"And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind" and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good."
Genesis 1:24-25
For the past three years of my life, I've had a constant battle with a little creature that God sees as good. I'm wondering if it was somehow altered during the fall of mankind, when sin entered the world. I cannot figure out how in the world, the little pests that swarm in droves and appear mysteriously inside my house (trust, me, I've searched in vain for the beginnings of a trail, but they travel along our heater vent) could possibly be considered "good". They are a pain to say the least. They cause a lot of undesired irritation. A lot of unneeded stress. A few extra grey hairs, I'm sure. And I hate the thought of them biting my children, especially a curious younger one.
Meet Monomorium minimum.
(or it could be a different, but similar species)
Picture this little guy in black carrying off the crumbs of this morning's banana muffin left under the table by my son (because mind you, I just vacuumed yesterday) and you got an idea. Oh, and multiply that by about 100.
They say that ants can carry over 10 times their weight. I'm burdened by about that much from all the trouble they've caused me.
And thus, I'm having a giveaway. Because I feel convicted and know I need an attitude adjustment. Kind of a silly one, but I hope that by making light of the situation, maybe my irritation will lessen and I can add happy thoughts to the stormy skies currently brewing in my mind. So...
I thought I'd give off a $10 gift card to the coffee shop of your choice (as long as I can purchase it here in Michigan or online for you). Why coffee? Because I wish I was sipping a nice cup of chai with a good book in a serene environment. But if you have a different peaceful retreat in the $10 range, I'm willing to listen.
What do you have to do?
Comment and tell me if...
(A). you have ever had an ant problem before, and if so what you did to remedy it.
(B). no, you are too blessed to deal with these little benevolent creatures, but will say a prayer for me and ask God for patience, perseverance, a good attitude and whatever else the Spirit leads.
That's it. Advice and/or prayer.
Can't be too hard, right?!
As for a cutoff date... let's shoot for next Wednesday, though I will have hopefully temporarily taken care of my ant problem by then. I'll try to pick a winner then Thursday or after we come back from our group get-together. :)
And for all those of you (aka my family) that are still waiting for pictures from Tampa... they are coming. I have yet to unpack the hard drive, and thus I can't post them yet. This was just a fun interlude to keep me from stewing about the fact that I can't vacuum up the ants lest I wake up my boys from their much needed nap.
10 comments:
Terro powder is the only thing that works on ants. Dust a little of it on the trail and they will carry it back to their anthill and kill the rest. It really does work. And yes, I will pray for you. It is the little things that drive us crazy.
Are you sure they bite? We have ants here too, the girls love yelling at them: "Find your own kitchen, ants!!" and then massacring the trail. They've found their way into my trash can time and again, really don't know how to help that. But we haven't had anybody bitten by them as far as I know. Are your ants small or large? Ours are small. I can handle small ants. We had carpenter ants at our old IN house... major problem as they cause damage similar to termites. We had to get an exterminator...
You know I will be praying for you dear. I always do, but you must not have tried the strong mint tea that I told you I heard about. Remember, you were supposed to brew it strong then spray it where you along the ant path. It won't be hazardous to the boys and hopefully it will work. Otherwise I read 1 garlic clove, 1 small onion, 1 T cayenne. Stew for 1 hr. Add 1 T liquid soap and put in spray bottle. A few sites had this recipe so go for it, where the boys, ESPECIALLY AIDEN, can't get to it.
We had a terrible ant problem a couple years ago and I totally feel your pain. I hate to say that those little vermin got under my skin, but they did (not literally thank goodness!) and I had a horrible attitude. We kind of went drastic with it, because other things did not seem to be working, and currently have Liberty Pest Control coming to our house 4 times a year to spray. I will still see them periodically certain times of the year, but the improvement since the spraying started has been HUGE!
Hope you get those little boogers under control. :)
Amber-the good news is that Michigan ants are much kinder to little kids than Florida ants. Trey learned that the hard way! We get them every spring but they are usually gone by about now. The best option with little kids around that I can tell are the little ant poison traps that are child-proof and the ants take the poison back to their colony and share it with the rest of their friends :) We will pray for those nasty ants to find a new home:)
We've also had this problem...we've found that the child proof ant bait (Terro) works out great for us. Hopefully you'll get this taken care of soon, because I can totally understand your dilemma!!
I use liquid Terro traps. It's the kind that you snip the bottom off with scissors and then set around were you've seen them marching. That's for the little ones that like liquid/water though. I think Terro makes another kind for the huge black ones that you put on little papers on the floor or right on the trail that's not liquid. Regardless, Terro brand is the only thing that seems to make them disappear around here. And there "were" a lot of them.
i have had TERRIBLE problems with ants this year!!!!! AHHHHHHH so recently i tried vinegar. spraying my counters with it, ants with it...also there is a sugar borax mix and maybe vinegar but i need to check with my mom on that so u don't blow something up...that you sprinkle around your house...the vinegar has def diminished them BUT they are still AROUND! AHHHHH
not sure if I'm too late but here is my 2 cents:
A. Tarro...it works the best-a little expensive & you have to watch your boys around it...but it works! It's the kind like Jamie described where the ants take it back to their colony thus eliminating the whole lot!
Good luck & looking forward to seeing you soon!
Kt
We've had more problems with gnats than with ants, but I completely understand your frustration! Last summer we had clouds of gnats hanging around, and it drove me nuts. The biggest thing that seems to help for us was to make sure there wasn't any food around and to change the garbage as frequently as we could. I also think that it helps to come have people spray for ants and other things like spiders. But I know some people aren't comfortable with the chemicals in their home, so that has it's drawbacks too. Good luck!
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