Thursday 17 July 2008

The March of the Ants


Roughly two weeks ago today, I opened the cupboard next to our dishwasher, to find an invasion taking place. A small invasion, but none the less one that could grow in size if left un interuppted. Yes, we're talking about ants here, so I promptly set about squashing all the ones I could find with some kitchen towel. Highly technical I know. Dh said, 'we need to find where they're coming from' Sherlock that he is, so 'we' (read I) emptied out the cupboard, mainly cereals on the bottom shelf and sealed biscuit tin on the top one. I gave it a good clean and we waited a bit. When we looked again an hour later, the kitchen towel came in useful again, seems our invasion is coming up the water pipe, from under the cupboard. I can only sumise that when we paved over the lawn a few weeks ago, we upset the food chain somewhat, so they've decided to look inside for additional fodder. So 'we' set about putting a stop to it.

The next day I purchased an ant trap from Wilkos, courtesy of the company Nippon. This proceeded to sit in the cupboard until tonight, unopened, as the one thing I asked dh to do, two weeks ago, was to pop 4 holes in the side of it, put the bait in it and install it in the cupboard. This he failed to do.

I had thought that my squashing and constant cleaning efforts were working, as the ant population has been negligable in visibility for a about a week, but tonight, I've spotted two of the little munchers already. I'm pondering if it's the rain that's bringing them in? as it was rather wet, the first time we noticed them. Which ever it is, I've squashed two on the counter top tonight......and I've given up waiting for dh to do his bit in the household and have set up the ant trap by the water pipe myself. Fingers crossed, this should do the trick within the next week. I apparently have to top it up daily, so we shall see. Might be a bother if the ants are coming in elsewhere as well though?

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