I'm starting to get freaked out here.  A couple of weeks ago, while hunting down a leak in my hot tub, I discovered carpenter ants had taken up residency in the solid foam insulation.  Once I removed the wood skirt they went scrambling.

For years, when I find a bug in the house, I catch it and relocate it outside.  It's my no kill policy.  So when I found the ants I just let them relocate themselves.  And it seemed they had.

Then I found I had another leak.  And while digging I found more ants.  And I found some structural damage to the tub.  Not good.  So I decided more serious intervention was necessary in the form of RAID.

About a week later we began to see ants in the house.  I've been here for 24 years and I've never seen this many.  So we began to swat them, and swat them, and swat them.

Yesterday I found an ant crawling on my leg.  I killed it.

Today I felt an ant on my leg and I did the same.  Then another immediately after but this one bit me!  Then another ant bit me!  All this in about 5 minutes time.  This is totally new to me.  And then I thought about the NEW policy which has reverted back to see and be killed.  Then I started to wonder... Have I brought bad Karma on myself?  Is there some mystical force out there (or in here)?

We all lived in peace.  Then I started playing Delta Force.  And now it seems they are fighting back.  What's next?  My house?

I don't think it's bad Karma, Julie. You just got an ant problem.


Gennee

Oh no Gennee, I've upset the balance of the universe!  Where we used to live in harmony with the ants has now become a bloody battlefield, strewn with the bodies of ants.  And if we leave the dead ants there, the living will come and take them away.  Maybe that smoke I see out in my back yard is a funeral pyre. 

But I fear this may not be the worst!  Next, it could be THEM!

You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it.

Yes Janet, I heard the man on the radio.  But when he said, "Stay in your homes" I knew we were doomed.  They are already HERE!!!!

Flame throwers seemed to work pretty good in the movie, but that would probably be throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Reminds me of when I was a kid and the birds used to eat the cherries off the tree, but they always left enough for one or two pies.  One year I stood daily guard and sprayed them with a water hose, but in the end, not a single cherry left for us!  I think they are smarter than we think.

I've heard boric acid powder will deter ants and such, might be worth a try.  Another thought are those electronic pest control thingies you plug in.  Supposed to work on roaches, not sure about ants - I think they emit some frequency that insects don't like.

Not sure your religious affiliation, but my Buddhist teacher swears he got rid of the same problem by chanting a tibetan mantra.

Haha. I have the same no kill policy. Though I don't have an ant problem to that magnitude. But if there's one in my glass, I try to rescue it from the water to safety.

Quote from: gennee on June 18, 2011, 11:54:03 AM
I don't think it's bad Karma, Julie. You just got an ant problem.


Gennee

Kia Ora Gennee,

No...It would seem the "ants" have a "Julie" problem to deal with...

Metta Zenda

Kia Ora,

All jokes aside [if that's at all possible  ]...Where would we be without our friends the insects ?

Sadly Americans spend "Billions" of dollars each years on pesticides, and the weirdest thing is the only insects whose numbers seem to dwindle are the "beneficial" ones, the pest type just build immunity to whatever we  "intelligent " humans bombard them with...

Entomologists believe two percent of any insect population have a natural immunity to [so it would seem ] any newly developed insecticide designed to target the given insect pest population...Take the humble Germany cockroach Blattella germanica for example... Which reminds me, the humble roach reached its peek in evolution over 300 million years ago, that is the cockroach that we see today looks the same has it did 300 million years ago,,, 


Insects are our friends people! We could learn a awful lot from them...

Metta Zenda [Wearing her entomological cap]

I used to have a bug vacuum that slurped up the little ones (mostly spiders and bees) and I could release them outside.  Doing this helped me to become a little less afraid of them.

I think that on the leg bit they did eventually just attack on the fact of an aggressor killing them openly, but I think for the general ant problem, that it's just generally them wanting to spread their territory into your house to nom up its wood, not so much a karma thing. ^^

Maybe they're just feeling... antagonised.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

I hate bugs! I don't have a no kill policy, I just hate killing them... so I call for my brothers But if its a spider I'm screaming and running for the hills. I blame that spider horror movie I saw when I was 8. The spiders burst out of people and got bigger each time o.O

I did wake up in bed with ants crawling on me . After screaming showering drinking a whiskey and changing the bed, in no particular order. I traced the troal to the front door. They were coming from the garden straight to me

Cindy

Get a pet anteater?



You wouldn't be killing anything and you'd be helping the balance of nature, plus you'd have a rather unique pet for a conversation piece 

Quote from: Zenda on June 19, 2011, 03:31:14 PM
Sadly Americans spend "Billions" of dollars each years on pesticides, and the weirdest thing is the only insects whose numbers seem to dwindle are the "beneficial" ones, the pest type just build immunity to whatever we  "intelligent " humans bombard them with...

Entomologists believe two percent of any insect population have a natural immunity to [so it would seem ] any newly developed insecticide designed to target the given insect pest population...Take the humble Germany cockroach Blattella germanica for example... Which reminds me, the humble roach reached its peek in evolution over 300 million years ago, that is the cockroach that we see today looks the same has it did 300 million years ago,,, 

But if you simply lay out a dusting of diatomaceous earth, your problems will soon be over.  Insects like ants and roaches walk over the fine powder and it abrades their exoskeletons and kills them through dehydration.  It's kind of like sliding over broken glass.  And they can't build up an immunity.  Also they carry the stuff with them back to the nest.  More rolling around in broken glass.   

Or a jar of "Ant Rid"( Borax in a sugary solution). They carry it back into the nest and problem solved.

One nest more or less won't make much difference in Ant Universe, so don't feel bad.

Karen, in butch "country girl mode".

Doll,

Never knew what ant rid was

Perfect it works so well

Damn sight easier than pouring boiling water down their ant holes


Cindy

Hi Cindy.
For interest of non-Aussies I had a friend on a farm other end of the state who used to deal with Bull Ants (1 &1/2" long, aggressive and have a nasty sting as well as huge jaws) by catching a few with tweezers and painting them with Sheep Dip. Same effect but on steroids, coz they are too!

Karen.