Well, the ants have returned and Anteater Pia is pleased. Two weeks ago, Mom swapped out all the ant bait traps and yet, here we are, embarking on the 2025 Winter Ant Tour that promises to never end. We feel so defeated over this constant, season-by-season ant invasion. Every time our neighbor has his house sprayed, a week later, we get house ants. Terro traps “help” but we’re not sure if they aren’t attracting more than killing. And Pia LOVES to eat ants which are either covered in neighbor pest control spray or already ingested our Terro ant bait.
Over the past three years, Mom has caulked moulding trims and baseboards to walls and baseboards to the floor throughout the entire house in hopes of deterring the ants. The problem here is we have a laminate floor, a floating floor it’s called, meaning it gives when walked on and so, that caulking from baseboard to floor is constantly cracking, exposing spaces for the ants to find their way in.
To remove all the baseboards throughout the house and permanently seal the space clearly exposed between the house and the environment, is completely cost prohibitive, as would be having our house sprayed every month. Plus, we do not want the cats exposed to pest spray, and our neighbor seems to complain a lot about his spraying never really gets rid of all their bugs. Hmm, is monthly pest spraying a scam? Shouldn’t it only need to be done once and it’s over?
We’ve sprinkled ant powder in all the under house vents before putting vent covers on and we have no way to get under the house to do anything more. Mom says it gives her the creeps to think behind the drywall, ants are probably crawling on and up all the 2×4 studs, looking for small cracks to squeeze through. How much more caulking can Mom possibly do? Perhaps a better question might be, how much more is Mom expected to spend on Terro ant bait traps, ant powder, and caulking?
Expect Pia to feel under the weather with a belly full of ants sometime next week. Mom and her eagle eyes can’t be here 24/7 to find them first. In the meantime, our anteater’s got her eyes peeled.
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A Colehaus Cats flashback:
2024 – Wordless Wednesday
2023 – No post
2022 – The Right Idea
2021 – No post
2020 – Early Morning
2019 – No post
2018 – Wordless Wednesday
2017 – No post
2016 – No post
2015 – No post
2014 – Sharing
2013 – No post
2012 – No post
“2025 Winter Ant Tour”
This is sorrowful news; wish I had some useful advice but alas…
I am sorry you have such a problem with ants. Pia, they are not good for you, leave them alone!
pia…due knot eat em…they will cauz ewe stomach trubullz…N tell yur mom if her seez wear they iz comin in, at, ore under…( heer itz de spacez wear de floor iz knot fluzh with basebordz,) her can push flour ore babee powder inta that crack coz they can knot crawlz thru it….trooth….
Pia, please don’t eat the ants. We have the perimeter of the house sprayed twice a year and it is pretty good most of the time. XO
Ugh, how yucky. We’re so sorry that your ant woes seem to be never ending. And Pia, please refrain from eating those little buggers.
I wonder if treating with something outside would help, something like Amdro which the ants take to the queen and it kills her which gets rid of the colony. Sprinkling it all around the outside of the house would possibly keep the ones crossing from the neighbor from getting to your house.
We do use Amdro outside, Terra inside. The problem with using Amdro outside is that it rains so much, we go through so much Amdro and it seems it does nothing.