Leave the hamburger buns sitting on the counter for ten or 15 minutes while you finish fixing the fixings and they try to make a nest in the bread. Leave the lid off the distilled water for the iron and it is covered with the amber covered insects. In fact, if you don't drain the steam iron each time you finish, you have cooked ants coming out the holes with the steam! The crew will put the groceries away for me and 24 hours later, the ants will have built a nest inside the sealed boxes of crackers or cookies. They will even be inside the packages of crackers, those plastic wrappers that are supposed to keep them fresh. They'll build a nest anywhere they think they won't be disturbed. I've found them in tissue boxes, under the towels and sheets in the linen closet and inside book left sitting too long. They are awful! You will find them feeding on sweets, grease and some bread products. They also collect around water. For several years, we had a portable dishwasher that attached to the faucet on the sink. Every once in a while it would not get enough water into it. We would check the water flow and the over flow valve. The dishes would not be clean and it was frustrating. My husband, being a very handy man, took the machine apart. At first he thought that the resin from the water softener had drifted out of the tank and was clogging up the filter screen. Then we looked closely at the amber colored grainy stuff. We had about a fourth cup of dead ants clogging the intake on the dishwasher pipe. It seemed that they would collect in the connection that hooked to the faucet if it had any water left in it. Not realizing that the pipe was swarming with ants, I'd hook them up and they would catch in the fine screen that was supposed to keep rocks and sand out. After we cleaned out the hose, I always shook the pipe out before I hooked it to the faucet. We still have problems with the ants in the dishwasher, but now they clog the filter inside which is easier to clean out than the hose in the portable. The county agent said that you can spray the Pharaoh ants or use your thumb, but he knew only one sure way to get rid of the pest. You make a mixture of Boric Acid and either corn syrup or apple jelly and put it out in very small containers (as in bottle caps) where the ants can get to it. You have to keep the supply fresh and do this for several months. He said it works. We tried it but got impatient so we still have ants. (1998 Post Script: Fireants kill Pharaoh ants. Now I wish I had the Pharaoh ants back! At least they don't bite!) Now there is a sure way to tell that fall is not too far off, but that's another story. © Copyright 1986,1996, 1998 by Sulfur Creek Enterprises, Austin, Texas |
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