{"id":2008,"date":"2014-07-09T22:16:48","date_gmt":"2014-07-10T02:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=2008"},"modified":"2014-07-09T22:16:48","modified_gmt":"2014-07-10T02:16:48","slug":"my-worst-nightmare-ants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=2008","title":{"rendered":"My Worst Nightmare – Ants"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know this may not surprise you but I really hate killing bugs. \u00a0I know they serve their certain purpose in the world and who am I to stop that. \u00a0I do not like them in my house or on me of course but most bugs keep a distance.<\/p>\n

The ones that do come inside are usually caught in a plastic takeout container (finally a good way to recycle them!) and quickly ushered out. \u00a0I find that containing them instead of using a broom for example gets them outside without dropping them. It also eliminates the even more scary problem of losing them on the way and wondering where they are now. \u00a0They are then free to do their good work again.\u00a0The spider for example will eat a lot of other bugs as a way to pay his rent. \u00a0I currently have a spider outside my kitchen window that is a champ at catching things. \u00a0She looks like one of those doomsday planners with her storing skills.<\/p>\n

This is all very well and good for most bugs because they are respectful. \u00a0But not ants. \u00a0Ants have no respect. \u00a0They will come into your house, traipse all over the counters in broad daylight and eat whatever the heck they feel like. \u00a0And the thing about ants is there is never one ant. \u00a0There can be one spider but never one ant.<\/p>\n

These are the only bugs that really freak me out.<\/p>\n

In the last two years I have found several large ant hills among the gardens around the house. Last spring there was one in each of the veggie beds. \u00a0Yuck. \u00a0That definitely put a damper on spring planting. \u00a0There was one in my flower bed a few years ago and I didn’t weed it all summer. \u00a0It was a mess.<\/p>\n

The problem is what do you do with them? \u00a0I don’t use chemicals in the yard at all. \u00a0I especially can’t spray some toxic stuff in the veggie gardens. \u00a0Because I’m me, there were a lot of Google searches for ways to get rid of them. \u00a0The ideas range from corn meal (they explode when they eat it apparently) to cinnamon to boiling water. \u00a0All seem like vague suggestions with not much confidence in the solution. So far we have used boiling water to get rid of the hills in the veggie beds. (The funny thing is I don’t feel bad about it at all. \u00a0I feel bad about just chasing other bugs but boiling alive ants is a-okay.) \u00a0I needed to be able to plant seed without being attacked. We used cinnamon around doorways with mixed results. For the most part I have tried to ignore the visions in my head of ants living in all my walls, eating my whole house.<\/p>\n

That was until a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n

\"Ridiculous<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For me this is the nightmare that is up there with going to school in your undies. \u00a0I was outside happily transplanting some strawberry plants. \u00a0They were drying \u00a0out too fast and needed bigger pots. The large pot had dirt in it already and had been sitting awhile. \u00a0I carried it across the lawn. \u00a0I took big shovelfuls of dirt out of one side and put a strawberry plant in. \u00a0I turned the pot around and repeated the same procedure. \u00a0Since there wasn’t a lot of room I put the extra dirt into another pot. \u00a0I grabbed the strawberry plant, put it in the pot and looked at my hands.<\/p>\n

There were ants on my hands. \u00a0There were ants on the strawberry pot. \u00a0There were freaking ants EVERYWHERE! \u00a0And now I am not talking about 20 ants. I am talking about thousands of ants. \u00a0The pot that had been sitting housed an entire ant city and I just put my shovel through it. \u00a0I do a dance while getting my gloves off and grab the hose to wash off my legs which had ants on them. \u00a0I am completely freaking out and then think “What do I do now?”\u00a0I texted\u00a0TB who suggested throwing one of the ant traps we bought for the house (a few ants on the counter) in which I do in my haste.<\/p>\n

After I calmed down, my curiosity took over. \u00a0I couldn’t help but go look at how the ants were dealing with the whole world literally being flipped upside down. And they were amazing. \u00a0It was like DEFCON 1, all hands on deck. \u00a0There were tiny ants carrying babies, Others that were moving dirt to fix the infrastructure. \u00a0It didn’t matter that I had also tried to drown them with the hose (didn’t work), \u00a0within a few hours their progress was amazing.<\/p>\n

\"Ridiculous<\/a><\/p>\n

See all of those holes? \u00a0Tunnels. \u00a0There are a lot of ants I’m sure in this picture but they do not show up in photos. Except for this one with the wings. \u00a0And may I ask what the hell is this flying ant thing? \u00a0It’s part of the colony and completely grosses me out.<\/p>\n

\"Ridiculous<\/a><\/p>\n

As of today they are still in the pot. \u00a0The ant bait poison didn’t work as well as I had hoped but frankly could have killed hundreds and not made a dent. \u00a0The problem with the poison is that I now have to throw out the 2 strawberry plants that I have had for years. \u00a0And as luck would have it they seem happy in their new pot and just sprouted new leaves. At least someone is happy about this situation.<\/p>\n

\"Ridiculous<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know this may not surprise you but I really hate killing bugs. \u00a0I know they serve their certain purpose in the world and who am I to stop that. \u00a0I do not like them in my house or on…
Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2009,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[283,73,285,284],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Ridiculous-Redhead-Ants.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1J4KT-wo","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":852,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=852","url_meta":{"origin":2008,"position":0},"title":"Mosquitoes Suck (no pun intended)","date":"June 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I was told that because it was so warm this winter there was no freeze to kill things off. \u00a0Like bugs for example. \u00a0This meant that this summer would be more buggy than last year. 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In fact I have expanded the garden, built a greenhouse and have learned new skills. (More on all of that soon!) Adding so many things meant there were a lot of moving parts that needed to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Garden"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/DirtBook-video-screenshot.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":810,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=810","url_meta":{"origin":2008,"position":3},"title":"Are your peppers laying down on the job?","date":"June 11, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Now that the garden is really starting to get going there isn't a lot to do. \u00a0The plants pretty much know what they're doing on their own. \u00a0A little water and weeding is all I have to do for the most part. \u00a0 That and walk around every morning with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Garden"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/standing-tall-1410.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2551,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=2551","url_meta":{"origin":2008,"position":4},"title":"Garden Update for June","date":"June 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"With all the trouble I had getting started this year I am so happy to see everything finally kicking in. 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