My new apartment is quite nice. It's very spacious, nice open kitchen, extra bedroom, balcony, patio, shared pool, safe neighborhood, etc. However, there is one massive problem... ANTS!! Holy fucking crap these ants are not fucking around. There are MILLIONS of them! And no matter what I do, they outsmart me. Outsmarted by ants.
As many know, before coming to Aus I was helping my mom to clean out her house so she can retire and sell it in a couple years. There were a few pest issues there that needed controlling, the usual suspects: mice in the basement, a bees nest buried in the ground, hornets, and carpenter ants. I rid the house of all these using minimal toxins and was quite proud of my work. Well, except for when I dumped a bottle of bleach on the bees nest, those fuckers kept attacking me! Being stung in the inner thigh sucks! Anyway, with these Darwin ants, it seems the more I do to get rid of them, the more they come back. At first I thought they were sugar ants, but according to wikipedia, sugar ants are big; these are tiny. Then I googled ants in Darwin and found Singapore ants, which these look like. But it says they bite and can chew through electrical wiring, even starting fires. I haven't noticed them biting yet, so maybe that's not it. Now I have been reading about "ghost ants," which these seem to be except it says when you crush them, they smell of rancid butter. Hmmmmm, surprisingly, I haven't smelled that yet.
What I do know is these ants are getting stronger and smarter -- while in turn, I lose my mind tracking them around the house. I know from experience that to get rid of ants, you have to kill the colony. If it's in the ground, you can apparently dump boiling water on them, but that's only if you can reach the colony with the water. Obvs I can't dump boiling water into my walls. So I put out ant-rid, it's a mix of something sweet and boric acid. The ants bring it back to the colony, they all eat it - including the queen - and then they die (thanks to Amie for teaching me this, this is how I killed the carpenter ants at moms). I bought 2 types and put it everywhere. Well, as you can guess, these ants won't touch the stuff. They literally don't go near the bait. The only thing they seem to really hate is bleach, so I am bleaching everything, all the time. (I looked up whether bleach is bad for the environment/your health, and I am seeing mixed opinions. I am thinking with a smell like that, there's no way it's good.) Bad thing is, it's the only thing I've found that the ants don't like. But even still, it will only keep them out of a certain cabinet for about 3 days, the smell must wear off, and then they are back. Also, I have been putting all my open pantry food into zip lock bags or tupperware. Well, they have discovered how to get into the bags and now, in addition to the mere grossness of having bugs, they are destroying my food! Yesterday it was a ziplock of sesame seeds, today peanuts. I am losing my mind!!!
It seems there is nothing I can do. Everyone I have talked to, has these ants. These ants run this town. I can't even use the fucking dishwasher because if you have dirty glasses or plates in there, the ants go in the dishwasher. THEY GO EVERYWHERE!! Oh, and the other day, I found a dead gecko in the kitchen. Idk if I am cut out for this tropical living...
As many know, before coming to Aus I was helping my mom to clean out her house so she can retire and sell it in a couple years. There were a few pest issues there that needed controlling, the usual suspects: mice in the basement, a bees nest buried in the ground, hornets, and carpenter ants. I rid the house of all these using minimal toxins and was quite proud of my work. Well, except for when I dumped a bottle of bleach on the bees nest, those fuckers kept attacking me! Being stung in the inner thigh sucks! Anyway, with these Darwin ants, it seems the more I do to get rid of them, the more they come back. At first I thought they were sugar ants, but according to wikipedia, sugar ants are big; these are tiny. Then I googled ants in Darwin and found Singapore ants, which these look like. But it says they bite and can chew through electrical wiring, even starting fires. I haven't noticed them biting yet, so maybe that's not it. Now I have been reading about "ghost ants," which these seem to be except it says when you crush them, they smell of rancid butter. Hmmmmm, surprisingly, I haven't smelled that yet.
What I do know is these ants are getting stronger and smarter -- while in turn, I lose my mind tracking them around the house. I know from experience that to get rid of ants, you have to kill the colony. If it's in the ground, you can apparently dump boiling water on them, but that's only if you can reach the colony with the water. Obvs I can't dump boiling water into my walls. So I put out ant-rid, it's a mix of something sweet and boric acid. The ants bring it back to the colony, they all eat it - including the queen - and then they die (thanks to Amie for teaching me this, this is how I killed the carpenter ants at moms). I bought 2 types and put it everywhere. Well, as you can guess, these ants won't touch the stuff. They literally don't go near the bait. The only thing they seem to really hate is bleach, so I am bleaching everything, all the time. (I looked up whether bleach is bad for the environment/your health, and I am seeing mixed opinions. I am thinking with a smell like that, there's no way it's good.) Bad thing is, it's the only thing I've found that the ants don't like. But even still, it will only keep them out of a certain cabinet for about 3 days, the smell must wear off, and then they are back. Also, I have been putting all my open pantry food into zip lock bags or tupperware. Well, they have discovered how to get into the bags and now, in addition to the mere grossness of having bugs, they are destroying my food! Yesterday it was a ziplock of sesame seeds, today peanuts. I am losing my mind!!!
It seems there is nothing I can do. Everyone I have talked to, has these ants. These ants run this town. I can't even use the fucking dishwasher because if you have dirty glasses or plates in there, the ants go in the dishwasher. THEY GO EVERYWHERE!! Oh, and the other day, I found a dead gecko in the kitchen. Idk if I am cut out for this tropical living...
That's insane! I'm got itchy just reading this. And then I googled it and found out that Australia and ants are a thing! and then I found this - hope it helps!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.termite.com.au/termite-control-darwin.html
~ LTF
Thanks, Linds. Apparently insects and Australia are a thing, lol. I did pick up some tips from the site :)
ReplyDeleteDo they also get into the fridge? Can you move more of your food into the fridge? That sucks, btw. I HATE ants. - Bri
ReplyDeleteAnts!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe tinniest Gladiator of this world. They can become the nightmare of any man at any time. Getting rid of ant is very difficult. Boric acid is a good product for controlling ant infestation. Thanks for the article. :)