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

[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.