Seriously.. ugghh.

I woke up this morning, went downstairs to make myself a cup of tea and iron my top.. as I walked into the kitchen a movement caught my eye - or rather, a load of very small movements.

ANTS - all marching in a little line, underneath the door, across the kitchen floor - up the side of the washing machine.. over the skirting boards and into the cupboard..

ugghh..

hundreds of teeny tiny little ants.. just going about their business.. in my home.

Now I feel bad because I needed to get rid of them - I've used wasp killer (seems to work on ants), i've hoovered (will they walk back out again?)..
and I've done the usual thing.. step on them.

I feel so damn bad now. I wish I could just ask them to leave or find some other way of getting rid of them that doesn't involve hurting them.

I'm also firmly on alert and I swear my skin is crawling with the feeling of little bitey footsteps..

Ants. Well your guilt is commendable. I have no qualms over insects. I did have to dispatch some infant rodents not long back. Did not enjoy it.

I just wish I could get rid of them humanely really.. you think they'd run after a pot of jam (jelly for the US crowd) if i threw it outside?
Meh.. I'm actually thinking of getting the door replaced so i don't have to go through this every year (well, I want the door done anyway but this is helping to push the decision).

I definitely couldn't get rid of infant rodents like this, i'd probably have to pick them up and carry them to a fairly safe (and distant) place :/

But they were newborns and I disturbed the nest, was in a tool chest. I drowned them in a drainage ditch. They couldn't stay and they would have been abandoned most likely anyway. They're vermin but I didn't enjoy it. Probably because they were defenseless babies. Doesn't seem sporting. But ants. Plenty more where they came from Seabreeze. If they're in my house or in a mind on my property I'll kill them without guilt. Sorry but I'm prejudiced against non-mammals.

Jelly = flavored fruit pectin. Is that of which we speak, or something more substantial....?

Did that ant infestation ever clear up? Have you got it under control, or did it just go away on its own? I've had a few (a few ant infestations, I mean, not a few individual ants), but they seem to disappear just as suddenly as they appear. I'm not sure why. Everyone else seems to think they come indoors when there's a lot of rain and then leave when the weather is dry again. Maybe that's true. The last one was here all through the rainy season, but since there hasn't been as much rain, I've seen hardly any ants indoors.

On a forum where I would sometimes lurk years ago, someone claimed to have successfully—and non-lethally—removed an infestation at home by filling a container with sugar and placing it outdoors lying on its side to draw the ants out of the house. I think it was first placed fairly close to the house and then was moved a little farther away each day until a safe distance was reached. If I can find that thread again, I'll send you the link. (Spam seems to spread when links to forums and discussion sites are posted on other forums or discussion sites, so I'll just PM it to you.)

I've also heard from others that feeding your soil regularly will to prevent ants from coming indoors to forage, which makes since if what they're seeking is food. If they're looking for something else (e.g., shelter from the weather), well, that's different.

Thanks snaga..
the jam/jelly is the stuff that you commonly put on toast or crumpets..


I've always had strong feelings of caring towards animals - they used to fascinate me as a child - from the big cats and elephants on nature programmes, right down to the little inch worms that I loved to watch wandering along.. they made a lot more sense to me than people did - and i still love all creatures as an adult (except for spiders and wasps.. but i try not to kill them)
I accidentally step on snails sometimes in the dark evenings and say sorry to them and feel really bad..


Thanks Twinkling..

I've kind of managed to get rid of the infestation but It's a slow process - they've come back twice since my post and I've only been clear of them for 2 days at this point.. hopefully they won't come back but I've been leaving a cup with a little bit of fruit juice on my doorstep for them. I figured that if they were coming indoors for it, both them and myself would prefer them to have it on the doorstep instead.

yes please to the link if you find it, that will be really helpful

Another important thing to remember about ants is that they often enter walls to clean out or clean up after pests. Sometimes they raid termite colonies in the woodworks, for example, or crawl into tight crevices and hidden places to remove the detritus of a previous infestation before it rots and invites new infestations. In such cases, it may actually be better to wait for them to finish up and leave on their own than to try to drive or draw them out.

One might compare some kinds of ant control to histamine blockers, which should not be used against the immune system while it fights infection unless its response becomes a greater threat to the body than the infection presents.