by Lisa Fillers

Created on: March 18, 2009

If your home has ever been invaded by an army of ants you know how disgusting and frustrating it can be. The cleanest of homes can be invaded and the little demons can be quite destructive.

There are three sizes or types of ants that commonly invade homes. The sugar ant is a tiny ant that mainly invades the kitchen. As the name suggests, this ant loves sugar and anything sweet. The average size ant will invade at almost any place in the house in search of food. The wood ant is very large, two to three times the size of an average ant. As the name suggests, this ant loves to eat wood. They can be just as destructive as termites to the structure of your home and will literally eat their way into your home. Regardless of what size or species of ant invades your home, you need to eliminate their presence fast.

Three summers ago our house was invaded by sugar ants in the kitchen. I was absolutely disgusted when I discovered the presence of the ants on the kitchen counter. I had no idea at that time how persistant this tiny ant could be. My husband had made iced tea and had left the mixing spoon used to sweeten the tea on the counter. When I discovered the ants, there were only five or six and I quickly killed those. It was not long before I discovered one of the little devils must have already gone back to the nest and invited all his friends and relatives to a banquet. Through trial and error I found what works and what does not as I attempted to get rid of ants.

CLEAN THE KITCHEN

The first step I took was to kill all the ants in sight in the kitchen I could see. I cleaned every counter top and every small and large appliance in very hot detergent water. I cleaned every cabinet door in the process and mopped the floor. I threw away every edible item in the kitchen I thought they could possibly have been in and warned my husband not to leave his tea mess on the counter again. By bedtime I had transferred all unopened packages of food to zip closure bags or plastic containers with lids. I went to bed feeling great, thinking there was nothing to draw the ants to the kitchen.

The ants went to bed that night laughing at me. The next day, much to my horror, I walked in the kitchen and found a trail of the little demons marching down the wall between the kitchen window and the sink. Again, I had to kill all the ants I could see and wash the wall and counter tops down in hot detergent water.

CUCUMBER SLICES

I called my mother and she suggested cucumber slices in the window sill.

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