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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 10 of 10. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by tabitha on January 14, 2004, at 21:32:51
I have quite an ant population in my house lately. It's prompted me to keep the kitchen counters clean and free of dirty dishes.. but the ants still make a constant assault on my espresso maker. They go into the drip tray, where all the old drips and runoff from the pump clearing itself collect. Basically it's slightly watery espresso in there. Now I know it can't have much nutritional value, and I don't see how they could carry liquid back to the nest.. so I figure the ants are addicted to the stuff and keep running in there day in and day out to get their hits. It kind of goes with the workaholic ant personality don't you think?
Posted by Jai Narayan on January 15, 2004, at 8:06:11
In reply to Ants Love Espresso, posted by tabitha on January 14, 2004, at 21:32:51
How big and what color are the ants?
For years we had some tiny red ants in our top floor apartment. I thought nothing of it, they seems unintrusive. one night while sitting on the floor watching tv I got a bite on my body....then another one. I didn't think too much till the bites began to hurt. They were tiny bites...well, you know where I'm going with this.
We had the HARDEST time getting rid of the pesky females.
We are on the top floor of our building....how did they get up here.
Why only in our apartment?
They were out in the hall.
We started spotting them everywhere.
they even made it into my dreams.
We got ant hotels....strange name...and they got real angry. they would gather in my bathroom at night in circles. I wondered if I put my head real close if I could hear what they were talking about....probably conversing about the ugly hotels on their route. We did get rid of them but it took months...and months. I even got freaked out about it once.
In my interactions with ants in the past I have met up with some big blacks (carpenter ants) they were a total freak out....pouring out of our trailer wall in the thousands.
I witnessed a war of black and red ants in the heat of August in my Yert out in the woods.
I've listened to them crunching all night on the blue insulation in the yerts walls.One of my first memories as a baby is sitting on the sidewalk in the sun looking at an ant coming out of it's home in amazement.
Posted by Angielala on January 15, 2004, at 10:59:33
In reply to Ants Love Espresso, posted by tabitha on January 14, 2004, at 21:32:51
I'm sorry- but I loaughed my butt off reading this- just thinking of those little ants running to the caffeine. Haha.
Let's see. Now they go into your maker... I wonder if you left a small petri-sized (because we all know we have petri-sized dishes just laying around) dish- maybe the lid of a jar? and put a little espresso/coffee in it with a lethal dose of rat poison or ant RAID mixed in... and did that for a few days... I wonder if they'd get the hint?
Of course if you have small kids or a dog or cats or someone who would drinka lid of coffee you should do it.I'm just remembering the Japenese Beatle incident of 1989. My parents had this HUGE goreous white rose bush in their yard that climbed up our entire house. It was outstanding. That is until the beatles came to devour the leaves of the bush. We bought the beatle catcher.... it caught beatles, but more just kept coming... so my dad decided to to put this big bird feeder right in the bush. Beatles are a good snack for some birds i found.. and the beatles didn't really visit so often.
Just a thought :)
I HATE ANTS IN THE HOUSE!!
> I have quite an ant population in my house lately. It's prompted me to keep the kitchen counters clean and free of dirty dishes.. but the ants still make a constant assault on my espresso maker. They go into the drip tray, where all the old drips and runoff from the pump clearing itself collect. Basically it's slightly watery espresso in there. Now I know it can't have much nutritional value, and I don't see how they could carry liquid back to the nest.. so I figure the ants are addicted to the stuff and keep running in there day in and day out to get their hits. It kind of goes with the workaholic ant personality don't you think?
Posted by tabitha on January 15, 2004, at 15:02:30
In reply to how big are these coffee lovers?, posted by Jai Narayan on January 15, 2004, at 8:06:11
They're small and brown. They haven't bitten me yet. As ants go these are the least offensive type. I've used ant baits in the past and they seemed to work, but lately they didn't have much effect. I sealed up the place they were coming into the bathroom (around the base of the toilet) but a few days later they found a new entrance. There must be one heck of an ant colony under the house.
Your post reminds me of a short story called The Veldt that has a scene where a bunch of flesh-eating ants swarm and eat a big live antelope. Yuck! How scary it is when tiny brainless things combine their efforts.
Posted by tabitha on January 15, 2004, at 15:04:36
In reply to Re: Ants Love Espresso, posted by Angielala on January 15, 2004, at 10:59:33
Good idea-- mixing the ant bait with their chosen coffee treat. They seem to ignore the bait otherwise.
I hope the rose bush survived. Beetles... Eewww!
Posted by Karen_kay on January 16, 2004, at 17:28:28
In reply to Ants Love Espresso, posted by tabitha on January 14, 2004, at 21:32:51
If they keep eating espresso, maybe they can build you a new house? Think of the possibilities. Put them to work....Create your own ant farm. Or trap them and make chocolate covered ants...Yummm..
Posted by tabitha on January 16, 2004, at 17:58:16
In reply to Re: Ants Love Espresso » tabitha, posted by Karen_kay on January 16, 2004, at 17:28:28
Good thinking-- put them to work. A certain blocked poster with a quirky sense of humor had that same notion. I thought of training them to load the dishwasher. That oughta keep em busy.
Posted by Karen_kay on January 16, 2004, at 18:12:14
In reply to Re: Ants Love Espresso » Karen_kay, posted by tabitha on January 16, 2004, at 17:58:16
I don't mind the bites. I don't mind the bugs, as long as they aren't spiders. I don't mind feeding them. And I don't mind sharing my bed, as long as they don't get frisky. But I don't ahve a dishwasher. So, while you're at it, could you train them on manual as well? I mean it couldn't possibly be that much extra work now could it? And if they are eating espresso their brain power muct be up. So, they'd learn much faster. So could you take one for the team, wash a few dishes to teach them how and send a boatload of those ants my way. I could use some help here.
Posted by Angielala on January 19, 2004, at 8:02:17
In reply to Re: Ants Love Espresso » Angielala, posted by tabitha on January 15, 2004, at 15:04:36
The rose bush is now HUGE- very healthy :)
> Good idea-- mixing the ant bait with their chosen coffee treat. They seem to ignore the bait otherwise.
>
> I hope the rose bush survived. Beetles... Eewww!
Posted by Angielala on January 19, 2004, at 8:03:04
In reply to Re: Ants Love Espresso » tabitha, posted by Karen_kay on January 16, 2004, at 17:28:28
Haha- yeah, maybe they could come to work for me!
> If they keep eating espresso, maybe they can build you a new house? Think of the possibilities. Put them to work....Create your own ant farm. Or trap them and make chocolate covered ants...Yummm..
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