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Monday, August 2, 2010

When Ants Attack

You may recall a few weeks ago I posted about the ant invasion underway in my kitchen. I was eager to resolve it with a natural remedy -- no chemicals or scary insecticides.

So much for that.

My sister and I joke that her nickname is "Eweodda." This is pronounced "You Oughta." As in "You oughta get Harold to get started on your bathroom while I'm out of town and you can stay at my house." "You oughta put that tax refund in your Roth IRA." "You oughta ask Mark to come over and fix your faucet while you have that banana pudding you could feed him."
Naturally, Eweodda had an ant remedy. I resisted at first, determined not to resort to scary insect killers. My ant problem seemed to be getting better slowly but surely. Nevertheless, in typical Eweodda fashion, she dropped off her box of Terro and knew I would eventually come around.
I put out the bait and returned a few hours later. I could have watched the ants all night. The aspect I found most fascinating was the "follow the herd" instinct. One of the Terro blobs was absolutely surrounded by ants, so I put drops on a few more pieces of cardboard. The ants just kept going to the same crowded spots. I know this is documented ant behavior, but I couldn't help thinking of "Who Moved My Cheese." It's a hokey comparison, but it's just like the way we as humans continue to follow the established path to scarcity even when there are more abundant options out there -- if only we'd venture off the traveled road.

The ants were gone within 24 hours. Terro rocks. Eweodda knows best!

2 comments:

Neil said...

did you find that NPR fresh air podcast about ants i told you about? They are fascinating!

Brooke said...

Omg, ants are taking over my kitchen as well and I am currently feeding them the same poison as u. But I had to lie a little to the children and tell them it is "just food for the sweet ants to eat!! Don't worry about them! They like it, see???"