Ant Wars

Every summer my war against the ants at Treasure Island enters a new campaign. It’s not a fair fight. The ants are always on the offensive while I’m trying to defend a long porous border. There are no peace talks, no MOU that buys time for negotiators to work out a settlement. That’s why I’m usually forced to resort to the nuclear option (see photo).

The ant wars have been going on for at least 20 years. I don’t own the only house that ants invade, but almost no one on Treasure Island talks about ant problems let alone solutions. There’s no mention of the subject on WhatsApp or by word of mouth via the Island telegraph. Perhaps homeowners are embarrassed. Some of the better-known professional pest exterminators make house calls, but I haven’t investigated cost or how many repeat visits are needed. To me battling ants is a DIY proposition.

So what do the ants do? Quite simply they invade the kitchen from outdoor nests seeking water and small food particle, first a few scouts, followed by a brief lull and then the main army. Fortunately there’s no air force. It doesn’t matter how good a kitchen cleaner you are. In a food prep area, there are always going to be food traces. Trying to fix a meal with ants on the counter is almost unbearable.

Ironically, the larger the attacking force, the easier it is to deal with. It’s better to take on a steady flow of several platoons of ants instead of the sporadic wanderings of a squad. More on that later.

This year my defensive plan was to repel them entirely by spraying around possible home entry points. That works for an Island couple I know who are willing to discuss their ant wars. I used the premixed Ortho Home Defense insect killer spray. It’s a well-designed product with an electrically powered comfort wand that’s almost like using an AR-7 rifle in semi-automatic mode instead of a handgun. It probably provides long-lasting protection for most users. But it didn’t work for me. I sprayed everywhere: along the foundation, under the deck, along the toe kicks, around the doors, behind the stove, inside cabinets. Twice. Either my ants have entry points I can’t find, or they are immune to Ortho’s formula. Within a day or two, they were back in the kitchen.

Years ago I learned about a product called Maxforce ant bait stations from my sister in California. She got them from a pest exterminator who told her that you need a license to buy them. That may have been true at the time. It isn’t now. You can find them on Amazon, and the price seems competitive with similar products. The difference is that these bait stations have never failed me. No once. Ants one day, no ants the next.

If you deploy a Maxforce bait station in the path of a stream of ants, most will ignore it. But some will enter the station and take the bait back to the nest, where it destroys the queen and the rest of the colony. I add a drop of water to the bait station to help activate it, although that’s not required.

Last weekend there were enough ants in the sink for me to detect the path back to their nest. I set up two bait stations and that was it. The next day there were no more ants. In addition to being effective ant killers, the bait stations have a long shelf life. The ones I used were stored in an airtight container and are at least 6 years old.

With the ants gone, I’m comfortable preparing food again. The current campaign has moved well beyond a ceasefire, but I know they will return next summer.