So, any of you following this blog will remember our adventures last year with ants. This year we started the spring in UT with nary an ant to be seen except a few here and there when the weather would warm up. Nothing serious and we didn't see too many in the basement, mostly in the kitchen upstairs.
At the beginning of June we moved in with Chase's family in the high desert in CA. Chase's family had no ant problems again, until we came. We were ok for a while, but then one night while looking for a pair of pajamas for Joelle in a laundry basket I had just washed, there they were. I was shocked! The laundry was clean, yet there they were crawling around in the basket and along the floor at the foot of our bed. Well, I panicked, because these are not UT ants that are just annoying, these are CA ants that bite. I didn't want them biting the baby, seeing as she is sharing our living quarters with us. Well, after my freak out session, Chase helped me clean everything out and he sprayed outside around our window. Well, that seemed to do the trick, for a while.
I am super careful not to bring any food type items into our room, I learned our lesson from last year. However, I didn't think about water. One night after coming back from somewhere I left the baby bottle (only filled with water) inside the diaper bag next to our bed. The next morning I retrieved the bottle and brought to the kitchen only to discover ants crawling around inside the lid...Arghhhhh! So, I ran back to the bedroom to see where else they were and they were swarming the bed, luckily we didn't get bit. Well, I guess Chase found one in his underwear and got bit on the "upper thigh" area. Anybody see the 'Everybody Loves Raymond' episode where Robert gets gored by a bull? Just kidding Chase. Anyway, so we did a more thorough cleaning this time, shaking our bedding outside, vacuuming out everything, doing all the laundry in the room, and spraying outside again.
Well, it's been quite a while since that episode. A couple days ago, I killed a few ants in the bathroom adjacent to our room, but didn't see anymore. Then, this morning I found more ants crawling on our bed. Chase killed them and we figured there were just a few rogue ants this time and that was it. I came in to try to take a nap with Joelle, but she wouldn't cooperate so I got her out and noticed ants swarming the dirty clothes basket this time. However, they were mostly swarming a very filthy barf rag that Joelle had completely soaked. Turns out, ants are attracted to baby barf everyone! How do I take care of this problem? Joelle isn't going to stop barfing, and she has a touch of acid reflux. Do we sleep on plastic sheets to eliminate any trace of baby barf or drool? Do I seal every barfed on outfit and burp rag inside plastic bags? Arghhhh, the humanity! Well, I will try to stop being melodramatic and try to be more practical. Chase has started a load of barfy clothes and baby sheets. I'll keep you updated on our battle with the ants, they sure have it in for us.
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You forgot to mention Joelle's new nick name, "Ant Bait."
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize that you guys were back in the HD. Is Chase going to San Antonio to train soon? So sorry about the crazy ant outbreaks. My parents have had quite a time with them in their house in Yucaipa. All over the kitchen. They finally got some ant traps. They are like roach hotels that you put around and the ants supposedly take whatever it is back to the colony and then they all die. See if you can find something like that. It sounded like it worked.
ReplyDeleteYeah, poor kid has the nick names "poop cannon" and "ant bait". She's going to love us when she's a teenager.
ReplyDeleteStephanie, Chase is supposed to start the academy Aug. 16th we hope, unless they delay it again. I've used those ant traps before, but I don't like to use them with little kids around. I'm afraid they'd pick them up and chew on them or play with them. I think we're ok for now. We saw a few more and killed them and they haven't been back for a day, but we'll see.
Don't take the ant attacks too personally, Jenn, you are not alone. They are really vicious this year, I don't remember having a problem with ants at all last year, but we've had battles in all of our beds (even after cleaning the bed sheets)& in the kitchen. We've heard of other friends that are having troubles too. Hope you don't have any more invasions!
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's been crazy! Jen,glad to hear we're not the only ones. Tonight I went to lay Joelle on her blanket that had been lying in the middle of the floor and realized I had laid her in a swarm of ants. I quickly picked her up and brushed any off of her and stripped her down. I'm so thankful I actually saw the ants or she'd been laying there helpless getting bitten.
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