After a mostly moderate summer, the weather has gone to hell. Really hotter than hell. Having temperatures around 100 is not that strange. It's the humidity that is unusual and means that's it doesn't cool off much at night.
There is something else that is making things extra difficult. Whenever it gets really hot, tons of ants come inside. The humidity seems to have made them even more fierce. Bad enough that they swarm any crumbs they find, but I keep find them walking on my arms. I see them and I feel them as the little buggars bite and it stings. Luckily, from what I read, these ants don't deposit anything when they clamp their jaws on me.
It's war with keeping them at bay. I have a bottle of water mixed with peppermint castile soap at the ready to spray them. I'm not sure if they drown or the peppermint gets them, but it's pretty effective for the moment anyway. And hand to hand combat when I find one walking up my arm.
I even found them wandering in the top of my coffee pot.
Thankfully, they don't seem to have wandered into the room where my computer is. I am doing what I an to finish the draft of the Molly book before I set it aside. The last thing I need are little ant bites as I'm trying to write.
11 comments:
Good morning -- This is definitely a time of ants -- thank goodness, I haven't had any but my son has had them swarming everywhere at his house. In Texas, we had fire ants -- they definitely sting and that hurts like the dickens. I stepped in a bed of them one time -- they swarmed over my foot and wow, my foot was swollen and painful for several days. The HOA here has a company spray pesticide once a month all around the perimeter of our places so most bugs are kept at bay.
Did you see the lunar eclipse last night? I had a great view from my office window and checked it every 15 minutes or so from about 7:30 until I went to bed at 9:00 -- there was just a tiny sliver of moon still visible then.
I finished the granny horizontal stripes blanket -- the blue ombre yarn worked beautifully. Next up is finishing the blanket for a baby due in a few months, then another ripple using the Rainbow Mist bitty stripes.
I haven't received my copy of "Danger Looms" -- Amazon keeps changing the delivery date -- the latest says it will arrive Sunday.
I hope you win your war with the ants -- good luck!!
I received my new book yesterday! Only a couple of days late.This morning I did my usual ant battle, then went to the computer...but the sweet machine won't let me open Facebook, a couple of games I like, or even email. They want me to have all new user names and passwords. Perhaps the ants are in there laughing at me. I also spray with a bottle of water and dish soap, and sometimes a bit of salt on their trail. Sounds crazy, but it does work. I am hoping for some cooler weather very soon !!
Patty, Fire ants are a different story. They do inject some kind of toxin when they sting. That must have been awful. A tree was blocking the eclpse, so I just saw a little of it. It's great that you are happy with how the blanket turned out. You really keep them coming. I hope your book comes soon.
Linda Osborn, Lately I have noticed that Amazon's deliveries have taken longer than they were supposed to. That strange that your computer is making you create new user names and passwords. But then it seems computers do what they want. I tried spraying the ant trail with Dawn and it seemed to work. You and me both hoping for the cooler weather. Then the ants can go back where they belong. Happy reading!
Linda -- It may all be legit with your computer but I had something similar a few weeks ago. I asked my son and he said it could be a scam. He said to shut down the computer, wait a few minutes and try again. Everything worked perfectly without me having to change a thing.
Patty: Yes there is a scam like that--they have shut down my entire computer, and pretended to be from Microsoft. They aways want $400 to fix things. The Geek Squad told me the same thing--just turn the whole computer off and let it rest for few minutes.
Oh Betty how awful. I know what that’s like. It seems like this summer has been an endless inferno in so many places. Hoping for cooler weather soon.
Getting ready to sit down with a cool drink and your new book. Hope things improve soon. 🍂🍁
Sally, Thanks for the sympathy. It is finally getting a little cooler, but the humidity is hanging around. Happy reading!
I'm sorry to hear about your ant problem. My friend got a swarm around the cat food bowl inside the house. She killed them with some non dangerous bug spray. She said she puts vinegar around the window to keep them out. My book arrived and I am going to read it as soon as I finish my current read.
Miriam, As I read your comment, an ant was walking around my wrist. Now that the weather has cooled a little, I hope they all go back outside. Happy reading!
Yikes! I sympathize and empathize, Betty. I've got a lot of ants around my place. I look in my bathroom sinks and kitchen sink each morning to make sure the large volumes of ant visitors haven't returned. Well, their successors, at least. I hate to kill anything, but I convince myself to do it with bugs in the house, especially armies of ants--using spray that's not supposed to be harmful to dogs. And they do find the plastic bags outside where I store what my pups do before tossing it out, as well as whatever we've stuck in our compost garbage cans. Best of luck to you!
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