In Which the Ants Will Be Evicted
BATTLE OF THE ANTS!
DAY ONE: THE VINEGARING
We have begun the epic battle against the ants to get them the hell off of my desk and out of the apartment.
Yesterday pretty much decided me that the ants would go or else. They were just all over my desk and driving me up the wall and nothing I was doing was helping.
However, I've never been fond of the chemical deathy solutions and the older I get, the more I dislike these. Sure they're hard on what you're fighting, but they're also hard on the rest of the environment (WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE BEES?!) and they're hard on me and especially my roommate. A little bit of poking around, however, has lead to this rather hilarious and useful site: How to Get Rid of Things
Actually very useful sight, they have simple, but clear cut advice and they tell you how reliable their natural suggestions are (ie "I haven't used this, but I know professional chefs that do, so let me know how it works!"). They also have some hilarious articles. I recommend How To Get Rid of Trick Or Treaters in their satire section.
One of the most useful suggestions they gave is white wine vinegar to be used in place of bleach. This is a cheap, natural solution and one I will probably use for lots of cleaning. And for ants, it has a good strong scent that wipes out the pheromone trails they leave.
This led to today's adventure: THE VINEGARING.
We cleaned today. A lot. I washed all the dishes, ran the dish washer, and then made a nice vinegar and water solution. AND THEN I PROCEEDED TO SPONGE DOWN ALL SURFACES. Including my desk. And the legs of my desk. And even my screen a bit!
Hollie, meanwhile, swept out the kitchen and then mopped the kitchen with more vinegar solution. We unfortunately don't have a vacuum yet, but we did sweep the carpet at least, which should help!
We also cleaned the hell out of the kitchen after cooking, which is a new one for us. We're hopeful we'll get into the habit of cleaning after meals, but we'll see. >.>;
OTHER METHODS: Hollie picked up RAID ant traps and we distributed these along the floor. Not my favorite answer as full of chemicals and I don't really like the idea of poisoning an entire colony of ants. I don't really hate the whole colony as much as I just want them to stay out of my house and off of my computer desk. But they have pissed me off enough that I'm willing to do what it takes.
On top of that, I've distributed whole cloves in a few places around the apartment and especially around the corner I think they're using to get onto my desk from. This is another natural solution I read about, as the cloves smell strong. We also have a ton in the cupboard so I figured hell, why not? Can't hurt, other than stepping on surprise clove in the middle of the night.
CONCLUSION: So far? Seems to be working. I haven't see any ants on my desk since we implemented these strategies. But as this is only day one, we'll see...
DAY ONE: THE VINEGARING
We have begun the epic battle against the ants to get them the hell off of my desk and out of the apartment.
Yesterday pretty much decided me that the ants would go or else. They were just all over my desk and driving me up the wall and nothing I was doing was helping.
However, I've never been fond of the chemical deathy solutions and the older I get, the more I dislike these. Sure they're hard on what you're fighting, but they're also hard on the rest of the environment (WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE BEES?!) and they're hard on me and especially my roommate. A little bit of poking around, however, has lead to this rather hilarious and useful site: How to Get Rid of Things
Actually very useful sight, they have simple, but clear cut advice and they tell you how reliable their natural suggestions are (ie "I haven't used this, but I know professional chefs that do, so let me know how it works!"). They also have some hilarious articles. I recommend How To Get Rid of Trick Or Treaters in their satire section.
One of the most useful suggestions they gave is white wine vinegar to be used in place of bleach. This is a cheap, natural solution and one I will probably use for lots of cleaning. And for ants, it has a good strong scent that wipes out the pheromone trails they leave.
This led to today's adventure: THE VINEGARING.
We cleaned today. A lot. I washed all the dishes, ran the dish washer, and then made a nice vinegar and water solution. AND THEN I PROCEEDED TO SPONGE DOWN ALL SURFACES. Including my desk. And the legs of my desk. And even my screen a bit!
Hollie, meanwhile, swept out the kitchen and then mopped the kitchen with more vinegar solution. We unfortunately don't have a vacuum yet, but we did sweep the carpet at least, which should help!
We also cleaned the hell out of the kitchen after cooking, which is a new one for us. We're hopeful we'll get into the habit of cleaning after meals, but we'll see. >.>;
OTHER METHODS: Hollie picked up RAID ant traps and we distributed these along the floor. Not my favorite answer as full of chemicals and I don't really like the idea of poisoning an entire colony of ants. I don't really hate the whole colony as much as I just want them to stay out of my house and off of my computer desk. But they have pissed me off enough that I'm willing to do what it takes.
On top of that, I've distributed whole cloves in a few places around the apartment and especially around the corner I think they're using to get onto my desk from. This is another natural solution I read about, as the cloves smell strong. We also have a ton in the cupboard so I figured hell, why not? Can't hurt, other than stepping on surprise clove in the middle of the night.
CONCLUSION: So far? Seems to be working. I haven't see any ants on my desk since we implemented these strategies. But as this is only day one, we'll see...