Help!! We're being invaded!!!

There's thousands of them, maybe even a million, maybe more. They're little, sneaky, extremely quiet and really fast! They weren't there at all and I turned around and a whole army had appeared instantly!! The ants are coming...they're everywhere!!! (Or at least all over the dining room floor!)

To be more exact - they WERE there. I think I've taken control and gotten all those suckers out'a there. At least for now.

Seriously, I consider us lucky. They usually come in along about mid-March. This is our first invasion of the year. (One more "pleasure" of living with woods near the house!) I'm sure we will see them again and again and probably, yet again. A couple years back we just could never gain control. We tried everything, even an exterminator.

I have to admit, we don't handle them in a green or organic manner. We tried and we haven't found a working method. Don't tell me to plant mint. That's where they've established their headquarters - in our mint patch. Last year, we were forced to give up fresh mint as we needed to treat that area - several times. Cayenne pepper does nothing to head them off either. We read books that said they would not cross a pepper line. Oh yeah? Beg to differ there, Dear.

We spray. We bomb. We use both indoor and outdoor traps. We try to be meticulous about keeping the floors and counter surfaces clean. We've blasted the chimney, inside and out. They were literally walking two stories up the outside of the chimney and coming down the inside!

I found them this morning which immediately changed my plans for the day. They weren't there last night when I scrubbed the floor. (I have ceramic tile in my dining room.) I immediately sprayed the floor. Then I needed to wait while the spray dried and killed them off. At that point, I needed to scrub the floor to get rid of the spray. (I treat sprayed surfaces like a communicable disease!) Then, to be safe, I scrubbed everything in the room. Finally, I did treat the perimeter of the room. (We do not have pets on the floor. We only have tropical fish and we don't spray in that room at all.) I placed a few strategic traps in corners under furniture.

Then, just to be positive they were under control I scrubbed the kitchen down, too. Note: No ants have been seen in the kitchen. Yet.

Well, so much for well laid plans. I was working on a commissioned article about finding inspiration when I found the ants, instead. Made we wonder if anyone had been inspired by ANTS.

Well, here are just a few ant-inspired items I found on an Etsy search!