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David
Joined: 20 Oct 2000
Posts: 1381
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Invasion of the ants
 Sat Jul 20, 2002 4:56 pm
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ANTS I tell ya, ANTS. Wow have we be invaded by ants. Tiny black ones with the presistance of a good chemtrail. Every room in our home is overrun with the little critters. Sprayed outside and under the home and it just brought in more. We have been using organics in the house to try and rid ourselves of the uninvited guests, but to no avail. They are not only after food, but also water. They are in the sinks and toilet tanks by the thousands. Last night it was all out war with the little devils as the guest bath was literly black with them.
And the bad news is, we are not the only ones suffering from this unwanted intrusion. All of my neighbors,and every body I talk to has this problem, everybody. And it is not just localised to one area but is county wide.
Exterminator friend tells me that he has never had this many ant related calls in all his years in the business. He's making a ton of money trying to get rid of them.
We have a large garden that is almost bug free, only a small handful of insects roam the leafs. This is not usual. Also, the night time bug population, with the exception of mosquitos, has been unusualy small. We normally have thousands upon thousands of swarms of rice flies, small harmless little devils that fly into the street lights and any other light source they can find. Come daylight there is usually thousands of dead ones beneath the lights, not so this year, almost none exist.
Overturn anything near a source of water, buckets, rocks, cardboard etc., and you will find the area crawling with pincer-bugs.
I guess the whole point of this post is to say that it is so dry that all critters are seeking water where ever they can find it. And others are seemingly disappearing from the landscape, in particular, ones that fly, bees included most of all. NONE in our garden or on our flowers. Our hummingbird feeders, normally filled at least once a week, are always full as no birds are here to drink from them.
We are on the brink of an ecological disaster.
[Edited 1 times, lastly by David on 07-20-2002] |
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Anne
Joined: 04 Feb 2001
Posts: 123
Location: Napa, CA USA |
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Sat Jul 20, 2002 5:31 pm
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I, too, live in CA, not far from you, David.
We have some ants outside, but none inside. The heat will bring them in. I have a large garden, too, and have lots more bees this year than in previous. I do have a lot of flowers. Our hummingbirds are doing well as is the blue jays which chase the other birds from the yard. I have seen lots of smaller birds this year too come through feeding. We have had some hot days and I am sure that changes the habits of all critters. |
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Dave Gale
Joined: 12 Jul 2002
Posts: 6
Location: Mountain City,TN USA |
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Sat Jul 20, 2002 10:14 pm
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Better ants than SPIDERS!!!!! |
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increase 1776
Joined: 07 Oct 2000
Posts: 3097
Location: Bizzaro World |
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Sat Jul 20, 2002 10:42 pm
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Find the "farm" for the ants and if you must kill them just pour boiling water on the nest.Pesticides SUCK. |
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Lulu
Joined: 22 Dec 2000
Posts: 2501
Location: right here |
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Sun Jul 21, 2002 3:23 am
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Ya know how I keep the ants outdoors? I put a nice blob of home made plum jam on the back porch for them to chow down on. When I notice a few ants tricking inside, I know it's time to replenish the blob. |
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David
Joined: 20 Oct 2000
Posts: 1381
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Sun Jul 21, 2002 4:01 am
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Ann, if those hummers have a bit of red on their throats and green wings, please send them home they just lost their way.
Haven't tried plum jelly but they sure do like cupcakes, chocolate mostly. 
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Dan Rockwell
Joined: 10 Dec 2001
Posts: 1988
Location: Stamford, CT, USA |
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Sun Jul 21, 2002 4:03 am
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Well right about now is the time of year that the ants migrate and the ones that you're seeing David just decided to migrate to your house.
I saw quite a few of them today crawling around outside but so far they haven't made it to my house yet this year anyway...
I had an invasion of black ants a few years ago but it wasn't that bad. I also heard a story about rats moving into some mansions in Cali in search of food and water too but haven't been able to find the article yet.
[Edited 2 times, lastly by Dan Rockwell on 07-20-2002] |
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Dan Rockwell
Joined: 10 Dec 2001
Posts: 1988
Location: Stamford, CT, USA |
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Sun Jul 21, 2002 7:35 am
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quote:
Then there are the ants, the one wild species people notice universally in their homes. Ants follow an effective drought plan: They come inside when it dries up outside.
Deborah Gordon, an associate professor of biology at Stanford University, said only the weather, not chemicals, can drive them away.
"Putting out pesticides won't make any difference. ... They come in because of the weather and they go out because of the weather," she said in an online university publication.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5137-2002Jul15.html
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