the.
fuck.
After I wrote my last update, I saw a couple of odd looking ants with wings crawling around on the floor. I didn't think much of them. Ants come out when it rains, and when it gets warmer.
The next day, I saw a few more. They seemed to be coming from each end of the new shack. Again, I chalked it up to the weather.
Fast forward to last night. All of a sudden, these ants...were...EVERYWHERE. I kid you not. They were in the living room, the bathroom, the kitchen...they were all over the steps..they were in my bedroom, the hallway, Boxer's bedroom, and ALL OVER HER CRIB. Hundreds of them. Some without wings, but most with wings. I had to flee my house and drive at 2AM with Boxer to my mother's home. She is an OCD mess, so she allotted us a total of ONE hour of sleep and then kicked us out. I had to come back to the house, and as I learned more about ants, I found out that these are carpenter ants. And this is a HUGE infestation. HUGE. No little spray from the superintendent guy is going to help this problem. They are EVERYWHERE. Which could explain the rotting wood that is all over the place. And our deck that is breaking. And why I keep referring to the new place as "the Money Pit" since everything seems to fall apart.
Does anybody in blog land know about carpenter ants? How do you get rid of them? Does this explain why my house is sloping {as mentioned in my last entry, and the reason why we cannot install any baby gates}?
Why oh WHY couldn't we have had the extra $10,000 difference to get the nicer, more updated, better-kept co-op? Why oh WHY did we have to choose the one that was falling apart and owned by someone who was 110? Why oh WHY does EVERY single HOUSE I live in become infested with bugs that crawl all over my Boxer?
Someone HELP! If you know anything about these fuckers, leave me a message please. Even on one hour of sleep both Boxer and I are unable to nap for fear that we shall awaken with 7.6 billion carpenter ants crawling on us while flapping their ugly white wings.
MY
LUCK
JUST
SUCKS
The end.
11 comments:
My folks had carpenter ants. The only fix was an exterminator who came and did a big spray and then came back monthly to inspect and spray as needed.
I found this on the web: http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/housingandclothing/dk1015.html
Good luck!
There are several over the counter remedies, but they are only applicable if you are able to locate the actual nest (then you drill holes in the wall or floor on either side and spray into the holes).
If you can't locate the nest, you need to call the Or.kin man as soon as possible to stop the destruction of the infrastructure of your home!
Good luck!
Oh that sucks! I was going to say the same...call an exterminator.
Definitely, call the exterminator! And I don't mean to sound, ignorant or anything, but didn't you have a home inspection before purchasing this place? Ant infestation is something that usually has to be remedied prior to a home being sold...
Thanks so much for the advice guys! I cannot seem to get away from bugs. And I'm so not a fan of them.
We talked to the super about it and he said we would have to get approval from the board {this is a co-op} to allow an exterminator to come in. I wrote to them today. I'm still seeing them everywhere even though they sprayed some stuff, I caulked a bunch of stuff, and cleaned everything from top to bottom, all on one hour of sleep.
Baby Mama...we purchased what is called a "co-op". It's bought and sold a bit differently than houses and condos. We had an inspection but I do not believe it involved bugs. Co-op's are very hard to explain!!!
That happened at our house 3 years after we bought it and they said it was termites and they swarmed b/c of the warm weather. We called an exterminator, they came in and did their thing, and we haven't seen them since. I was in tears cleaned those gross bugs off my baby's changing table...it was awful. But it hasn't happened since, so I guess we caught them early. GL!
I'll go with call an exterminator asap, too!! EW! Awful! I'm so sorry!
Have you tried Terro ant traps? They worked on our carpenter ants last year. (We still had to spray a barrier outside... so that part won't help you.)
The aunts at our place absolutely loved the terro traps. They drained them dry in less than two days. We got to watch them wander drunkenly in the kitchen and living room for a few nights, then they were gone.
The tricky part will be keeping Boxer out of the traps.
Good luck!
Hi! This may sound silly... but.. take baby powder and put it around the bottoms of the doors, baseboards if you have them... etc.. anywhere you see ants coming in.. I had them like crazy... Im telling you TONS of them.. I put baby powder around after someone told me to , I thought they were nuts, but was willing to try ANYTHING! ) and did this. I have NONE now.. Try it.. :) I put it around the bottom of the doors, baseboards, I even put some around the edges of the counters ( the back edges ) and the dishwasher!
You have absolutely no idea who I am, but I found your blog ages ago from one of the ladies on FF. My husband and I are currently dealing with SEVERE MFI, and IVF (at some point) or adoption are our only options.
I don't have a blogspot blog, just read to keep up with yours. If you make it private, I would definitely miss seeing your little girl grow up.
If you want to get rid of the colony, my husband said that you have to spray around the foundation of your house. The ants will bring the poison to the sub-colonies in your house as well as back to the mother hive. They go back and forth between the two. You can actually follow the ants at dawn and dusk as they move back and forth between them. This would be the quickest way. Or you could find the mother colony by following the ants at dark and seeing if you can find the mother colony. This is where the queen lives. If you pour boiling water down the hole or use pesticide there, it will kill the colony. Then you would have to wait a couple of months for the rest of the colony to die off. I would recommend having the exterminator come and spray around the house. It would be much faster than just killing off the mother hive.
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