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July 5, 2005 Living in the southern East Coast, I have ant problems. The little buggers (bit of humor) are bugging my wife mercilessly. Her approach is to spray insecticide around where she sees then, which does indeed kill the ones which walk over that area in the next week or two. But modern insecticides, usually depending upon permethrins to limit their toxicity to men and housepets, degrade rather quickly. A better approach is to put out ant baits that the foragers carry back to their nest, thereby poisoning the stay-at-home ants and, if you are lucky, the queen ant, whereupon the whole colony tends to die out. But there are two kinds of ants which invade your house, the sweet-eating ants which like residues of jelly and cake crumbs, etc., and the protein-eating ants, which more often make a bee-line (or an ant=line, more properly) for your cat's food dish. One could buy expensive baits for both types. but I have not been impressed that the little plastic containers work very well, dependent as they are upon one adventurous explorer ant's discovering one of the little openings and going in side and then wending his little ant way back home to tell the other ants where the food is. I have invented a quite cheap and effective way to get both the sweet and the protein loving ants. Take an old jar of peanut butter and eat all of it. You can do this on a peanut butter sandwich, with or without jelly, or on crackers, or, if adventurous and with a taste for danger, just eat it with a spoon. I should warn you that some people have choked on peanut butter eaten plain. I don't advise it. But then you have a jar which is mostly empty except for clinging bits of peanut butter all around. Perfect! Buy one little bottle of Terro ant killer. It is a syrupy liquid. Pour a half teaspoon or so into the peanut butter jar and twist and turn and rotate the jar around to coat as much of the inside as possible, especially where the peanut butter clings. Then take a pair of sharp scissors or sheetmetal shears and cut a few notches around the rim of the jar. Place the jar upside down where you suspect ants are foraging. You may want to protect a wood floor with a piece of paper which lies flat all around. Then all you have to do is wait for the ants to find it. The protein-lovers will enjoy the peanut butter, the sweet lovers will enjoy the Terro, and if you use Jif peanut butter which already has a fair amount of sugar added, both types will love it even more. Then they carry the peanut butter back home and--voila!--no more ants. That is, until another colony discovers your house.... You don't have to worry about your cat; he won't like peanut butter or syrup. Your dog won't be able to lick otu enough to do any harm. The occasional mouse might get in and make himself a little sick, but who cares? All in all, a happy ending for a project which takes only a few minutes' work. ------------ About the author Brooks A. Mick: 63-yr-old physician, still practicing medicine but retired from the US Army. Write just for the fun of it, but working on novel in the vein of Tom Clancy's politico-military genre. Email: brooks15@cox.net ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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