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justthemaid
climber
Los Angeles
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jul 20, 2007 - 11:54am PT
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I walk into the laundry room. The BF is staring at our washing machine. "What the hell is he doing?" I think to myself. I look- there's and ENORMOUS line of black ants making their way in and out of the BLEACH DEPOSITORY on the washer.
The BF says: "WTF??" "Why are they going in there??"
Me: "There's only one explanation"
BF asks: "...and that is????"
Me: "Mad general"
The ants have laid siege to every inch of our home (inside and out) lately. The heat and extra dry weather has driven them insane. You can't stand in place for more than 5 minutes without the damn scouts climbing all over you.
They're everywhere. Worst I've ever seen.
The entire pantry had to be moved into the refrigerator. They were chewing through the cardboard to get at ...well.. anything.
They even go after water. Can't leave droplets in the sinks, and it's best to let the shower run for a minute before stepping in. The first blast usually has a handful of ants in it. Why the hell do they lurk in the shower head anyhow?
They're in our bed. They're on the ceilings. They're crawling on the computer as I type. ALL trash goes directly to the outside trash barrel. Leaving a single dirty dish in the sink for more than 5 minutes is now forbidden.
Moating the catfood does no good. They simply build a bridge out the bodies of their dead floating companions.
I found a trail of them going into the FREEZER the other day after some ice cream. They were sluggish but persistent.
The yard is a dangerous minefield of ant trails. Best to tape up those pant legs before venturing out there and for crist's sake DO NOT lean up against ANYTHING.
Lately I've been ruthlessly raining down death and poison upon them, but I think this only caused them to move to a nice safe location under the foundation of the house. Been trying those baits that poison the queen but they seem too smart for those. Still waiting for her to die. Where do I here the ant assassin? Today I'll try drizzling some honey on them to make them a little more tempting.
I think they're laughing at me.
All is growing dim.
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justthemaid
climber
Los Angeles
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 20, 2007 - 12:23pm PT
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Latest intelligence reports a secret ant sky-base in the attic.
The (2nd) Malathion Defensive to be executed at 0600, although the 1st defensive only drove the rebels underground.
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pda2540
climber
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Jul 20, 2007 - 12:32pm PT
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argentine ants are not a single queen species so your genocide plan is not correct
they are looking for water - thats why they are in showerhead
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wootles
climber
Gamma Quadrant
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Jul 20, 2007 - 12:37pm PT
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I feel your pain. We've had attacks from 3 different species this year. The bait things just don't work or they just don't work fast enough. I've managed to kill off 2 of the 3 but the last one just keeps going. I can't tell what they are eating because I can't find any trails. My house is pretty friggin' small so it's not like there's someplace I'm not looking. I may have managed to kill the queen though; biggest damn ant I've ever seen. She must have been at least an inch and a half long.
If you're already having to go to such extreme measures of eliminating (covering and sealing) food sources you may as well bomb the whole house. Fogger bombs work well or you may have to call the professionals. I prefer doing the killing myself, it gives me great satisfaction.
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nita
climber
chico ca
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Jul 20, 2007 - 12:48pm PT
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Yeps, i can relate to your story, especially the freezer part...yuck!
The only thing, I have used that works, Grant kill Ants-. The process is a bit slower... they take the poison back home to the colony...xxxxxxxxxx
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justthemaid
climber
Los Angeles
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 20, 2007 - 12:57pm PT
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"your genocide plan is not correct"
Oh yes it is.
They ALL must die.
I suspect the fogger won't work. The main nests seem to be under the cement foundation of the house where I can't get at them.
We put out the Grants bait yesterday.
Perhaps I should just nuke the entire property and collect the insurance $.
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pda2540
climber
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Jul 20, 2007 - 01:06pm PT
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no doubt you have hundreds of queens by now and a number of satellite nests established.
you need to use thiamethoxam and get it into the right bait matrix.
mitigate problem/wait for weather to turn and look to sell ASAP. they will never be fully eradicated.
good luck.
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Crimpergirl
Social climber
St. Looney
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Jul 20, 2007 - 01:10pm PT
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I estimate from what you have said that you have only three more days before the thousands of larvae embedded in you skin erupt and consume you.
Start saying your goodbyes now.
;)
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toyon
climber
fort collins, co
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Jul 20, 2007 - 01:17pm PT
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justthemaid,
Ant infestations are a way of life in the Sacramento Valley. PDA2540 is correct - they're after water, and sugar to a lesser extent. I battled them yearly for 7 solar revolutions, and found only one surefire way to rid yourself of these vermin:
Boric acid (aka borax) + water
Place a small dish of solution in several strategic locations. Once they track it, their March of Death will begin - straight back to the queen(s), who will slowly be poisoned with the rest of her vile workers.
The Upside: I guarantee it will destroy the colony(s).
The Downside: I guarantee it will take at least 7-10 days, during which time you must not disturb the trail(s).
good luck!
-st
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G_Gnome
Trad climber
Knob Central
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Jul 20, 2007 - 01:31pm PT
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Hahahahaha, I walked into my office this morning to find that the little vermin had taken over sometime during the night. A little Raid on the hole they were using for an entrance and a little mopping up and then I will need to squash the stragglers throughout the day and revenge will be mine. They sure are resourcefull little b@stards! And persistent too.
One thing you can try is to actually make a water offering OUTSIDE for them to pilgrimage to. They are little Muslim b@stards and can't help themselves, July is holy month.
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Hootervillian
climber
the Hooterville World-Guardian
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Jul 20, 2007 - 01:32pm PT
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f*#kin chicks man.
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AbeFrohman
Trad climber
new york, NY
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Jul 20, 2007 - 01:42pm PT
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buy an anteater?
or a couple of geckos?
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Moof
Trad climber
A cube at my soul sucking job in Oregon
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Jul 20, 2007 - 01:43pm PT
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My buddy did his in by bating them with a mixture of borax and sugar water in bowls strategically placed in their path. The key to longer term relief appears to make sure that whatever poison you use is one that lets them live long enough to take it back to the nest to kill the next generation before they find their way in. I'm sure it and many other remedies can be found.
Personally as long as they aren't bothering me I leave the little critters alone, and even take spiders outside rather than kill them. But once they cross the line like that, it's no holds barred, get the hair spray and a lighter time.
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justthemaid
climber
Los Angeles
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 20, 2007 - 05:12pm PT
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We've seriously talked about an anteater.
If I could find one- I'd bring it home.
Hey Locker- those damn NJC ants got me too. More incentive to lead next time I guess.
Got up my pants they did. Yup- I'm all bit up. Bastards got me in some sensitive areas too. It's been 5 days and the bites still itch like crazy. I'm all pink with Calamine.
They're out to get me. Probably heard about their fallen brethren back at the war front.
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couchmaster
climber
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Jul 20, 2007 - 06:48pm PT
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Do these ants climb?
i DON'T GET IT. OPPS HIT THE CAPS LOCK BY ACCIDENT.
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MisterE
Social climber
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May 22, 2013 - 02:03am PT
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Bump cuz I love the way she thinks.
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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May 22, 2013 - 02:29am PT
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The presence of ants in a structure can be an indication sometimes of a termite infestation, fyi.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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May 22, 2013 - 05:44am PT
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[Click to View YouTube Video]The "real movie" was made in "The colonies" with Just the Hand Maiden with, um, with Moses "No Red Ants" Heston.
"Everybody! Back from the Ditch! I'll run and set fire to the Hive Dome cables! Warren, you and Bill, get the Dolt Cart in position!"--BF's best line
Don't take ants for mere expedition climber hordes: any ant can climb rings around us and the Sherpants, too.
They thought they'd grab a free shower. It's dirty work being formidable.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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May 22, 2013 - 06:02am PT
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That's right! She was NOT Just the Hand Maiden, my bad.
Try some Grant's Crack sometime.
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steveA
Trad climber
bedford,massachusetts
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May 22, 2013 - 09:00am PT
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Four years ago, I was just completing my 30 year project of building my timber frame retirement home. It took me that long since I had made all the beams, window frames, and floor boards by hand.
It was a VERY wet Spring and the carpenter ants were looking for someplace dry to set up a new home. I started to see ants in the house everywhere, and in short order, they were everywhere. I learned that they leave different scent trails; which tell the colony where to go.
I had just spray foamed in the walls, and the climber/sheetrocker, who had keen hearing told me that he could hear a kind of crunching sound coming from the walls. To my horror, we could see antennae poking out the foam, and when I dug it away, there were hundreds of ants, making a home in my insulation. This was only 2 days after I had foamed in the walls!
This little story DOES have a good ending.
I had gone to great pains to make this house ant proof by spending big bucks in covering the entire foundation with a 10" wide piece of copper, bent over at a steep angle, and hanging down at least 2 inches over the outside of the concrete. However,; where the house joined the garage, there was no copper, and I had also ignored a small piece of wood that I had left exposed, which went down to the ground. There were little things I had not finished yet.
I soon realized this is where the ants were entering.
I also learned on the internet, that carpenter ants do most of their foraging at night---NOT during the day.
I tried an experiment. I bought a big bag of ant killer stuff and spread it over my interior sun-room floor, which was bare plywood.
Next morning there were hundreds of dead ants.
I repeated this process for a few days, and each day there were fewer dead ants.
Within a week, I had killed every damn ant in the house. I had also corrected that one entry point, where they were coming in, and I had saturated that exterior scent trail with ant killer as well.
Here is a picture of the house. Hope this helps!
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mountainlion
Trad climber
California
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May 22, 2013 - 09:13am PT
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Be glad they are not biting you!! the fire ants in the Philippines begin biting as soon as they are on you and it BURNS LIKE HELL!! the next day you will have little "zit" where they bit you.
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Topic Author's Reply - May 22, 2013 - 09:37am PT
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Pretty funny Steve.. they are insidious and will find any weakness in the perimeter.
So..er Steve.. Nice house.. Might want to take a level to that garage though.. it appears to be leaning to the right in that photo. Is that so you can park the sports-car on the right and the SUV on the left? ;)
Ancient thread bump BTW. We're gearing up for ant season again. Mid summer is usually when the real battle resumes. Mr E is pretty passionate about ant abatement. Hunts the scouts down one at a time to give them the squishing-finger-o'doom and obliterates any trail he finds. We've since repaired a pipe under the house that evidently had been leaking for years creating a nice moist ant summer-haven in addition to the sink hole that nearly swallowed my laundry room (you see.. I do know a little about off-level houses).
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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May 22, 2013 - 10:53am PT
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JTM, just wait til the newly discovered Phillipine Pirate Ants get here!
YAAR!!!!!!
Scientists have discovered a strangely patterned new insect in the Philippines, dubbing it the pirate ant because of a dark stripe over its eyes that makes it look like it's wearing an eye patch.
The formal name of the newfound creature is Cardiocondyla pirata, and belongs to a group of species that are found from Thailand across the whole Indonesian-Malaysian region.
"On a collection trip to the Philippines we looked for different species of the genus Cardiocondyla that is known for its astonishing morphological and behavioral diversity of male ants," Sabine Frohschammer, a doctoral student at Germany's Universität Regensburg, said in a statement.
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brotherbbock
Trad climber
Alta Loma, CA
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May 22, 2013 - 11:38am PT
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Pics please.
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Don Paul
Big Wall climber
Colombia, South America
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May 22, 2013 - 11:48am PT
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My office is in the jungle, in Apartado, Colombia. The ants rule and that's just how it is. When you're eating, a row of them will climb up the leg of the table and onto your plate. You only have about 15 minutes before they smell your food and then you have to watch what you're eating. What I do to combat them is to put some kind of ant poison on their trails, this makes them turn around and go somewhere else. To protect food on a table, you put a bowl of water under each table leg. The ants cant cross the water.
We also have huge cockroaches and a lot of mosquitos. They carry various diseases like dengue and malaria. I think its instinctive to be grossed out by them, but they're not going to go away. Maybe where you live they might but insects really thrive in heat and humidity.
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benzo
Big Wall climber
tacoma wa.
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May 22, 2013 - 11:59am PT
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ants do not like citric acid... (who does really). toss your orange peels about around their entrance holes when you find them.
purely a deturant, not a solution. $.02
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steveA
Trad climber
bedford,massachusetts
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May 22, 2013 - 12:48pm PT
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Justhemaid,
The garage is very level, on a poured concrete foundation. It must be the photo. Hope you beat the ant problem.
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G_Gnome
Trad climber
Pebble Wrestling.... Badly lately.
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May 22, 2013 - 03:04pm PT
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Skip, prior to 1994 we had a terrible ant problem with 12" wide lines of ants in the house all the time. After the Northridge earthquake we don't have any ants anymore and we haven't for almost 20 years. We don't know if the vertical movement of the earthquake crushed all of the hives but it has been great not dealing with those little black buggers for the last 20 years.
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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May 22, 2013 - 03:09pm PT
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Simple Green for a quick and simple short term solution for wee simple folks before the long term solutions.............................
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Anastasia
climber
Home
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May 22, 2013 - 03:23pm PT
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What is up with bugs these days?
Luckily we are doing good here "for now." But at the old apartment. We had some new renters and wham... Bugs... At least three types of cockroaches had moved in with them overnight. The company had an exterminator there spraying the place down almost every other week. It did look like they were winning, slowly. When we moved... We unpacked outside just to make sure we weren't bringing anything here.
Scary stuff... The fact that they were taking care of it and... We still had problems. Craziest stuff I have ever experienced.
I think they are adapting to the poisons, seams we are poisoning ourselves more than them.
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Elcapinyoazz
Social climber
Joshua Tree
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May 22, 2013 - 03:33pm PT
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I use a lactic acid based general purpose cleaner on them and it works a treat. Kills virtually on contact and ends the trail. Combined with regular poison baiting outside, I rarely have any issues here.
ants do not like citric acid... (who does really). toss your orange peels about around their entrance holes when you find them.
purely a deturant
Don't know about that one. I remember leaving a bowl full of grapefruit carcass on the vanity one day in my JT house, and a few hours later it was covered in ants.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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As a youngster I'd take a rubber mallet and work my way down the bottom 2 x 4 of the back fence and smash the little formic felons IN THEIR HUNDREDS. Well, trespassers.
Later days, they got gasoline poured into the holes and lit off. Ain't sayin' where, but it doesn't satisfy like a rubber mallet.
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Maidy
I've never had problems with ants in Denver once I started dusting
my doorways with talcum powder. They don't seem to like to cross it,
and my cats avoid it. . .might be worth a try for you guys.
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phylp
Trad climber
Millbrae, CA
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There is something up with the ants this year. Over Memorial Day week, I saw a few solid lines of them in the middle of a couple of routes in the Owen's River gorge!
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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I've heard people in Colorado dust the edges of their decks with talcum powder to keep the racoons off as well.
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 3, 2013 - 08:52pm PT
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We actually use diatomaceous earth to keep them at bay.. works pretty well.. similar to the talc. I think it clogs up their little respiratory systems. Ants no like and doesn't kill your pets.
I actually broke down and called an exterminator for the first time in my life last week.. not because of the ants.. because of the f*#king giant cockroaches that had completely taken over the back yard. We had a sewage line break under the laundry room 2 years ago and now we've got roaches. Citric acid's no good on them.. they are feasting on my grapefruits every night.
I can tolerate the ants.. there's actually a method to their madness.. Huge damn roaches invading from the yard.. I proclaim the chemical warfare is on. Let the napalming begin. I've run out of patience with eco-freindly alternatives.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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I'd say I'd volunteer to smoke them roaches, but that would be false advertising, because I'm not really an Exterminator but I am a qualified, certified and certifiable volunteer instigator.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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We've had big invasions by the Argentine illegal immigrants at the shop in the past.
The Combat brand gel slow acting bait seems to be the most effective solution. Don't put any other poison or spray out and let them take it all back home.
Since the Argentinians are effectively one gigantic hive from Baja to Monterrey, you will never get completely rid of them, only control them.
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Dr. Christ
Mountain climber
State of Mine
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fuk the poison... use diatomaceous earth... tis mechanical, not chemical. Might fuk up your lungs if you breath it... just don't breath it.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Problem with it is it only kills the ants that get into it. (works great for roaches thought!)
Something slow acting that they take back to queen mama is what you need.
Our preferred method when I was a kid was to drill a hole by pounding on a sharpend pipe down a couple of feet in the center of the hive.
remove the pipe.
Drop a Cherry bomb down the hole
Throw a cinder block on top of the hole to cap and direct the detonation.
No more ant hill, but dad will be pissed that someone keeps shattering the blocks he had stored for a project.
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murcy
Gym climber
sanfrancisco
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This thread made me reflect that when we moved to this SF house 14 years ago we had yearly ants in the kitchen. But we haven't had a single one for probably 6 or 7 years now. Same is true of mosquitos. Climate? Chemical pest control?
We do still have many adorable pill bugs and spiders. And fruit flies when we leave food out for them in the kitchen. And by "we" of course I do not include myself.
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Wade Icey
Trad climber
www.alohashirtrescue.com
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Peter Haan
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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Murcy, ants are a really good sign of the presence of termites in a structure. Ants are effing eating the suckers and have it made in the shade when they find especially a subterranean colony but also go after the dry-wood ones up in the structure, usually the roof. So it does not mean there ARE termites but is a good indicator.
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 4, 2013 - 12:13am PT
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I've been checked for termites.. it's a negative. Every inch of the whole damn San Fernando Vally simply has ants.
I'm over the ants anyhow..
My new hell is roaches. The exterminator was a fail.. the back yard is still a creepy landmine.
I'm officially re-naming this thread "I'm in Periplaneta hell"
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Pennsylenvy
Gym climber
A dingy corner in your refrigerator
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Big June bugs in all the sinks every morning...moths in the shower....lots of hornets early on this year in a curious way.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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In Okinawa they say you either have roaches or ants, but not both at the same time.
The question is which is more obnoxious? Since our roaches are 3" long and easy to catch, we mostly go after the ants with poison they take back to the nest. They live in the cinderblock walls here since every house is a combination of concrete and cinderblock because of the typhoons, and over time will eat the rubber insulation off of the wiring. Even concrete buildings here are torn down and replaced about every 50 years.
Tropical islands make great travel posters but are much less fun to live in.
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