Look to the ant, thou sluggard!
Look to the ant, thou sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, which, having no guide, overseer or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer and gathereth her food in the harvest.
Proverbs 6:6-8
Alright so after much hand wringing, I thought :
Wait a minute.
I am a 27 year old woman that is 150 times bigger than those little girls (did you know most of the ants you see are female? The dude ants are only used for breeding during certain times of the year…then they die. Vagina power).
I refuse to let these girls run me out of my own place!
I armed myself with a vaccum with vinegar in the collection part and pointed it where I thought the ants would be since I was still too much of a wimp to actually look went to town on them hoes.
There were still way too many to get on top of, so I also sprayed in there with a water/vinegar mixture until I couldn’t quite breathe….
Then shut the door and retreated to my office to look up ways to get rid of ants.
Seems those things swarm on the smallest things sometimes. One crumb, or even a water source can bring a whole colony in looking for action.
After a while I went to peek in…still lots of them in there, but easier to look at as they were scattered instead of in their formations.
I used some tongs to remove their food sources: a box of girl scout cookies, a thing of oreos (those new tops they have ain’t worth nothin) and a box of bulk Blow Pops from Sams.
Bagged and carried them straight to the garbage chute. Did not even look in said boxes I’m sure I would have up-chucked.
I took out some other things (syrup and ketchup) and wiped them down as well just in case.
Then put in some ant baits for them to snack on instead.
Of course they walked around under and over said baits for the first hour or so, but then I saw some of them go in to see what they could see.
Went to bed hoping they would tell their friends.
*** Fast forward to this morning ***
Took a deep breath and peeked in…
A LOT of my roommates moved out, but there were still some trails on recon missions…mostly still to the ant baits which is fine for now. The more they partake, the faster the colony will eat the poison and feed the queen.
Hopefully there will be even less around when I get home today so I can plug up their entry point once and for all.
Gotta say, those girls are ambitious! I live on the top floor of my building! They’re either nested in the walls somewhere, or they’re literally coming from the ground up…
I do have much respect for them…just prefer them out in nature. Not in my stuff!
I watched a Ted Talk the other day to learn more about my enemies :
- The Queen Bee Ant can live 15-20 years AND can produce thousands if not millions of ants from one conjugal visit when she was a “teenager”
- The worker ants are sterile females. They have defined jobs :
- Reconsecurity : They come out in the morning and check to see if it’s safe to send out the transporters. They’re also the lone ants you see looking for food
- Housewives : They maintain the nest keeping things clean and neat. In the documentary, the lady puts a bunch of toothpicks on the mound and these ladies literally moved them away from the mound in about an hour
- Transporters : They bring back the food the Recon girls found
- Perimeter security : These ladies lay down scent markers to keep other ants away from their territory
- They perform all these tasks without any “management”. Instead, they allocate resources to tasks based on priority. If a big source of food is found, they talk to each other and more ants convert to the transporter role. If a big mess is made in the mound, they convert to the housewife role, etc.
