"But that's not the most disturbing part...ANTS!"
After a hard day of doing astrophysics I return home to find a small invasion in
progress in my house. Every summer there is an ant problem in this house. Usually this
consists of a small trail of ants being found in some sweet food that has been left
open or in a dirty dish. This year, however, the ants seem to have decided it's time
to stop fooling around. A few days ago we found ants crawling all over a set of shelves
where we keep some of our food. So, we tried to remove anything that would especially
attract ants, put don some ant "bait stations" (sometimes referred to as "ant traps"), and
I went outside the house to spray what appeared to be the point of entry on
the exterior wall. Well, by yesterday this was clearly not enough. The ants were
back and in greater numbers. This time we moved all the food from that area
permanently, I sprayed the areas there where there seemed to be the most ants, set up more
"bait stations", and again I went to spray outside. This time I found that
not only was there a trail of ants leading to the offending side of the house, but there
was one leading all the way along the back of the house, in-front of the two back doors,
and then up to the top of the one main back door, where the ants seemed to disappear
beneath the insulation around the door and not emerge in any obvious place. In addition,
there was another trail of ants leading straight up the back wall of the house and into a
small hole in the masonry on the second level. This was when I first noticed that some
of the ants had wings. "Curiouser and curiouser..." I don't know a
whole lot about ants, but I believe that large numbers of ants with wings are normally
only found during seasonal periods of reproduction.
"That can't be good for business. That can't be good for anybody."
Having done all that, I was surprised to return home today to find their forces
redoubled. I found even more trails of ants leading into various openings,
cracks, and fissures in the exterior of the house. I found ants crawling
in long lines along the baseboards of the laundry room and out of a small
crack in the wall next to the cabinetry in the kitchen onto the counter. I found
them forming long supply lines along the cable strung along the outside of the house.
Far more disturbing was the fact that under the window sills on the outside
of the house were large clumps of ants, still alive but just sitting there, with others
bustling all around. There were winged ones peppered throughout the whole force, but by
far the most were found in these clumps. I can't discern their purpose, but I don't have
a good feeling. I did basically the same think as before. I sprayed all the lines of ants I could find on
and leading up to the house outside, paying special attention to the entry points. I
sprayed and sprayed until I ran out of poison. I set up more "bait stations" all around
the kitchen and the laundry room, and I spread cinnamon on the counter around the spots
where they seemed to be getting in, as this is harmless to us but seems to cause them great
distress, and I've been told that it covers up their chemical trails so
that they can't follow them. I don't know if it's true or a myth. I don't really know
what else to do. I don't really want to call an exterminator, because I don't like the
idea of them spreading incredibly potent poisons around my house (much, much worse than
anything I'm using), and besides, I don't really want to kill the ant colonies,
I just want them to stay the hell out of my house.
So, wish me luck, and if you think you have any good suggestions, /msg me.