Post 181--Getting Rid of Ants

A couple of months ago I was visiting a relative family in their home in Atlanta GA.  They have a nice brick townhouse that in terms of strength looked like it had it all. No weaknesses, no faults. Good for a hundred years. 

One beautiful morning, I was relaxing in the early sun on the front stoop along a very quiet street. No better way to start your day, provided God and  prayer are included.  Then I saw a couple of tiny ants on the front steps. I took a better look and there they were in the hundreds, marching fearlessly in line towards their goal. Ants may not be noisy, but my quietness was broken. I began to walk around and looked carefully to come to the awareness that this beautiful strong invulnerable brick house was under attack by these tiny beasties.

I called my hostess to show her what was going on. Yes, she and her husband were aware that there were some ants, but had been too busy to take them seriously enough to do something about them. I warned her of the real dangers of these little critters and that they should be serious about curbing the situation.  She agreed and said they would. 

Soon afterwards, I returned home in Vancouver and you know what? Only a few days later the Vancouver Sun featured an article by Scott Brown, who had consulted Mike Londry of Westside Pest Control for advice on the very matter!  I felt this was more than a mere coincidence, something I don’t really believe in anyhow, except in ordinary conversation.  Being a blog writer, I took this as a message, no, more than a message: an assignment to remind you, my readers, about this important subject that can be so easily overlooked or simply ignored and end up with sure regret over time. 

Londry’s advice is very interesting indeed and, hopefully, helpful.  He first of all put Brown at ease, saying ants are not the greatest problem in our lives.  Then he suggested a simple mixture of soap and water—yes, you read that correctly—and spray the area where they enter your house and follow their trail beyond that. It will confuse them and throw them off.  However, do not step on them and kill them, for the survivors will simply regard these “corpses” as fodder. You’ve just provided them with the wherewithal for a great picnic. They will drag them back into their colony to share. 

Another advice is to spread cinnamon liberally around the entrances to your house.

Well, you can read as well as I can write—and probably better. I don’t want to run into copyright issues. So, I leave you with the URL of the article and hope you will open it up and follow the rest of the suggestions. You will end up happy you’re one of my so-called followers. I prefer the term “reader,” but that’s beside the point. So, here’s the URL.

http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/youve-got-ants-in-your-house-here-is-how-you-get-rid-of-them .