On August 18th I posted the following: "There should be support groups for women who can't put their dishes in the dishwasher dirty." http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-146133-1.htm

Well, wouldn't you know it, I have had to either eat my words -- which I still fervently espouse -- or eat the DA (Damn Ants!) that are invading my house! It's been hot and often dry in my part of VA this year and the ant problem has been the worst ever.

They are covering the trash, even though I sprayed the can and am double bagging; they are crawling over the dishwasher because those dishes are not prewashed; climbing up the refrigerator licking up the drops of spilled Coke I didn't reach; even a few hiding out in my chair, for Pete's sake, going after the crumbs and me where I sit and eat cookies after dinner!!! :shock: What the hey is that?! :evil: Now every little tickle makes me jump looking for the crawlies!!!

So I've taken to rinsing the designs off the dishes before putting them immediately in the machine after eating, what a pain! :cry:
I cleaned the outside of the refrig on my knees....I NEVER get on my knees!! The getting up is NOT pretty. But I was darned if I was gonna clean the inside right now, too! Whoever sees it but me anyway, certainly not the DAs!
I've even taken to washing the garbage from all sweet, greasy, odorous residue before bagging it, can you imagine?! :shock:

I put out no less than 10 DA baits, they enjoyed themselves in there and keep on coming.
I sprayed around the baseboards and spent time gagging in the bathroom and breathing that stuff as the AC spread it through the house. That is SO gross!
I've spread bags of granules around the whole cottage outside, and had to wash my shoes when they were covered with them, thunk-athunka-athunk in the washer.

Chagrin! I thought I'd never see the day I'd be reduced to this level of compulsiveness.....and have to admit it here. :oops: And apologize to those poor, dear ladies who might have had the bad luck to have had a difference of opinion with my original post. :? :oops:

Maybe the amazing rain we got on Sunday, and the really weird, rare earthquake that came today, has driven these DAs back into their holes in the ground and they'll leave me the heck alone to be as lazy, glorious retired as I wish to be!!:roll:

Jan in VA

Maybe the earthquake rattled them so bad that they end up in China or some little deserted island out in the middle of the ocean. BUT....I am sure that isn't going to happen. I hope that you can get rid of the ants soon. Knock on wood, we don't have ants.

Funny how life experiences changes our views and habits! No apology needed here!

we used plastic plates while waiting for our house to be built, and even tho they were washed we had some tiny tiny ants over everything in sight, they even got into sealed containers now we have had rain they seem to have gone again thank goodness. hope your disapear soon

We had ants like that when I lived in California! They were doing a lot of building and disturbed their nests! Finally had to call someone to spray!! Ugh!! Good luck !!

Are your DAs those little tiny black ants? I usually get them when it's dry and that's a lot here in MS. My exterminator said they were very hard to get rid of! UGH! What do I pay you for...I wanted to say!! I've tried those little bait strips where you put the liquid on top and yes they treat it as a spa. I put out borax around the places where they come in and they just track it everywhere. Pesty little buggers!!

BUT, I haven't seen the first one this summer in my kitchen. Maybe they did die off after ingesting all the stuff I put out. Maybe it was just a slow release killer.

Now watch me wake up to a black mob of DAs in my kitchen!

Are your DAs those little tiny black ants? I usually get them when it's dry and that's a lot here in MS. My exterminator said they were very hard to get rid of! UGH! What do I pay you for...I wanted to say!! I've tried those little bait strips where you put the liquid on top and yes they treat it as a spa. I put out borax around the places where they come in and they just track it everywhere. Pesty little buggers!!

BUT, I haven't seen the first one this summer in my kitchen. Maybe they did die off after ingesting all the stuff I put out. Maybe it was just a slow release killer.

Now watch me wake up to a black mob of DAs in my kitchen!

Awwwwww, Jan! That sounds like the universe giving you a lil dose of karma!

(Can I giggle just a little? Please?)

FWIW, we run a fairly tidy house, but with two kids there's crumbs sometimes. So far this year (knock on wood) we haven't had any. But it's probably because DH has caulked every stinkin' hole those suckers can get in! We've had ants come in with weather changes...if it gets unusually rainy after a dry spell, or if it gets super dry they come in looking for water (or so I'm told), or the first cold day after a long lazy fall.

Ants happen. And I think they are right at the top of the list of not-favorite creatures that includes mosquitoes, flies, and spiders. :P

For the first time in 42 yrs of housekeeping, I had ants this year. Exterminator says it is the horrible heat and everyone in my area is fighting them. Mine aren't even in the kitchen, coming out of baseboard in the middle of the house!! Removed baseboard and hopefully he sprayed enough whatever to get rid of them forever.

We fight ants every year in our kitchen, despite having an exterminator come out every three months to treat the outside of the house. We've been lucky they haven't been as bad as what you have going on, but if they were I'd be tearing my hear out, too! I'd also call the exterminator to fry the inside of the house as well.

Shew, I'm pulling for you over there. What rotten luck!

You were right before, too! You're just changing your means and methods to deal with the invasion!
Of course, out there in the country the ants probably don't get much in the way of store-bought food LOL Your cottage is now a five-star dining establishment in the Ant Times
:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
Hope you got through the quake ok

We have those darn ants this year. My father in law is a exterminator and he says its a bad year for them. He sprayed twice and I still see them once in awhile. Maybe a good freeze will kill them ...lol

We had them this year too.. WOW there was alot of them!!! :shock: :shock: they came in a window sill ledge and i noticed them crawling on my potted plants... I sprayed the Raid ant killer and those dies immediately.. Sucked them DA right up with the vac 30 min later wanted to give them time to die! ... 3 hours later I see more DA carcass's and a few trying to save the others but struggling thru the poison.. took out the vac again and sucked them up too.. again a few hours later it looked like a war zone happened more dead DA.. What a pain and totally gross... I pull out the vac, this time Im leaving it out.. for five days I had to vac the dead DA.. Im happy ti say those persistent lil buggers are no longer persistent- either I killed them all or they just gave up trying to come in..Whew..


good luck in getting rid of them... find the source and block it off..

I have ant problems, My granny always swore that cornmeal and whole cloves would take care of them.

We use Home Defence Max around the outside of the house and inside. We start spraying in the spring right after the snow melts and reapply outside after every major rain.

I've had ant problems this year (in my living room, not my kitchen!) and so has my mom. What finally worked for both of us were the Terro pre-filled liquid ant bait traps. Good luck getting rid of them!

Somehow..knock on wood..this is the first year I have not had ants. Had a nasty and I mean NASTY infestation of Box Elm Bugs...got some spray from Lowes and thank goodness they are gone!! Maybe the beb ate the ants? I don't know but the bugs have been bad this year!!! Hope the earthquake managed to drive them deep underground!! Good luck!!

Ants were bad in our area this year.

I sprinkled a granular bug killer around the perimeter of the house and that helped.

I also used good old fashioned Raid at the window sill where they were coming in.

Haven't seen any in 2 months...knocking on wood here.

Not to long ago, we had ants in the kitchen area and horribly on the back porch. My mother in law said to put out Cream of Wheat. Supposedly when they eat it and take it back to the nest it swells up and the pesky ants literally explode. I know that all of the Cream of Wheat was gone within a short while and I have only seen a few ants outside the back porch area. I hope that you find a solution that will work for you soon.

We are having a tough time getting rid of them this year also. Got rid of them inside but they are in my flower beds. I was weeding and looked down, my feet were covered with them, they bit the heck out of them. Arches and ankles mostly..very painful today...really hope the sting goes away pretty soon!!

the movie Medicine Man where the cure of cancer was from the ant's in the rainforest that was being clear cut. Sean Connery movie.
Some where there is a reason for the DA's.. ha ha.. will never look at the ants the same any more !

DA ha ha..sorry about the mess. hope the shaking of the earth keeps them away from you from now on !
Ell

We too have been invaded this year.

Tried every thing, nothing worked.

Then one day, I had a beet stain on my counter and my regular cleaner wasn't removing it. So I used the Tilex I use on my bathroom and low & behold, NO ANTS!

It seems there is something in the tilex they don't like, haven't had the usual stream of ants walking along the counter, only a straggler here and there, but noticeable reduction.

A box of borax mixed with a couple of cups of sugar, spread around the base of the foundation, outside, has always worked for me. But this year, we've had so much rain I would have to do it every other day.

I hate ants! I use Terro. You can get it at Lowe's or any hardware store. I put a few drops out and let them have at it. There have been hundreds of ants eating it. I have to resist the urge to kill them. They carry it back to their nest and it kills them. After a couple of days they're gone. Works like a charm.

When ants try to invade I use antibacterial kitchen cleaner on everything I can, even in the bathroom. Found out it kills ants and removes their scent trails. I also pour boiling water down all the drains (ants can swim but boiling water will kill them) to keep them from coming up thru the drains.

We had them going after the kitty food. I put the kibble dishes into larger shallow bowls with a bit of water. kitties throw some kibble on the floor though (got to chase those "mousies" LOL).

They were coming through at the edge of the hardwood/baseboard/carpet at the edge of the nook. I sprayed there - carefully into the crack - and wiped up so kitties wouldn't get into it. And put an ant bait there while I was around to watch kitties. One outside the nearby door too.

Another thing I read was dried mint so I just picked some fresh mint and laid it on the floor all around the kitty bowls. It was dry within a couple days with the A/C cranking. I did pick it up before it got crumbly dry.

After killing many several times (2x spray, baits, wiping/smooshing up in a damp papertowel that had to go IMMEDIATELY outside!) it seems they got the message and moved on.

We DO wash before putting into the dishwasher because in the summer the heat makes it smell too bad when I don't run it every day. With just 2 of us I probably don't run it 3x a week.

Ants can cause you to want to move out of your home. How anything so small can be so irritating.I have heard cinnamon will stop them.

Sorry to hear about the ants. In FL we battle them often so I am carefuly to clean every spill immediately and vacuum couple times a week. However I must say I rinse my dishes first cause I don't use enough to wash that night and they stink the next day. In fact most times I've found it easier to just wash them. However I still use machine once a week to keep it fresh smelling.

We had them recently so I used one of the recipes from tipnut http://tipnut.com/ant-killer/ We have a cat so I didn't want her to drink or eat mixture. I mixed hot water with sugar in a glass cup until dissolved, added the borax and for good measure added a dollop of almond butter-peanut butter is good too-it is the smell that attracts them. Put in a clean plastic margarine tub- you need to hole puch a few holes in lid for them to climb in. In a few days, they had climbed in by the hundreds and then we just tossed the container. If you don't have pets, you can put a little borax in their pathway and they will track it back to the nest and poof! I also used dishwashing soap on my cleaning cloth around the area.

Try some benadryl cream or any antihistame cream or spray, cortisone itch. will help some, sorry for your pain. I haven't seen any ants, but used to have a lot of box elder bugs. have a lot of flies out here on the farm. hung fly bait out in garage.

I have those little tiny ones too. I think they came in out of the rain.No apologies needed here Jan.They drive me nuts. Now with the storm coming up the coast they are bringing their friends and neighbors. I have lived long enough in Florida to notice the bugs, birds and animals do weird things when the weather changes.And ya'll just had an earthquake. That would upset anything and anyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank all of you for your great tips!!
I've tried many of them with varying degrees of success over the years and only opted for the strong, poisonous stuff this year out of final frustration.

They already seem diminished since last Sunday's heavy rain. <punching fist in the air> Yeah!! Can hardly wait for the predicted hurricane this weekend to just drown those little suckers; doubt seriously it'll bother me much as I plan to pretty much sleep through it all! :mrgreen:

As of this year, this cottage has been here for 200 years, through the War in the 1860s, the rebuilding of my beautiful state in the rest of the 1800s, Hurricane Camille in 1969, through a tornado in 2002, and who knows what other mishaps along the way. The roof doesn't leak normally (though I will have to remember to hike to the attic and close the window at the top of the stairs), so I should be fine for a day of inland hurricane this weekend.

Let's hope the DAs won't!

Jan in VA

We've been fighting them and fruit flies this year. As with others, we've put out bait and they don't care. I still squish them on my counters almost every day. The fruit flies are abating thank goodness...considering I haven't had fruit in the house in like a month!!
Good luck with your ants...hope you manage to banish them to the outer realms somehow!

The best thing I have found to get rid of them is to take the little blue packages of equal sweetener which was first made as ant killer. Mix a little powdered sugar to attract them put it in little soda bottle caps around where crawl. They were gone out of my kitchen for good in a short time. I also wash everything down with orange oil. They hate that.

Equal was made as ant killer????

Jan - your writing is hilarious!

From clear across the country, I'm having the same problem!!! I have to empty the trash every night, wipe ALL the counters down, and basically be the clean freak I never was. When we got the kitchen tackled, they moved to the bathroom (2 males in the house = lots of overspray). So I have to wipe down the bathrooms a couple times a week. I sympathize and you're so brave for admitting you were wrong :)

www.doityourselfpescontrol.com carries termidor for ants. It is more costly than the home defense type sprays. However, it lasts for up to 6 months and gets rid of not only ants, but other things. I will never go back to the other methods.

The little buggers try to invade our house about once a year as they are thick outside. This year was more like 3 times. Terro liquid and the self control to leave it alone so they will eat and take home a doggy bag to the nest makes us ant free in about 4 days.

I'm in Miami, capitol of ants ants and more ants. Sprinkle corn meal out, they carry it back to the nest and die! they can't process it

Pat

I don't care what anybody says I'm still not washing dishes before putting them in the dishwasher--if I do that I may as well throw out my dishwasher and save the electricity! We have ants really bad here and funny thing is they are not in my kitchen--they invaded the living room! When I sprayed and left ant baits around in there, they just crawled up the side of the house into the second story bedroom :evil: I fight this battle each and every year. One year we had hoardes of carpenter ants--now that was a scary sight! What I do now is put baits in all windows and doors (they were marching right into my front door) and it took about a week but soon they were gone!

Here's a remedy using peppermint oil. I haven't used the oil but have had success with mint leaves.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4448573_get-...eppermint.html