Yup! As I've already said in the title, our home has been raided by these pesky black ants since the end of April. It's bad enough as is but with 3 young children the problem is no laughing matter. Have you ever seen these nasty insects? They're gross. Take your regular ant and magnify it to the size of the top digit of your baby finger (well, I do have small hands so maybe I'm exaggerating for some of you). Ewww! And when you squish them, they make a crunchy noise. Have I disgusted you enough?
So I'm hoping you can understand why I haven't been posting. I have not been cooking for fear that an ant might walk across my counter while I'm prepping the ingredients. A scary thought indeed. So yes, these ants have invaded my sanctuary, er, kitchen. They drove my baking/cooking mojo away.
How did we deal with this problem? Well, we noticed that these ants were always in the dining area. I called my cousin, who also has/had a problem with these invaders. Her method was to put a drop of Raid Kill the Colony ant poison near them and let them eat it. According to the label, the ant brings the poison back to the nest to share with his buddies and the queen and it kills them all. Sounds good, in theory. Because we had a mild infestation (though astronomical in my world), it did work to some degree. My brother also emailed me some research on the web.
It said to watch where these ants go and I noticed they came out of and back into the dining room heat vent. So on the second day I used waxed paper and made a cutout of the heat vent and placed it over the vent then dripped loads of the poison onto it. After 3 days we no longer saw any ants in the dining room (and the occasional ones in the kitchen). A day or two went by and not one ant was seen around the house. Then the next thing I knew there was an ant around the kitchen sink and another near the front of the house. I'm not happy and from the research I've read I'm thinking that the ants have moved to another area of the house!!! Another couple of days go by without another incident of ant-sighting and then boom! Another ant, but this one was jumbo. The biggest I've seen yet in the house. This was enough to send me running to the phone and call in the professionals. Enter Orkin PCO. They're so fast. I was able to get a booking the following business day. Hallelujah! They were professional and knew their stuff. The technician thinks that he found the mother nest (located just outside the basement window where the dining room vent would be). He sprayed his "magical" wand around the outdoor perimeter of the house and then he proceeded to spray the inside, especially around the sink, laundry and washroom areas. This stuff is poisonous and the fumes are so dangerous that most healthy adults cannot enter a well-ventilated house until after 6 hours and 24 hours for small pets, children under 1, expectant mothers, or people with respiratory problems. Because I have a baby about to turn 1, I decided to take her over to my brother's for the night. My brother was so considerate and concerned that he invited my other two children (4-1/2 years old and 2-1/2 years old) to stay the night just to be on the safe side (thank you, B & V). We returned to the house the next day at exactly 24 hours and the house no longer had any smell from the pesticides. It's been 3 days and no sightings of carpenter ants. Thank goodness. Orkin PCO has a one year guarantee. They even suggest that we get the exterior of the house sprayed at the end of the summer and near the end of the one year. You can bet I'll be using that guarantee.Now that we've resolved the problem (fingers crossed), I am getting back into the kitchen and will be making yumminess once again.
One last note: If I never see a carpenter ant, it won't be long enough.
