Ants
We have ants. By "we" I mean residents of Portland.
Well, at least I know I'm not alone in this world, this world full of tiny, six-legged creatures who seem to like sugar even more than I do. If you have ever had ants, you know that the first two things you want to know once you discover them are 1) Where did they come from? and 2) How can I get rid of them?
Question 1: Where did they come from?
When we first noticed the ants, we saw only the soldiers out on reconnaissance missions. An ant here. An ant there. Mostly in the kitchen, some lost souls way over in the bathroom. We knew at that point that we had to figure out a way to put a stop to the ants without poisoning the cats... But where were they coming from? The problem with ants is that until you have a large group on a full-fledged sugar quest all you can see are a few bugs wandering around. A paradox: Do you keep things clean so as not to induce a total invasion or do you set out a bowl full of sugar in order to find out where things stand. Like any fallible humans, we didn't really have to decide; our habits decided for us. A few mornings ago, I woke up to find ANTS. I traced them from the goal, our recycling, to the source, our front door. What!? The ants are waltzing in right through the front door!?!? How audacious! I wiped up the ants with a sponge, took out the recycling, and moved on to the second question.
Question 2: How can I get rid of them?
Okay, when you have a problem that needs solving a decent approach is to break it down into parts and see if perhaps you can deal with just one part and solve the whole thing. So, I thought. Ants like to eat. We like to eat. Ants like to eat what we like to eat. So, we can't just get rid of the food altogether. The ants come in through the front door. We come in through the front door. Dang it! We sure do have a lot in common with the ants.
When I was a kid, I read a gardening book that told me to use soap to get rid of bugs in my garden, so I decided to spray cleaning solution across the threshold of the door whenever I thought of it. The next day, I found that I had incorrectly answered question one; the ants were actually coming in UNDER the front door. Ugh. Today Celeste and I were just moments away from pouring glue into the entry-hole when we thought better of it... Won't they just come in via some other crevice if we do this?
So that's where it stands now. We decided not to use the glue because we knew the ants would get around it somehow. We are being outsmarted by a bunch of bugs whose entire bodies are only a teensy fraction of the size of our brains.
Am I crazy to be thinking about luring them away from the house by putting caches of sugar on the outskirts of the property?
Well, at least I know I'm not alone in this world, this world full of tiny, six-legged creatures who seem to like sugar even more than I do. If you have ever had ants, you know that the first two things you want to know once you discover them are 1) Where did they come from? and 2) How can I get rid of them?
Question 1: Where did they come from?
When we first noticed the ants, we saw only the soldiers out on reconnaissance missions. An ant here. An ant there. Mostly in the kitchen, some lost souls way over in the bathroom. We knew at that point that we had to figure out a way to put a stop to the ants without poisoning the cats... But where were they coming from? The problem with ants is that until you have a large group on a full-fledged sugar quest all you can see are a few bugs wandering around. A paradox: Do you keep things clean so as not to induce a total invasion or do you set out a bowl full of sugar in order to find out where things stand. Like any fallible humans, we didn't really have to decide; our habits decided for us. A few mornings ago, I woke up to find ANTS. I traced them from the goal, our recycling, to the source, our front door. What!? The ants are waltzing in right through the front door!?!? How audacious! I wiped up the ants with a sponge, took out the recycling, and moved on to the second question.
Question 2: How can I get rid of them?
Okay, when you have a problem that needs solving a decent approach is to break it down into parts and see if perhaps you can deal with just one part and solve the whole thing. So, I thought. Ants like to eat. We like to eat. Ants like to eat what we like to eat. So, we can't just get rid of the food altogether. The ants come in through the front door. We come in through the front door. Dang it! We sure do have a lot in common with the ants.
When I was a kid, I read a gardening book that told me to use soap to get rid of bugs in my garden, so I decided to spray cleaning solution across the threshold of the door whenever I thought of it. The next day, I found that I had incorrectly answered question one; the ants were actually coming in UNDER the front door. Ugh. Today Celeste and I were just moments away from pouring glue into the entry-hole when we thought better of it... Won't they just come in via some other crevice if we do this?
So that's where it stands now. We decided not to use the glue because we knew the ants would get around it somehow. We are being outsmarted by a bunch of bugs whose entire bodies are only a teensy fraction of the size of our brains.
Am I crazy to be thinking about luring them away from the house by putting caches of sugar on the outskirts of the property?
posted by Ashleigh @ 11:35 PM
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