Tuesday, I looked in the car as I went to exbf's car. Not one of the ant bait positions I placed in the car on Monday had an ant. Usually, ants are lined up at the edges of the blob of Terro. It appears that Tuesday, these ants are not interested. I'm puzzled. Maybe these ants don't eat sweets. Maybe I need a protein-based poison. If I remember correctly, ants are sweet or protein eaters. Maybe some eat both.
As I came to the house on Monday after putting out the Terro, one finger was sticky. I licked it. It was sweet. Then, two fingers were sticky. I licked them. As I got into the house, it became clearly evident that I had sticky sweet something on my whole palm and all but two of my fingers and I could not figure out the flavor! No, I did not lick all the sticky fingers. I washed my hands and all was well.
The next morning, Tuesday, I remembered I took off my pants and did not take out the keys. So, I went to the laundry and put my hands in the pocket and came out with a key ring with sticky keys, every one of them. Plus, the whole inside of the pocket was sticky! A few hours later, it struck me, I was licking Terro! Well, at least it is not toxic. Don't try this at home. The sticky keys were rinsed. They needed to be immersed in a wash of Dawn! They were.
Wednesday, today, I checked the baits and got a few things out of the car and came back in. RATS!!! The second set of keys and my fingers are sticky. Yesterday, it was the whole left hand. Wednesday, it was my right hand. ???? I put those keys into the bowl of Dawn and water. Washed my hands in Dawn. Thankfully, the inside of the pocket of clean pants are not sticky.
Tonight, I will take a wrung out washcloth full of Dawn and warm water to the car and go to Walmart to get ant poison baits. Since I don't know where the sticky is located, I will wash down the steering wheel and console before I start. I held onto the steering wheel to lean into the passenger floor and opened the center console yesterday and today.
Today, my lighter charger for phone and camera was outside the console. I never leave it out, so I put it back in the console. I suppose I need to see if I made the charger sticky, too.
I'm stumped. It will probably be easier to get rid of the ants than find the sticky. Somewhere in the car is a quarter of a paper plate with Terro and I cannot find it. I feel stupid right now.
Your turn
Any other solutions for ants? Have you ever licked poison off your fingers or something else icky?
Give this a try:
ReplyDeleteMix 1/2 C sugar, 1 1/2 Tbsp Borax, and 1.5 C warm water.
Soak cotton balls in the mixture, and put them out near the mess of ants.
The sugar attracts the ants, and they’ll take the Borax with it back to their home.
If you have small children or pets, keep them away from the Borax, and be sure to wash your hands after using. Note: Thanks to several commenters who add that if your ants don’t seem to be attracted to sugar, try mixing in some peanut butter instead. They may have a savory tooth rather than a sweet tooth! (from Mashupmom)
line,
ReplyDeleteI just went to WM and bought ant baits and put in the car. Too late. But, if I ever get ants in the car again, I will try peanut butter and borax. Thanks.
We used to get ants in our house and the spray can stuff and ant baits you buy in the store didn't work (nor did the home remedies, so we started paying a pest control service $42 a month to spray. That did the trick (most of the time). The pest control guy explained to me that those other remedies really don't work because they are not taking the poison back to the ant colony to kill the rest of them - they are just killing the ants at point of contact. Then when the ants don't come back the ants back home freak out and split up, making even more ant colonies. At least that's how I remember his explanation. After about 2 years of paying this monthly, I happened to look at the receipt on my desk and saw that the company listed the exact stuff they were using, even the amount. I googled it and discovered I could buy it online for about $35 and that would cover a whole year of applications (just mixed with some water in a gallon sprayer). DH apparently did a much better job getting it all applied and thoroughly as we never had another ant after he started doing it.
ReplyDeleteone Family,
DeleteThat was a smart and thrifty move. I have learned things from guys that are being paid, things that help me to save money later.
Actually, I don't think I have ever licked my fingers.
ReplyDeleteMeg,
DeleteYou never licked a bit of frosting off your finger or the sticky inside of a candy that oozed out. Try it: you don't know what you are missing.