to get tented. We were told that they were "flying ants" and that we "didn't know what we were talking about."
To make maters worse, from the water damage, black mold evolved. I wasn't working at the time, and started getting sick... every month. I would develop an uncontrolled fever and sore throat for days at a time. Andrew would stay over and get sick too. The doctor told me I just needed to get my tonsils removed. Instead, I started a job, wasn't at the house that much, and shocker... didn't get sick any more.
We called the city on the landlord. Of course, the city calls them to warn them of the pending inspection. He came in without warning or permission, vacuumed up the termites and painted over the black mold. The city still got him on the water damage. Ultimately, we moved out as soon as the lease was up. Months later, I drove by the place and low and behold... the building was tented!
Anyway, from that place come two of my favorite ant related stories:
1. One night I came home from swing dancing. It was around 2A. Completely wiped and forgetting about ants and sweaty clothing, I striped and stumbled into bed. When I awoke, there was a trail of ants going from my bedroom window, around the room to the far side along the ceiling, and then down and to the pile of clothing. And they were slowly starting to come up the bedspread when I caught them. I flipped out. I mean, WTF??? I live on the damn 3rd floor!!!
2. When we were moving out of the place, I noticed a crap ton of dead ants under the fridge after it got moved. Looking at the wall, I noticed a small crack and a soft spot along the wall where the fridge connected to the water pipe. I touched the spot, and the crack gave way. At that point a ton of live ants came spilling out of the walls. Yes the ants had been living amongst the walls the whole time!!! I screeched in revulsion, then grabbed the can of Raid and sprayed for all I was worth.
Cindy and I lived in a 2bd 2.5 ba on the Glendale/Burbank border. The place was HUGE. In addition, it was on the 2nd and 3rd floor, so one would imagine there would be no bug issues. However, there was a reason why it was so cheap. Our landlord was a slum lord for all intense and purposes.
The building itself was infested with the small black ants. The fun thing is the apartments were arranged in a circle. So, one neighbor would complain of ants, spray, and the ants would just move to the next apartment over. Because of the ant issue, we had to really watch how we operated in the house. Food was not left out. Counters were religiously wiped down. And no food was brought upstairs to the bedrooms.
This did not help though as the ants seemed to be attracted to sweaty clothing. I still remember the day I moved in. After moving, I striped down leaving the sweaty clothes in a pile in the bathroom, showered and went out to dinner. I came back a couple hours later to discover ants ALL OVER the clothing. I was horrified. I do not like them, but I also didn't want to be spraying poison where I brush my teeth. Mint oil and Chinese chalk were invested in. http://articles.latimes.com/2003/sep/11/home/hm-ants11
While this kept things under control for a while, after the rains in February, things got worse. The ants came out in droves. In addition, there was water damage to the property from excessive rains. Later in the spring, termites were discovered in our apartment. They would flutter and die on my roommate's bed. They ate the wood of our futon leaving small sawdust piles. They would then die, and the ants would come and eat their bodies. My roommate carefully collected the dead termites in a baggie to show the property manager telling him the property needed to get tented. We were told that they were "flying ants" and that we "didn't know what we were talking about."
To make maters worse, from the water damage, black mold evolved. I wasn't working at the time, and started getting sick... every month. I would develop an uncontrolled fever and sore throat for days at a time. Andrew would stay over and get sick too. The doctor told me I just needed to get my tonsils removed. Instead, I started a job, wasn't at the house that much, and shocker... didn't get sick any more.
We called the city on the landlord. Of course, the city calls them to warn them of the pending inspection. He came in without warning or permission, vacuumed up the termites and painted over the black mold. The city still got him on the water damage. Ultimately, we moved out as soon as the lease was up. Months later, I drove by the place and low and behold... the building was tented!
Anyway, from that place come two of my favorite ant related stories:
1. One night I came home from swing dancing. It was around 2A. Completely wiped and forgetting about ants and sweaty clothing, I striped and stumbled into bed. When I awoke, there was a trail of ants going from my bedroom window, around the room to the far side along the ceiling, and then down and to the pile of clothing. And they were slowly starting to come up the bedspread when I caught them. I flipped out. I mean, WTF??? I live on the damn 3rd floor!!!
2. When we were moving out of the place, I noticed a crap ton of dead ants under the fridge after it got moved. Looking at the wall, I noticed a small crack and a soft spot along the wall where the fridge connected to the water pipe. I touched the spot, and the crack gave way. At that point a ton of live ants came spilling out of the walls. Yes the ants had been living amongst the walls the whole time!!! I screeched in revulsion, then grabbed the can of Raid and sprayed for all I was worth.