Slightly OT - ANTS

Yesterday I had a slew of ants crawling around in the house. I picked
up two boxes of Raid "Double Control Ant Baits" and placed them around
the house. To keep the cats from playing with them I secured them with
"U-Glue". Today, the ants are mostly gone. The cats seemed to take no
notice of them.


---MIKE---
In the White Mountains of New Hampshire
(44° 15' N - Elevation 1580')

---MIKE--- wrote:
Yesterday I had a slew of ants crawling around in the house. I picked
up two boxes of Raid "Double Control Ant Baits" and placed them around
the house. To keep the cats from playing with them I secured them with
"U-Glue". Today, the ants are mostly gone. The cats seemed to take no
notice of them.


---MIKE---
In the White Mountains of New Hampshire
(44° 15' N - Elevation 1580')

I am a great believer in cinnamon for ant control! You have to leave it
around for a while, so if you're fussy about a neat kitchen it can be
rather messy, but it certainly works. Also, because ants perform a
valuable task in nature, I like the fact that it doesn't kill them, just
encourages them to go elsewhere because they don't like it. (REALLY
elsewhere - I found them swarming all over a chocolate cake, once, so I
sprinkled the cinnamon before removing the cake. An hour later, the
cake was pristine, with nary an ant in sight!)

"EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)" wrote:

I am a great believer in cinnamon for ant control! You have to leave it
around for a while, so if you're fussy about a neat kitchen it can be
rather messy, but it certainly works. Also, because ants perform a
valuable task in nature, I like the fact that it doesn't kill them, just
encourages them to go elsewhere because they don't like it.

I used to get ants in the cat food bowls, when I used to leave dry food
down all the time. So I tried cinnamon - put it on the floor in a circle
around each cat food bowl. Unfortunately the cats would step in it and
create little gateways for the ants to crawl through. I never quite figured
out how to overcome that problem.

Joyce

--
Loneliness is comforted by the closeness and touch of fur to fur,
skin to skin, or -- skin to fur. -- Paul Gallico

Also, because ants perform a valuable
task in nature, I like the fact that it
doesn't kill them,

If they do anything beneficial (which I doubt), they can do it outside.
They were all over the place so it would not be practical to use
cinnamon.


---MIKE---
In the White Mountains of New Hampshire
(44° 15' N - Elevation 1580')

---MIKE--- wrote:

Also, because ants perform a valuable
task in nature, I like the fact that it
doesn't kill them,

If they do anything beneficial (which I doubt), they can do it outside.
They were all over the place so it would not be practical to use
cinnamon.

Of course they do something beneficial - they're an integral part of
the natural world. They fit in their niche just like everything else
does in theirs. They might not be very beneficial inside your house,
so if possible, it's best to show them the door.

Personally, I hate them, but I doubt I'd get much pleasure in killing
them. It's more of a shuddery gross-out feeling rather than any kind of
vendetta. I just want them gone. As Tweed says (to paraphrase), "It's
not their fault I can't stand them."

Joyce

--
Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me,
for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me, either. Just leave me
the hell alone. -- Unknown

On Jul 23, 4:29*pm, (---MIKE---) wrote:
Also, because ants perform a valuable
task in nature, I like the fact that it
doesn't kill them,

If they do anything beneficial (which I doubt), *they can do it outside..
They were all over the place so it would not be practical to use
cinnamon.
* * * * * * * * * ---MIKE---In the White Mountains of New
Hampshire
* (44° 15' *N - Elevation 1580')

For a totally diffferent outlook (no ants now: top floor condo; flying
insects instead of ants) but from
someone who lived in single-story large house in south FL: are there
any ant hills of any kind of ants
anywhere outside near your house? I encouraged spiders but forget that
notion. If you spot any hills
destroying the entire hill (not difficult to do: Home Depot & others
have the stuff) or hills, if more than
one is what you spot may lessen your invading ants in number. My FL
house had, as most there,
no basement....so I know nothing about how ants might get in that way.
Ants no fun for cats: flies major fun & snack reward for their effort.

---MIKE--- wrote:
Also, because ants perform a valuable
task in nature, I like the fact that it
doesn't kill them,

If they do anything beneficial (which I doubt), they can do it outside.
They were all over the place so it would not be practical to use
cinnamon.

like maggots, they consume dead things - without them, the world would
be awash in carrion! (And using cinnamon SENDS them outside - that's
the point!) As far as "practical" is concerned, I've used it to
discourage some fairly large invasions, so it depends upon where they
are appearing, and how fussy you are about leaving it spread around your
kitchen.