The tiny black demons strike AGAIN

[missdiane]

This time it's in the car with the ant issues. I had this problem about this time last year. The bits of green stuff and pollen falls from the tree and in front of my assigned spot is a leafy underbrush area. It's been moist so the little boogers are somehow making their way in around the door frame and having ant conferences or something. I don't have any food or drink in the car so it's the environment. I freaked when there were a billion of them around the door frames. I went out with a bottle of orange cleaner at work and killed and wiped away tons of them.

It was bothering me so I took this afternoon off and started off at the car wash. The car got a thorough scrubbing on the outside, including an underbody wash and I vacuumed the hell out of it - especially around all the seals. I then went out and purchased some ant baits with adhesive to put near the doors of the car on the inside as well as some ant stakes that I shoved a ton of them in the ground in front of my parking spot. Right now my car is parked on the nearby street which I'll try to do this for at least several days in the hopes that the stakes will start to do their job. I saw some ants in the passenger side doorframe when I got home so I'm not done with the battle yet but if I stay vigilant, I should be able to get rid of the worst of them soon.

I saw my nice downstairs neighbors as I was walking over to do the staking and asked her whether she's had any problems with ants. She said she didn't notice a problem with her car but that she and her boyfriend have been plagued by them in the apartment. I'm still seeing them in mine too, mostly in the kitchen but far, far less since I've been obsessed with eradicating them. By the way, diatomaceous earth hasn't done diddly for me, I'm afraid. I did put some ant bait gel in spots today so hopefully that slaughters more of the little bastards. 

But sad news for me, the nice neighbor is moving in about a month. Awww. But it's good for her since her boyfriend works in Pennsylvania so they're moving to a place in NJ that'll be about equal distance for him to drive to work and for her to drive to our campus. Going to miss her and her kitties that say hi.

Comments

[grey853.livejournal.com]

Sorry about the ants. I hate those suckers.

Best thing I've ever used are Terro traps and spray. I don't have cats, though, so I'm not sure how effective they'd be in your situation.

Good luck with getting rid of them.

[missdiane.livejournal.com]

Thanks - I intend to keep up the battle until the bitter end!

My Terro liquid baits didn't get a lot of play. I'm not sure about the Raid traps since I have those in kitty-inaccessible locations. Today I got some Raid Ant Gel which is close to what Terro is and squeezed it in some cracks and crevices and around some bits of the cabinets where the kitties don't venture.

I have a pet safe spray which helps if there's a glut of them and I've used it on the door jamb. I don't use it much since it's pretty strong smelling. It's mint but it's potent. I also use orange oil cleaner on the counters which helps.

If the stakes in the ground help in the area of the car, I might get a few more and sneakily put them downstairs in the ground near the apartment building. I'd call the landlord but I don't want them to use anything dangerous near the cats.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry that you are going to lose your neighbors. That's the sad part of apartment dwelling. The good ones leave too soon and the bad ones never leave soon enough.

Good luck with your ant battle.