Battle with the Ants

Nick-H

As summer marches on in Chennai, and each day is just a little hotter than the one before, I'm finding out more about what it means to live here.

And today it was the ants.

I've already learned not to leave food out in the kitchen especially as cockroaches are much worse things to have than the odd ant.

Nobody minds the odd ant. Or six even. I won't complain at a dozen, even if they do bite me from time to time. The heat has subdued the mossies; I get very few inside the house now, compared with 15-20 a day a few weeks ago. Now it is the turn of the ants.

There are ants ...and there are ants. Nobody here seems to mind the very large black ones; they are to be found in many houses and don't seem to do any harm. The very, very tiny ones, on the other hand are a different matter.

They've made a couple of assaults on my kitchen, and I have beaten them back by applying spray to the drain hole, or to the window sill as appropriate.

There have been a few around in my living room over the last couple of days and I have had a bite or two. Today I noticed about six on my computer keyboard. I took a duster and ejected them, Another six came. Checked the table leg, sure enough... dozens!

So I realised that I have to take all the mats, cushions etc, shake everything out, sweep up these tiny horrors and get rid of them. What I really need to do is find out where they are getting in (I still don't know). I happened to look up ---and saw thousands (these things are very tiny, and one section of the ceiling was black with them) on the ceiling.

No alternative. I actually like insects, but I'm not living with these guys who, by this time are swarming over most of the room, including me. I usually only use this poison spray when I'm going to be out for a few hours, but this had to be done immediately. Result? I was covered in a shower of dead ants.

They are all gone now, all swept up. For now...

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Kanbe

ahh pesky ants. I had a horrible time dealing with them when I was in India. and the fact that we didnt have a fridge didnt help!

did you know tumeric wards off ants?

Paagla Dashu

One "fool-proof" way of getting rid of ants:

Method

1. Take two flat polished blocks of wood (4inchX4inch - about half an inch thick)

2. Catch one ant

3. Place the ant on one block of wood in your left hand

4. Take the other block of wood in your right hand and place it exactly on top of the block in your left making sure the ant is covered and there is no gap

5. Apply pressure for 30 seconds on the two blocks, pressing them together

6. Catch another ant

7. Repeat step 3 to step 6 until there are no more ants left


Disclaimer - The above is not protected by any patent or copyright.

radz

Nick:Kitchen you can use "cockroach stick",white stick used for drive away cockroach.You can use it for ants too.Selfs any place draw a line using this.Ants wont come.This is available any medical shop.


Paagla dashu what series reply u post .*sigh.
Radz

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randomviolins

Poor Nick. Never knew ants could be such a problem.
Now, COCKROACHES is a whole other bag of worms.
I'll take ants over cockroaches or mozzies ANY day!

Nick-H

Paagla

Radz, I'll look out for that. I got some cockroach spray (Hit, I think) first time I saw one here: it kills ants instantly, but I am a little worried what it does to me .

r-v, I'd rather have a couple of cockroaches than thousands of ants I just scoop them up in the dustpan and chuck them out of the window.

Now, where did I put those blocks of wood?

<CRACK> 18,279

<CRACK> 18,278

<CRACK> 18,277 ... ... ...

Peyompian

Not only do they attack my food, but they have highways running through my house to get... where? The roof? THe place downstairs? Man, I dunno. But there are ALWAYS 2-3 ant highways in my house and on the porch.

jjacquemain

I was always told that an ant won't cross a line of flour....now if that means that you have to surround your house, bed or whatever in a ring of flour....well, so be it!

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raos

I've used this for ants and roaches too (in Indian) and it worked quite well. I'm afraid to know what's in these things (they're basically like sticks of chalk).

seraph

Nick,

We are dealing with exactly the same thing at our house. In fact, yesterday it got so bad that I spoke with the landlord. He promised to take care of it and I can report that he did. He came by and sprayed the ant holes that we could find with kerosene! I can report that it actually works, but now our house stinks.

We've literally tried everything else, but the ants have managed to shrug off our efforts to date. I read that ants do not like turmeric or chili powder, so I made lines of it and a paste with both which I used to fill in the cracks where they emerged. I also have been cleaning the counter tops with vinegar because it destroys the trails that they leave for their fellow ants. Another suggestion is baby powder. Apparently it makes it hard for them to breath.

None of these has worked for more than two three days at a stretch. They will crawl out of alternative holes at first, but given no choice, they eat their way through anything I have put in their way. Who knows, maybe they like turmeric and chili!

I have counted four species of ants in our house! From the really tiny to the huge and in between. the only ones that really bother me are the red carpenter ants, since they are in all the doorposts and they bite. I'm hoping the kerosene will keep them at bay, but I have also requested backup from the states - those ant houses that kill the queen and get them to move on. The old Trojan Horse technique.

Good Luck!

randomviolins

They won't cross a line of flour (sounds like vampires and garlic)?
I wonder if it's cos the flour is like a candy store for them.

No doubt the ants will still be here long after we're all gone and forgotten ...

Peyompian

Anyone else not bother washing all the ants out of your rice and lentils sometimes? Mmmmmm... protein!

Krishnika

had loads of ant problems in Spain, and thoroughly enjoyed marching down their neat little lines from the terrace to the kitchen with my vacuum cleaner, sucking up their little bodies with lightning speed and with no mess to deal with afterwards... just had to spray the entrance from the terrace to delay their inevitable re-entry...

I never touched the spiders.
And ants outside of my kitchen are and always will be my friends.

rab

Ants are from the same insect family as wasps, sawflies, bees and hornets, the Hymenoptera, which incidentally means membranous wings.

All this family of insect are all extremely susceptible to the carbamate insecticides, which are acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, effectively nerve agents (as opposed to other insecticides which are often stomach poisons).

Use any of the carbamate family of pesticides for very effective control of ants. In Australia and UK you can buy a preparation known as Ficam, which contains the active ingredient Bendiocarb (Ben-die-o-carb).

This will knock your ants for six . Use it in a small garden sprayer or even a watering can and apply it to the ants nests and harbourages, spray it along the bottom of the walls, but you won't need to get it near your food surfaces unless the ants are nesting immediately under them. You may find it is a ready-to-use formulation which may be more expensive but more convenient.

Another compound is Carbaryl (Carb-a- rile) - this is very effective insecticide against Hymenoptera as well. I may be wrong but Carbaryl may well be banned in America but I'm not sure.

So Nick you don't need to listen to twats like Paagla Dashu. Go and find some insecticide containing carbamate. Fly sprays, pyrethroids, gels and other food baits will not work except over a long period of time. Sorry JJac, I don't think flour will work either!!!

If you are just on holiday go to hardware store and buy the right insecticide and it will sort the problem.

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-m2-

...and if you are keeping food on a table, try putting the legs in water; I cut-down water bottles to around 10cm/4" and partly fill with water. If I have any kerosene around, I'll add a few drops, but plain water works as long as you don't let it go dry. Also make sure the table is not touching a wall. I use a lot of canisters too.