Know the Enemy, the Ants.

The days are getting longer and the weather seems warmer to me, at least compared to a few weeks ago with the ice and snow. I wonder if it's all a ruse and we'll get hit with some more freezing temps. The forecast for the next week is gloomy, but I the chickens are coming soon and the garden needs work and I have been inattentive. Feelings of being overwhelmed with the backyard project loom large, I really need to crack the whip on myself.

This will be my third year at this house and each spring it seems we get several rounds of sugar ants in the kitchen. I call them sugar ants because they appear solely to be attracted to the honey and barley malt syrup in the cupboard, little else. Oh, I guess I did just see this guy with a crumb of something, not honey or barley malt, those are in a pot of soapy water in the sink, drowned ants all around.

So, I followed the trail and had to pull out the fridge to see where they were coming from, I put the syrup and honey in the middle of a pot of water, cleared and cleaned the counters and have been using the top of the fridge, right side of the counters (no ants over there) and the kitchen island to prepare food. Inconvenient, but I figure the best way to see what they're after is to observe their behavior for a few days, with no new crumbs, smells or stuff to get them excited.

I'll probably clean the counters each day and clean out the cabinet where the sticky stuff was housed and cross my fingers that they just sort of retreat. I've tried before to plug all the holes they come through, that works well for a little while, I haven't used an effective trap or poison system really, can you make your own poison? I believe this to be a preventable occurrence and it really isn't a lot of fun to deal with, I need a solution and the interweb is rife with controversy about the best ways to treat them.