I Fear We're Losing The War

[said_scarlett]

Alright. That's it.

I have come to the conclusion that there is something supernatural about the ants that plague us.

Why?

Well, two trips by the exterminator in as many weeks, plus our constant spraying of heavy duty poison has done nothing to deter them. On top of that, they have a habit of going for nothing but what we want to use, when we want to use it.

I kid you not.

I had a pie crust (packaged and unopened) that had been sitting on the counter for days, and was returned to the cabinet yesterday. I actually took it out less than an hour ago, because I needed to move it to get to my soup. And as I picked it up, I looked down at it thinking 'I have pie crust and chocolate pudding mix, I can pick up milano cookies, oreos and gummy worms, and make a cemetery pie for Halloween!'. I put it back, made my soup, had my soup. This took all of maybe fifteen or twenty minutes.

Maybe ten minutes later, nijawial commented she was craving something chocolaty. Since I'm going to the grocery store Wednesday, I suggested I make a chocolate cream pie. she grabs the pie crust for me and...

It's suddenly teeming with ants. Covered in the suckers. They'd somehow gotten into the packaging. They were on nothing else. Nothing at all. Just the pie crust.

Cue a Chewbacca-style wail of frustration.

We're at a loss. The exterminator has used the strongest poisons available. And to no avail.

I do not want to go through taking everything out of the cabinet and leaving it out and then putting it all back again. Not after I spent all afternoon yesterday reorganizing the kitchen.

Comments

[tsunderes.livejournal.com]

As an odd thing that seems to work on occasion! Put bay leaves in your cabinets. It depends on the type of ants, but it's something I heard from a friend and tried at my house, and we haven't had ants since. It's easy and fairly inexpensive, which is a bonus.

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

I actually had a thing of bay leaves, so I sprinkled them in the cabinets. I've used mint leaves, too. Here's hoping!

[t3h-toby-chan.livejournal.com]

Cinnamon tends to work too, as well as keeping things clean with vinegar.

[47thlight.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh, we were having that issue during the summer, too! They were everywhere - my room, my mom's room, living room, kitchen, bathroom. It was ridiculous. I swear one time there must've been a little colony on my bed, because I got bit numerous times. We resorted to washing every linen in the house (sheets, clothes, towels - all of it), spraying every door and dustboard, and then examining every food item we had. Fortunately we're ant free right now, but God knows when the little buggers will be back o.O

You have my sympathy, prayers and super powerful internet bug spray, Fey. I wish you luck. ^_^;;

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

We've had freezes, too. They should all be dead. THEY SHOULD BE DEAD! We've done everything. We don't know what the hell is up with this.

THANK YOU!

[attilatehbun.livejournal.com]

Clearly you need to pretend like you want to eat the poison. Fake the fuckers out, make em think it's super delicious.

Then cackle madly as they all keel over. :P

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE TO EAT IT! THEY TOUCH IT AND DIE! ONLY THEY DON'T DIE!

[ex-talia-sp.livejournal.com]

Undead ants are undead. Lame.

By the way! We just got a house!

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

Only we would get fucking zombie ants.

DUDE! CONGRATULATIONS!

[ex-talia-sp.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Well technically we are getting the same house we live in now (we currently live on the smaller one bedroom side of a double), but our landlord who is newly single wants less space, so we're switching sides. I finally have my own office/sewing room. With hardwood floors! YAY!

[ladydreamer.livejournal.com]

Ants are super hard to get rid of. The utterly refuse to become corpses. It's crazy shit.

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

It seriously is. We're tearing our hair out over this. :/

[13thleprechaun.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's utterly disgusting @___@ My sincerest wishes that they die. And STAY DEAD, not come back, as if they have some ant wizard who knows resurrection spells. D:

This is why I hate ants.

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

We're doing everything we can. I swear, it has to be something like that!

[corellianrogue]

*pictures millions of tiny ants being all 'REZ PLZ!'*

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

That's probably what happens every night in our cabinet, after we've gone to bed.

[corellianrogue]

...The ants are a curse left by the DDHs?

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

I'll be honest, the thought has entered my mind. :/

[corellianrogue]

That... is a very scary thought.

[summoneddestiny.livejournal.com]

Holy shit, they're still coming back? What are they, the Energizer Pestilence?

I would offer you some Amdro to take care of them, but it's probably not a good idea with ratties who eat ants in the house. I wonder if we could get Dresden to come from Chicago to do an entropy curse on the queen... or maybe he'd just fuego the whole fucking lot of them?

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

YES THEY ARE!

I'm pretty sure only Dresden can help us now. We could pay him in food!

[summoneddestiny.livejournal.com]

Crap! That means I actually have to have food in the house!

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

I used to put ground cloves on the window sills and by the doors, but they're pretty expensive and can discolor surfaces. Plus it only helps when the ants are coming from outside. (They wouldn't cross a line of cloves though, at least the ones we had.)

Good luck. Ants are awful.

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

I'm trying bay leaves now, cloves will be the next step! I'm pretty sure I have a bottle of ground cloves. I'll try anything at this point.

[firebird-88.livejournal.com]

That is creepy beyond belief. O_o I don't think I've ever heard of a terminator FAILING before. I know if you scratch orange peels with a quarter to release the insect poison that they have in those little pits on the surface, that repels most insects. You could try that? ><;

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

It's a ridiculous pain in the ass, seriously. That will go on the list of things to try, thank you!

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

Hmm, another thing we'll have to try! As long as the bastards stay away from the food....

[dame_grise]

If you don't have small pets in the house try borax sprinkled in corners and such. I've also used cucumber peels, but I don't know how effective they were. The last thing I did in desperation at one place was make a cleaning solution with real lavender oil in it and liberally coated the cabinets with it. Bugs are wiggy about strong persistent not-food smells because it messes up their 'food finding' senses.

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd love to nuke'em with the borax, but we have small fuzzy critters. :( I'll have to give the lavender scent a try, or some other strong herbal thing to see if that works. Plus yay, nice smelling kitchen!

[dame_grise]

There is that at least. I think that one apartment had ants and roaches both. It freaked me out.

[emeraldjay.livejournal.com]

I was going to suggest boric acid powder but I see that someone else suggested borax. The only other thing that worked in my experience (we're talking roaches not ants) is washing down everything that could tolerate it with Murphy's Oil Soap. Have you tried diatomaceous earth? It's usually used to dust the plant's. There's also hot pepper oil or tobasco sauce, but I guess those would get too messy.

[platoapproved.livejournal.com]

I HATE ANTS. I hate them so much.

:|

At least we don't have demon ants at my house. Rough luck.

[t3h-toby-chan.livejournal.com]

Blargh, I hate those. We used to get ants all the time in winter, but never summer. They'd just come inside when it got cold, I guess.