Saturday 7 February 2009

The Ants. They Are Winning.


Damn the black ants. An endless stream seem to be marching into our house. All over the kitchen bench - no matter how many times I wipe it. In the sugar bowl, I get them out, only for Matt to discover an hour later that they're back, and this time they've brought friends.

Tiny drops plenty of meals for these small creatures. But I sweep them up. She's intent on feeding them methinks. If I happen to miss a piece of toast, or a well squashed piece of peach - well they jump right on it. There'll be a trail leading in and out the door.

Don't get me wrong. I always loved ants. I had an art farm when I was a kid. I was endlessly fascinated by their tunnels, they're intelligent little things. Yet, they don't seem to be terribly intuitive. We don't want them in the house. Sneaking under the benchtop. Tag-teaming with the next round of ants as they carry out their specks of sugar.

Who do they think they are? Uninvited guests are always the pits. Spiders are particularly one of my least favourite, and lately I seem to attract grasshoppers too. Eeeeek!

But it's these ants.
Have you got the perfect chemical-free way to rid PottyMouthMama HQ of these pesky punters?

I've tried crushed mint leaves at the door. No cigar.

PS - You know you're having a slow Saturday night (AGAIN - what happened to my social life?!) when a) you're posting about ants; and b) Matt looks over and discovers you're scouring Google Images for a suitable ant picture. There's a song for this.

image via

11 comments:

Miss Muggins said...

I had to laugh, sorry! My life has pretty much gone down the same path as yours! Not that I'm complaining!

CurlyPops said...

I don't know of any nice clean chemical free methods...I'm afraid I resort to the exterminator!

Sarah said...

My mum used to make these balls with sugar and some nasty stuff (for ants not us - some white powder) which used to work. Also we used to put things in water bowls while there was invasions. Usually with both they did not last long. She is away till Tuesday so I will ask her when she is back. Just the balls cannot be near kiddles - I remember been VERY firmly told not to touch them when I was REALLY little (YEARS ago)

Cass said...

Apparently salt keeps them away and it must be working because my mum has been doing it for a few weeks now and the ants have all moved upstairs to our place.

Georgie Love said...

We have this quirky three story A-Frame house and the bathroom is on the third level - in the sky with the trees. Every fricking morning the shower is filled with 100 ants and I have no respect for them, I feel much vexation. I can't figure it out, it's so much hard work for them - we have a water tank which is kind of open outside and would be SO MUCH LESS hard work. I hate ants.

(ps: YOU are MOST welcome! I am so glad you liked them, hard to pick things for other people, especially blog-pals!) :-)

Leonie said...

a link for you, don't know if you have come across this blog before but it's all about natural and home made and sustainability, this post has an ant removal method:
http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2008/12/natural-insect-traps.html
Hope it might help. This might be the white powder Sarah is talking about, maybe.

JustJess said...

Talc. Sprinkle it around, they can't walk on it, get cranky and leave!

Anonymous said...

Generally salt works, also works for slugs. Bowls of water with a little sugar or honey work too, unless they're Super Ants who swim. I hate those. -__-; I wonder about vinegar. Vinegar is the magic cure for everything, maybe it works on ants?

Liesl said...

We've had an absolute invasion of ants too. I'm with JustJess - they loathe talc. Just sprinkle it where ever they are coming in and they will refuse to cross it. The other thing that fends them off is that metered pyrethrium spray that Mortein and Raid do. Its ace. Oooh and spiders HATE orange oil.

flossy-p said...

We've got the same problem, but thankfully they haven't found the sugar yet. The other day they were all over the kitchen bench, the next all through our bedroom!

I just keep wiping their trail away with a soapy cloth. I think I heard you can do the same thing with eucalyptus oil?

In our last house I resorted to leaving a handful of cereal on the outside of the window sills... an offering to keep the peace, and distract them from our kitchen.

flossy-p said...

Oh, I just remembered, (I have grey nomad parents). To keep ants out of caravans, the grey nomads pour flour around the tires (or anything else that comes into contact with the ground). Apparently ants can't walk on flour, it's too sinky!