the ants go marching

[nolly]

OK, everyone around here has ant problems. Really. It's not simply a matter of housekeeping. THey aren't even in the kitchen, and I took out the bathroom trash yesterday, or maybe the day before, but recently. It's not even half full, and it's a small can.

But the ants I get seem to have a favorite food: blood. Specifically, bloody bathroom trash of the sort generated on a roughly monthly basis. I really wanted a nice warm bath tonight. Instead, I found a swarm of now-mostly-dead (because I squirted them with lysol soap scum prevention spray, because it was handy, and because it worked) streaming from the control knob for the shower, which is where they seem to be coming in, down the side of the tub, around the ant bait, across the toilet, and all over the trash can. There's no way I can take a bath tonight. Not in that tub, with all the dead ants and some live ones, because they keep coming out of the bloody wall and the spray I've used on them. I can get rid of the dead ants, and I will, but the live ones just. keep. coming. I hate it. It happens every time the weather gets hot. Maybe I'll just shower at work tomorrow. I really wanted a bath.

Comments

[leandra333.livejournal.com]

Sanguinary ants are not an uncommon problemn if you catch my drift. We got rid of our infestations by using an evil ant killing industrial spray around the perimeter of our house twice per year. Nothing else worked. Would reporting to your landlord about the ant problem help?

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Somehow, I doubt it. There's this grey crumbly stuff out in the meter closet for us to use, and he'd probably just tell me to use that. I don't want it in my bath, and I'm pretty sure they're in the walls, so I don't think putting it outside would help. This happens a few times a year, and has for the three years I've lived here. The landlord is a jerk anyway.

But it does help to hear that it's not an uncommon problem.

One more reason to move soon. But probably not til 2004.

[firestrike.livejournal.com]

Ick. Major ick.

My utmost sympathy.

Suggestion?
For the shower control entry point (or anywhere else that gets soaked on a regular basis): caulking. Failing that, a hot glue gun can do a decent job. Anything that will physically block the entrance point.

For anywhere that does not get regularly inundated:
WD-40.
The best ant-killer I've yet found. It kills them when sprayed directly on them, it screws with their chemical trail markers, so they don't come back through that hole again, it lasts practically forever (currently four years and counting without a repeat attack) and as a bonus, it smells good. (Okay, that last is a personal thing.)

Hey, it's better than nuking the place with Raid every week. And the herbal/spice stuff is a pain to apply.

That's my two cents. (And probably overpriced at that.)

I agree with you on the ick factor though.

Blah!

-M

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I don't think I can caulk this without rendering the shower non-functional. It one of those knobs you turn to adjust the temp and push or pull to turn off or on, and I'm seeing the trail disappear into the knob itself, not the plate around it.

There's a poison free spray that's easy to use, but doesn't seem to work very well, alas. Maybe I'll pick up some WD-40...

[daltong.livejournal.com]

The little Combat ant traps work pretty well, too. I had an attack on my bedroom in the last place we lived and I finally had to give in and use poison. I think what happens is that the trail goes cold...?...and soon they stop using it. Nobody giving feedback trips on it.

I think it worked within a couple of days. So you could put the trap in the tub--maybe several--between tub uses.

Good luck.

[baxil.livejournal.com]

Mint oil extract seems successful, too. It's often marketed as kitchen counter-safe ant control, and that's what we used it for up in Seattle, and it worked as advertised. You can get it in spray bottles, too, so it might be able to reach the trouble spots in the knob.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

I've used both mint and cedar oil sprays in the past, to little avail. The baby powder suggestion from below seems to be helping a lot, though. Yay for reduced ants.

WD-40...

[voider.livejournal.com]

...also has the benefit of supporting the San Diego economy. :-)

That's neat to know about its ant killing properties, though. My apartment comes under almost constant attack every summer.

Entertainment at your expense

[daltong.livejournal.com]

I feel for your situation, I do. But from way out here...well, you gave me my first good laugh of the day. I mean, my goth!

A long-ago ex-boyfriend had a lovely sheltie dog. She was sweet, but she was fertile. When she had her cycle (I hadn't even known that dogs bleed), they'd put a kind of diaper-pad contraption on her, which might stay on as long as an hour before she managed to pull it off with her teeth and...um, indulge, as it were.

Then I learned through hard experience not to put my own used pads in the trash can on the floor that she could get to.

BLEH.

So there's sympathy out here, as well as amusement.

I'm sure you've thought of this, but maybe you could caulk up that hole near the faucet...

[pyrzqxgl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, after the birth of my first child I found out all about that -- not only do they love blood but also dirty diapers! At least it's not (IME) as bad as being overrun with mice.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

*shuddershudderSHUDDER* Yes, mice are far worse than ants. Major, major squick.

[linenoise.livejournal.com]

Another hint for the controlling of ants: they won't cross an area that's been dusted with baby powder. It doesn't seem to hurt or kill them, but if you dust the floor around the trash, it'll keep them away from it.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I'll have to try that one. I like the smell of baby powder.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

This seems to be helping a lot. Thanks!

[ashi.livejournal.com]

Yay! Good good.