Hello and good morning!
We’ve been awake since around 5.30 and it’s going to be another hot and stuffy day.
The ants are still coming in and we have no idea where. Hubby has had the appliances out again and puffed everywhere with one of the new powders we bought the other day. I have some chrysanthemums going over in the window so we’ll dry the petals out and dispense them as we did last year which seemed to help.
This year is worse than ever and no doubt it is the heat that is driving them. It makes us feel we don’t keep the house clean.
Years ago in days before Hubby, I remember how despondent I got when the boys came back with nits every time they stayed with their mother. We would treat them, and us, then a fortnight later they’d go and stay for the weekend and we’d start again. I told her she needed to treat everyone in their household, including adults, when it turned out she was doing nothing. She was back living with her mother then and there were eleven other children in the house and they all had them.
The fourth time I overreacted and burnt the bedding, replacing mattresses, pillows and sheets.
We are hoping to hire a Rug Doctor today and clean the carpets. We did them shortly after we arrived which helped get rid of the smell of cigarettes, so another clean would be a good idea, especially due to the latest events indoors. Carpet in the hall, lounge and bedrooms is a dark grey so doesn’t show the dirt as such, but we have noticed some staining and of course the heavy walkways always take a hammering.
Other than that, there’s not much on our agenda today. The sky has come over grey and oppressive, but no rain is forecast until Monday. We have washing out, but that shouldn’t take too long to dry in this heat.
Have a good day everyone. Take care and keep safe.
I sympathise with the ants. We get them coming in for water – and anything else that they can find. We sprayed round the whole house outside, with a poison you put in an aerosol. It definitely helped, but I still see the odd one.
If you don’t have pets around, you can try mixing a little borax crystals in honey and leaving out near an ant entrance. They eat it and take it back to the nest, so should wipe them all out!
Good luck with cleaning the carpets. It is surprising how quickly they pick up grime with use.
Hubby is thinking of trying that. The carpets have come up a treat!
I just read about your carpets. It’s great! 😀
We try to keep on top of things.
I have already had ants in this new house and the kitchen is 10′ off the ground (walk out basement). How do they get up here? In our area it always seems they are the worst in the late spring early summer. I keep killing the scouts hoping to send a message back to the mothership not to come in.
I sympathise Kate. Ants are a problem for everyone in the warmer months and it has been really hot lately. It will be another mammoth year for swarms later I expect.
I’ve heard dryer sheets or coffee grounds repel ants
We can’t use dryer sheets as Hubby has a reaction to them, and our coffee is instant rather than ground, but dried chrysanthemum petals worked for us last year both indoors and in the greenhouse.
In our old house in CO we had a lot of problems but I still miss it. The electrical system would pop a fuse if I turned on the iron and tv at the same time😬
Ha! I turned on an electric twin tub washing machine and it fused!!
Coffee grounds confuse carpenter ants apparently. I’ve used dryer sheets in our old home in CO
We use instant coffee so that wouldn’t work for us, but read that dried chrysanthemum petals deter them and they worked last year.
Good luck
thanks
I had a coworker who’s children got head lice. She shaved their heads and then treated the whole house – twice and finally got rid of them. It makes me itch to even think about them!!
That used to be the remedy, shaved heads. I had to report to the school nurse the first and second time to get the shampoo, then it was made available from the chemist, but I was so angry that their Mum did nothing and left it to us to sort out until I had ‘a word’.