Notifications
Clear all
Topic starter
Came home tonight to a WALL of ants ! It is a wall to the outside, the top of the doorway, and it was COVERED, and they had started moving on to the ceiling. (the doors are open, they always are) There were none on the lower walls, and none on the floor. None on the outside of the house. They are little black ants. There were a bzillion of them, it was GROSS ! A huge black mass on that section of wall, moving along...
We sprayed them, which is just as gross because now there are a bzillion dead ants on the floor and furniture... (I'll clean it up as soon as I'm done tying the message). We've never seen anything like this in our lives!!!
Anyone have any idea on where they came from, what they want, and how to prevent this from happening again ???
ANY and ALL advice / thoughts / ideas welcomed ! ICKKKKK,,, !!!!! this was worse than the night a goo-glee-ah (or whatever you call those horrible huge black worms) crawled on my face in the middle of the night !!!
Suzette - a bit antsy tonight 🙁
Posted : July 31, 2007 12:42 am
Welcome to the Virgin Islands.
Posted : July 31, 2007 2:15 am
Topic starter
HA ! That's what my husband keeps saying - he lived here 24 years ago, and he moved here 6 months ahead of me... but even HE was perplexed by the wall !
I have left a glass of soda on the counter overnight, and in the morning it is inundated with ants... but the WALL ?
Posted : July 31, 2007 2:25 am
go back and look at old posts, I believe there was something about this.
Posted : July 31, 2007 4:08 am
This happened to us about a year ago. We'd never even seen ants in the house and one morning I woke up to ants ants ants. They were hanging in clusters from the walls and ceilings and in piles on the floor. We were freaked! We sprayed and swept. Ric asked the headgrounds keeper at the Buccaneer and he said that this happens once in a while, that a colony was moving. After that one initial onslaught they were gone and - knock wood - never came back.
But it was the weirdest thing I've ever seen.
Posted : July 31, 2007 8:31 am
If these are the little teeny "sugar ants", search out Terro. Very good stuff, but may be hard to find.
Posted : July 31, 2007 11:48 am
Bugs on the rugs,
ants attached to pants,
scorpion on the accordion,
a centapede and a millipede,
mosquitos they swarm-o,
a snake I did rake,
fleas and no-sees,
ticks - get the picks,
spiders were hiders,
three inch roaches, oh my,
No lions, tigers or bears,
but I didn't care,
iguanas can poop enough for all three!
Very few bugs do not live on island. Sorry. 🙂 You learn to live very cleanly so there is nothing to attract the bugs. If you can keep areas breezy you have a better chance of keeping away most insects. Ortho spray around windows and doors does help, but you end up sweeping a bunch of dead bugs. You get braver and better at it. Good luck.
Teresa
Posted : July 31, 2007 12:36 pm
I have adopted a ghecko. He is in the house somewhere...dong his job. 🙂
Posted : July 31, 2007 12:45 pm
Topic starter
The ants are all gone, no sign of them this morning. PHEEEEWWW !
I was relieved to hear that it happened to you too Linda_J and please don't take that the wrong way ! It was the strangest sight we've ever seen! I would've taken a picture if I wasn't so creeped out !
A moving colony - I will have to look that up after I get over the heebie-geebies.
I DO keep the house very clean, especially of food/drink.... and it is breezy up here. Actually it was quite breezy last night.
I had looked for old posts and didn't find anything.
I'll be re-stocking on bug sprays today when I go to Price Smart!!! If you see someone with a basket full of bug sprays - that will be me !
Posted : July 31, 2007 1:57 pm
Suzette,
I am glad to hear the traumatic event has passed. However, it still sounds like a major white cheddar cheese fix is definitely in order here 🙂
I found a spray at the ACE Hardware in Red Hook that works wonders with ants -- it's called Bengal.
Of course I have never had the misfortune to encounter a colony that is relocating (and hope I never do), but any time I see a few ants here or there, or trying to get into the house from the patio, I spray Bengal and I swear it will be a month (or longer) before I ever see another again. I don't know what's in that stuff, but it works better than anything I have ever used and it doesn't have a very strong odor either.
Just my .02 -- Good luck!!!!
Mell
Posted : July 31, 2007 3:14 pm
Yeah, it happens, usually this time of year, too. They are migrating + looking for water. They'll come in one door or window, and travel en masse through the house and then go out another door or window. They'll camp out and rest in a huge cluster on the wall. Sometimes it's easier, really, to just get a paper towel and wipe them up, starting with the big cluster and then following the trail(s). The ants will freak out and start heading the other way! The bst part is that once you've gotten the big cluster wiped out you don't have to clean up dead bodies—they're already on the paper towel! That way, too, you don't have nasty chemicals in your house. I've even used my hand to get rid of a small cluster! They don't bite, fortunately!
Posted : July 31, 2007 3:25 pm
try becoming a gecko herder! You are bound to have a few around the house that you can chase into the ant buffet. They are delighted to demolish any ant trails that they come across. They are also very territorial and hang out in the same few square feet on a wall once they decide it has a good food source. I often have a few that have adopted locations near doors and windows where ants try to get in even after Terminix has been here. The ants aren't much of a match for a hungry gecko.
Posted : August 1, 2007 4:55 am
I will second 'Ant Terro'. Comes in an orange box. Kills the colony in a few days.
Posted : August 1, 2007 2:02 pm
