May 25, 2008

Ant troubles, fortunately they aren’t fire ants or those crazy raspberry ants, these don’t seem to bite, or at least they don’t go out of their way to bite. These are smallish black ants, we leave them alone for the most part, but occasionally they wander into the house. They seem to like the dead moths that populate the house, the reason there are dead moths is because we keep the house open all the time, and at night the lights attract lots of moths. By the morning, the moths seem to be mostly dead. The ants then come in and remove the dead moths. Sounds like a good thing, except I know the ants will start looking for other goodies to eat, food crumbs, and such.

I have been dusting the doorway with cinnamon, and spraying Ivory soap water where ever the ants are coming in. The cinnamon works for about a day, then it loses it’s effectiveness, the soap works until it dries, which happens fast out here. I did a search for ant repellent, I found lots of home remedies, I found one that I had everything needed, yeast, molasses, and water. I made up a batch, put it in some jar lids and placed it in the ant’s path. So far, they seem to not like it, maybe I should paint it on the posts outside that are just under the door. I wonder if that would work? I guess we are just going to have to bite the bullet and get something from the store next time we are in town. I hate using poisons, I’ll see what the stores have…

7 Comments

the texan said…

sprinkle some borax around where they are coming in.

May 25, 2008 12:03 PM

the texan said…

sprinkle some borax around where they are coming in.

May 25, 2008 12:03 PM

Wretha said…

That is one idea, I’ll have to see if the store in town has any, it’s hit or miss with these stores. :) For what it’s worth, the spot where I placed the molasses and yeast mixture, the ants don’t seem to like it, and for now, have vacated that particular area. I’m going to move it around and see if it works elsewhere.

May 25, 2008 12:21 PM

lornkanaga said…

I’ve never heard of using Borax, but that stuff does so many things, who knows (g).

What I use on the tiny ants are Orange Clean/Glow–I used Orange Glow on wood, and Orange Clean on everything else. Amazingly enough, it’s been two years since the last “invasion,” and I’m keeping my fingers crossed. For some reason, the tiny ants don’t like it, and when I spray the stuff directly on them they practically fizzle and melt. Unfortunately, that stuff doesn’t work on the regular-size ants and even when I spray it right on them it

Wow, it’s been a few days since I’ve written anything here, let’s see if I can catch everyone up on what’s been going on… Bob has been working on the bedroom addition to the cabin, I suppose it’s beginning to be more of a house and less of a cabin, Bob doesn’t like me referring to it as a cabin, so I will try to stop referring to our house as a cabin. :)

The bedroom has a roof and walls now, we had lots of windows (thanks to everyone who donated windows to us!), so many of the walls are mostly windows, that’s a good thing! We have great views, and it makes it a breeze to ventilate (pun intended). Most of the windows have screens too, for the ones that don’t have them, we will make them. Bob also built a deck outside the bedroom, it’s nice to go outside and sit on the deck, especially at night when it’s cool and the stars are out.

It’s been getting hot during the day, as long as the wind is blowing, it’s pretty comfortable, but on the days the wind is calm, it can get pretty warm in the house. We have found that during the hottest part of the day, the best place to be is under the house, it can be in the upper 90s in the house, but in the upper 70s to 80s under the house, the concrete walls tend to be cool, they register 75 degrees F. Our house sits some 7-8 feet above ground, so it’s pretty easy to walk under the house, still Bob has worked on digging out the dirt to increase the head room, we will eventually close up the bottom floor with concrete, and pour a concrete floor. It should be very comfortable down there, might even sleep down there, though it does get cool at night (typical desert, hot during the day, cool to cold at night). Last night I went to sleep with one light blanket, I had all of the windows open, I woke up early with a chill, I had to grab a second blanket. Trying to sleep during the day though it difficult, the bed traps your body heat, and it gets too warm, if we had a bed under the house, it would be easy to take a nap during the hottest part of the day.

Bob’s brother is supposed to come down for a visit soon, maybe in a week or so, I can’t wait, he will be a big help to Bob, I can do just so much for Bob, I am a big help, but I don’t have the strength of a man, so having another male here for a while will be a big help. Bob’s brother has lots of good ideas like Bob does, so the two of …