Hormigas Magica

I hate ants!!!!!!! I am berating these little buggers with colorful metaphors as we speak. The developers built our house over a kingdom of these little devils. Every time we suffered another invasion, every time they managed to find the pantry, every time they discovered the dog food bowl, every time they ruined my chocolate chip cookies that Lara made, every time they metastasize in the shower, I berate them with colorful euphemisms and metaphors. Bad ants!

Last week Lara asked, “Why is there an ant highway going to my desk? Where are these little guys going?” In our secret couple-language, an “ant highway” is the long teaming swarm of ants running from their point of origin to whatever it is they’ve decided they’re hungry for. Tuesday it was the timer outside, Thursday it was the office, Friday it was the kitchen and bathrooms. Lara followed the ants to their destination, the desk. I traced them to their source, the top of the stairway. They were traveling from inside the stairway, probably from the garage to find treasure. I still haven’t found the treasure they were looking for, but food upstairs is strictly forbidden now. There were hundreds or thousands of ants feasting on Lara’s computer and around the desk. Mmmmm tasty computer.

A week before, they shut off the outdoor lighting and fishpond pump in the backyard. There were so many ants living in the timer that the timer couldn’t rotate to turn on the lights. I was perplexed as to why the lights and pump weren’t on, as the pump is fairly new. Raid killed these things instantly when I found they had taken residence in the timer. I had to take the timer off the fence and clean it thoroughly. I didn’t want to spend a hundred dollars on a new fish pump and was a little relieved when I found the kingdom had taken residence.

The next assault on the house was in the fish bathroom (guest bathroom) and the master bath. They were coming out of the showerhead. How and where do they come from in there? Outside was protected with Home Defense Max. They had taken up residency in the house now. I sprayed several weeks ago outside around the house with HDM. It works ok to keep the swarms outside or I thought, but then I realized the live indoors now. Hmmm the little buggers live with us now. The poor things don’t like the colder weather or the rain. Let's go inside with the people. They will feed us and take care of us.

The same time period Frodo was hiding in his “I am cold” position upstairs (picture below), the ants had taken over the kitchen. Lara was still sleeping when the ants decided to take over the kitchen in a frontal assault. Frodo’s bowl had 700 billion ants in and around the tile and in his bowl. There were more ants than money left for the banking industry bailout. There were so many of these creatures that the tile floor was dark with crawly crawlies.

We didn’t call an exterminator. We’ve learned that we don’t have to pay $100 to get rid of the ants. Instead, we use about six dollar’s worth of Terro. I hate ants, but I love Terro. Ants love Terro too!

The Terro website said that it is essentially borax mixed with sugar water. It is pet and Frodo friendly. You can buy small cartridges at your local hardware store or supermarket. When your home is invaded by ants, you take the cartridge, scissor the lid and let the magic work. Then you wait. Terro Magica! It may take a day as it did with us. And during that time, the ants will swarm all over the area. Go Terro Go! Gradually they’ll carry this sticky sweet poison back to their nest, and the entire colony perishes like some freakish doomsday cult. It’s delightful!!! Ants come out of the shower nozzle dead. Do they just push their creepy crawly buddies out of the hole? Talk about irreverence! I have the evidence in the showers.

Is it possible to spend even less to get rid of ants? I have tried most of these other methods to get rid of ants. They didn’t work for us. Raid kills them on the spot, but Frodo, Lara and Raid don’t get along. Some of them (like cinnamon or cayenne pepper or soap) deterred the ants for a while, or thwarted their immediate goal, but they didn’t actually address the root problem, which is that we had a kingdom of ants inside and outside the house. Terro fixed this for the time being. During Christmas, we will do some more bating and switching. They have subsided for the moment and I am praying that magica hormigas has run out.

This post is a product endorsement for Terro. If they come back after Christmas, I may do some Hail Marys and do a little dance. I’m just grateful for a product that can save me so much time and money, and kill the damn bastards that have invaded our home. Terro Wow!!!!