We just discovered that have ants. Or rather, we have ants streaming up the side of the house on their way to the roof. And ants swarming in an orderly trail across the front steps on their way to somewhere.
We’ve applied ant spray on these spots, but I discovered tonight that Doc Searls has a whole series of methods for dealing with the ants–plus lots of info about them.
Doc wisdom:
“The ants follow a trail. Sometimes many trails. To get rid of them, you have to get rid of the trails. You do this with very hot soapy water and a sponge. The hot water kills them. In fact, this is the best direct insecticide you have. Also harmless. So, first thing: wipe them up.
Once you’ve elimanted the trail, take fresh soapy water, and clean the trail up again. You want to leave zero ant scent.
Recognize that the trail outside your house still exists. This is fine. What you want is for them to go about their business outside.
Watch your perimeters. They’ll probably come back up to several times along the same trails, especially if they still smell the scents of their late colleagues.
They want sweets. If they’ve made it to your jellies and sugars, you’ll need to clean those containers thorougly to get old ant smell off.
If there are trails that run along the foundations outside your house, you can get some additional advantage by boiling some water in a large teapot and pouring the boiling water on the trail.”
Doc Searls ant-deterrent techniques will be put to the test chez nous this week.,