A Rant About ANTS!!!

My day began at 5AM when Patches, the hungry cat got right in my face on the bed to let me know she wanted her breakfast. No amount of talking to her would convince her to wait, so dragging my pump and tubing with me, I trundled off to the kitchen, fed her, made sure she was eating, then stumbled back down the hall and back to bed. But try as I might, I could not go back to sleep.

 When Mr. G got up later I could hear him up in the kitchen cussing and carrying on. Evidently the cat had left some food in her dish and an entire army of ants had attacked it and were swarming all over the floor and in the dish. There was a long line marching in under the back door, across the baseboards and along the wall all the way across the kitchen to the cat's dish. It was horrible! I swear we could hear them beating their tiny drums and making little swishing noises as they  brandished their miniature swords while marching resolutely forward. We sprang into action, attacking them with the peppermint oil solution I had mixed up earlier. Usually, you can spray peppermint oil to deter ants and interfere with the pheromone trail they use to signal each other. But I've discovered that it also seems to kill them on contact it you spray the ants directly. So that's what we did.  We sprayed it all over the ants and the trail and set more Terro traps outside the door.I prefer to  use  Terro and have them carry the bait back to the nest  to kill the ants we can't see, but seeing the huge number we saw this morning called for immediate action and the use of deadly force.

We have had a terrible time with ant invasions this year, worse than any year I can remember. They've crawled in all the kitchen windows and under the doors. Every time we think we've seen the last of them, and go without a sighting for a few days another battalion turns up in full battle gear a few days later.

But I think we have the problem under control on the  window ledge above the kitchen sink, at least. I have positioned an entire jagu of minions  on the window ledge, plus a green koala bear to give them moral support and tell them Aussie jokes.  They have been charged with sounding the alarm at the first sign of an ant so that a new dose of Terro can be administered. Here is a pic of  home guard.  Mr. G purchased  the minions as a joke some time back when I said that I needed minions to do my bidding.

On a more pleasant note- as I was assembling the minions, I looked out the kitchen window and saw a hummingbird flitting all over the fuchsia basket. Much nicer to look at than the dead ants that littered the floor behind me. If there is such a thing as reincarnation, I hope I don't come back as an ant, because I have done terrible things to ants. And I have felt no remorse.