In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love. Or, in my case - perhaps because I am not a man - vermin.
The ants are back. There is no obvious entry point, there is no obvious nesting zone. There are simply ants, everywhere I look, in twos or threes, casually scoffing from the sugar bowl or checking out the toaster crumbs. They are sort of dilettante ants, tourist ants, just here for the sights. But you know what it's like with holidays, sometimes you just don't want to go home. This, I do not want. Also, possibly not as with holidays, I am desperate to figure out how to kill the blighters but I can't figure out where to put the ant poison. "All over the kitchen and dining room" seems a bit like - well - overkill. Soon, they will be building condos and selling timeshares. Why don't ants need planning permission?
Then, this morning, I went to take the recycling out and discovered a dead mouse lying in the middle of the path, pristine, but rather wet from yesterday's rains. Natural causes? Drowning? Or an offering from Matilda, next door's cat? Matilda likes to hang out on the path outside my house, and sometimes when I am doing my cello practice she jumps up onto the windowsill and rubs herself against the glass, from which I can only deduce that my cello-playing sounds like the mating call of a male cat. This is slightly better than I thought my cello playing sounded so I am not entirely disappointed, but I don't want to start receiving furry, dead gifts from an amorous Matilda. And what am I supposed to do with the mouse? Pick it up? Put it in my own bin? Do you think it can be recycled?
More to the point, do you think I could train Matilda to kill ants?
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8 comments:
Ants are buggers! We have them in the kitchen now, but they are coming in from under the french doors in the lounge - this is a good 15ft away. The kitchen entry point is where the kitchen tiles and lounge carpet meet... the walk for 15 ft under cover of the carpet! sods!
This is all about crack maintenance ! You have to seal yourself into your house with silicone filler to keep the little boogers out.
Anna May
I'd say a blitzfest around the house is required. But you will be sweeping up ant powder for ever. They seem to get everywhere once they're in...
As to mice. I have a rule that they are my friends when they live on the patio, but once they've crossed the time portal into the house, the gloves are off. And ever since reading The Amazing Maurice, I can't bring myself to use humane traps. But as you have an amorous cat doing your mouse catching for you, you probably won't need to catch your finger in a trap you've just filled with peanut butter as Spouse has done on several occasions.
Ignore the mouse. The more noise you make about it, the more it will be taken as an earnest of delight.
The Ant War is more serious. If this is a frequent issue, consider copper flashing on your garden doorway. I think you can get poisons which stick to little ant-feet and get tracked back along the route to the anthill, so location of poison may not matter.
Myself, I'm taking the environmental option. I'm buying an anteater instead of a puppy.
Ignore the ants, they're not really that much bother, but invest in some jars that seal properly. And steal next door's cat food. Have I been in Africa for too long?
(In the voice of Jamie Oliver)
So here's how to take care of those ants. Nip over to the chemist for some boric acid -- any sort'll do. You take your boric acid and some peanut butter and sling the lot into a small bottle cap or saucer or whatever suits. Nice one. Then you place this gorgeous peanut butter-boric acid mixture near where your pesky insectoid friends like to hang out (if they're anything like my mate Andy the Gasman, that would be near the food!). Pour yourself a pint, sit back and enjoy happy days while the antsy guests track all that pukka poison back to their lair. Before you know it, they'll be gone. Beauty!
Excellent Andy the Gasman reference - you are clearly a Jamie pro.
Two non-toxic ways to deal with ants are baby powder and Windex (the blue kind), but in the end, if it's bad enough, you have to treat. The bait they'll track back to their nest might work, but last year I had to have the kitchen done professionally. Get everything done, inside and out. There is restaurant-grade pesticide, so you don't have to worry TOO much about the poison. The ants come in for food, but really a big part of the problem is drainage. If you have a wet area outside, and you can resolve it, it will probably help. As to mice, those traps that simply seal them up when they go in for the bait are the best (No Touch or something like that). The mice in NJ seem to like salami! Then, once they're caught, and dead, you throw the whole thing away. Good luck...I hate ants more than mice.
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