The Winter War Begins...

The floors in my house are white, with the exception of the newly re-finished living room floor which is now an amber wood color. People always grimace when they see the floors and ask, "Aren't they hard to keep clean?" I think white floors would be difficult for someone who never cleans, but I clean all the time.

When I first moved here I was talked into staining the floors a dark brown, so dark it was almost black. I hated it. Besides the fact it was dark which can be pretty dreary during our dark, wet, cold winters, I couldn't see the spiders. It freaked me out they could sneak up on me. So I stripped the floors and painted them white. The kitchen, laundry, mud room and downstairs bathroom are all white tile. I can see those black creepy little bodies a mile away now!

Yes, I love white tile. It's easy to wash. It's like doing dishes. And I don't have cats, dogs, kids or men walking in and out of my house with dirty shoes. I don't even wear shoes in the house.  I have no desire to track not only mud into my living space, but pesticides, herbicides or dog shit. Lately, I've had too many people complain when I ask them to take off their shoes, but I have yet to have anyone volunteer to clean the floors before they leave. I am tempted to post a sign on my door that says, "REMOVE YOUR FUCKING SHOES!" I am so tired of arguing with these people.

Will I ever experience a winter without a war? Summer wars include bumble bees, yellow jackets, hornets and wasps. Every winter larger animals move in and I've been infiltrated by opossums, mice, rats, and one year I had a cat living under my house. Looking back I think that cat was probably managing the rats, but hearing it run around the crawlspace all night did not give me comfort. It's a struggle to get rid of the freeloads and try to do it safely for both myself and the vermin. So far this year the critters have stayed away. (Knock on wood.)

This year it's ANTS! First time in fifteen years. If it wasn't for my white tile counter and floor, I probably wouldn't have seen them until they took over the whole kitchen and ended up in the food. They are so tiny they are nearly microscopic. They were coming in through under a window ledge (I think) in the pantry, traversing across the counter, down the cupboards, across the floor and up the garbage receptacle which is in the kitchen just outside the pantry. Thankfully, I don't keep food in the pantry - just toilet paper. Again, thank GOD for my white tiles or I might have never noticed them until it was a real mess.

So, how to get rid of them without poisoning myself? First, I cleaned out the garbage container and moved it to the other side of the kitchen up on a chair. They didn't like that and started marching INTO my lower cupboards searching for tasty treats. UGH! No snacks in those cupboards but I had to clean everything stored in there. (What a pain!)

I needed to try some natural deterrents, remedies that wouldn't poison me and would just keep them from wanting in the house. I read like spiders they hate peppermint so I washed the tiles down with peppermint oil. That worked for a couple hours then they were back. I kept washing, and they kept coming back. Not working.

I read vinegar will kill them on contact and deter them. I tried that, but I know vinegar can eat tile so I wasn't thrilled with the idea. I tried it once and it didn't faze them at a all, in fact, their troops seemed to multiply.

Cayenne pepper. In another dwelling I had an ant problem, bigger ants coming in from the garden into my ground level apartment. I tried all kinds of things and the only thing that worked was cayenne pepper in a line on the edge of my patio. But how do I place bright red cayenne pepper on my beautiful white tiles and grout without staining it? I tried putting it on just the tiles, but the ants just walked around it. Not working.

After a week of battle, I was at my wits end. I was done trying to deter them. It was time to bring out the big guns. I've used boric acid for cockroaches when I lived in Phoenix and it works great but you can't just leave a pile of it and expect them to eat it. They are smart. They won't. You have to dust their trails with it so they only walk in it. After the cockroaches clean themselves by licking it off their feet, they are dead. Boric acid is also toxic to kids and pets, and if you stick your hands in it and then eat it, poisonous to adults, too. I tried it on the big ants in my former apartment, but I don't think I did it right. I found a recipe online:

Wearing gloves, mix 8 teaspoons of sugar with 1 cup of warm water in a container you plan to throw away or can clean really well after. Instead of sugar, you can use maple syrup, molasses, honey, or anything you might have around the house that is sweet and yummy. Add 1/2 teaspoon of boric acid and mix well. Using cotton balls, soak up the mixture and place where the ants are coming in. I also added a bit of coconut flour because I figured if ants want to carry it back to the nest, they would poison the other ants.

I put the cotton balls on little pieces of plastic to 
keep them off the tile.

I also placed a small container under the house below where the window is located.   I also caulked around the window ledge, but I did worry they'd find another way in. Annihilating them seems to be the only solution as they are relentless.

They loved it. Yum. It took about 24 hours for the ants to all disappear, with a few stranglers every now and then. I've left the poison balls on the counter just in case...for now.

Murder She Wrote

I'm feeling really badly about this.

I tried all summer to kill the yellow-jackets that have moved into my walls or roof through the little hole underneath the outside molding. Those homemade traps didn't work. They caught a lot of flies but the yellow-jackets didn't care. I filled one with some really nice homemade wine, and they still didn't care. I resolved to live and let live as long as they weren't hurting me. Yellow-jackets are good for gardens as they eat the bad bugs, or so I've heard. I also read when the winter freeze sets in they will all die anyway. Then someone told me because our winters have been so warm they might just hibernate and never die.

And then they started getting noisy. In the middle of the night. A purring, humming, almost like a soft woodpecker staccato only one hundred times faster. Off and on all night. Sometimes during the day I could hear them when I'm on the computer. That made me nervous. Are they trying to bore through the wood walls into the warmth of my house? What happens if they break through? Will I have to have my whole house fumigated? That can't happen. What I would do with a house full of mean bugs.

So I called the local exterminator. Nice guys. Of course they told me their pesticides were non-toxic. Yeah, right. I took precautions anyways, stuffing towels under my doors and around the wall where the stingers lived just on the other side. Because the hive couldn't be seen or reached, the exterminators said they would use a dust that covers the entrance so when they fly in and out it would kill them. No huge fumes. Still, I knew better.

The boss man was training a new hire, explaining in great detail what is to be done and why. It was fascinating. And then he retrieved this little blower to blow the dust. It had dust in it already, but he was unsure if it was the right dust for the yellow-jackets. To test it he opened the blower and SNIFFED IT! I was horrified! I tried to explain to him that was not a good practice. He laughed. Again, I tried to tell him he won't be laughing when in the next couple years he's diagnosed with lung or brain cancer. Pesticides were developed to kill. It's really not smart to purposely sniff poison! He laughed anyway. These young boys think they are immortal.

So they poofed the dust in the holes. The yellow-jackets went insane, buzzing loudly, and flying crazy. Then they all dropped or disappeared. I watched trying to keep a safe distance, but I think I might have got a whiff of it as my lungs started feeling heavy. It's been two hours and my lungs still feel heavy. It amazes me these companies think their killing chemicals are safe, but if you want to kill something, it works.

I feel sad for them. They are just trying to exist in this world like every other creature and here I am poisoning them with chemicals that would poison me.

I'm glad I'm not a yellow-jacket, but most of the time I feel like one. Irritable, mean, just trying to survive, and sensitive to toxic chemicals.

Stinging Critters and Death Traps

I have yellow jackets living in my house. They aren't swarming around inside yet, but I can see where they are entering through a small hole under the outside molding. How big is the nest and where it's located, whether in the walls or floors or crawlspace, I have no idea. I would, however, like a house with less holes in it. I can see hundreds of yellow jackets going in and out all day long constantly. This is much like it was with the bumble bees last year. Problem is yellow jackets are vicious and I've been told they will fly all the way across the yard just to attack a person. Great.

Case in point, about two weeks ago I was out trimming back my daisies and buzzing critters were all over as usual. I didn't think anything of it. I plant bee-attracting flowers and I've never had a problem. Honey bees are very friendly and sweet. One buzzer started aggressively flying around me in a hostile fashion unlike a normal honeybee. I kind of backed away and he went away. I continued cutting the flowers. He didn't like that, landed on my arm, and bit me! Not a sting just a painful bite as a warning I guess. Totally premeditated. Very much like a yellow jacket and since I saw him close up, I can confirm it was a yellow jacket.  I got the message and left.

A few days later I was trimming the daisies in another part of my garden while keeping a close eye on my cutters which are quite sharp. I should have been watching where I placed my hand and I grabbed something with a stinger! I hadn't got stung since I was a kid. I don't remember it feeling like being electrocuted. With LOTS of pain. I used some baking soda and crushed plantain weeds and the pain and swelling subsided immediately leaving a red mark that itched for days. Then yesterday as I was out in the garden my neighbor's little three-year old granddaughter started howling high-pitched screams of terror, each one louder than the last. Yep, something stung her. I've noticed any time I wear my purple t-shirt, I get buzzed too close for comfort. I decided to take action.

I don't want to use smelly, toxic poison as I don't know if it will infiltrate into my inside air space so I got online and searched for ways to kill them. There are many instructions on how to build a homemade trap, but from what I understand this will just trap the workers and leave the queens to nest over the winter IN MY HOUSE! Hmmm...I may have to get some poison eventually, but I'll try this worker trap first.

I used a one-gallon plastic water jug. With an exacto knife or sharp instrument, cut an X into the sides of it, bending the sharp bits so they go inside. Make sure the holes are big enough to allow the yellow jackets in, but not too big so it's easy for them to get out. You want some to crawl out that way they'll go back to the nest and tell their friends about the yummy treats.

 

 

Next, make an attractant. In the spring yellow jackets are in need of protein so a piece of raw meat hanging from the top works well. Put a few inches of water in the bottom with a few drops of dish washing soap in the water. For some reason when they hit the water, the soap renders them incapable of getting out and they drown. Maybe the slippery stuff gets on their wings and legs?

 

Another recipe for death is something sweet like wine or apple juice. Since my apples are ripe and so abundant I can't even eat them fast enough, I decided to go this route.

 

 

Plus apples in the refrigerator...LOTS of apples this year!

 

 

I have lots of windfalls that the yellow jackets love. Place about 2-3 inches of apple juice in the bottom made from about ten apples. Skim the foam off it and add with a few drops of soap. Place the lid back on the jug.

 

 

I placed the jug on top of a ladder right next to the entry. I've been watching it all day. For some reason I thought they'd be all over it like they are with the windfall apples, but I do see two dark bodies so it's working. Slowly. I might need to replace the juice with wine. I think they'd like that better. I know I would.

 

I also made a trap with a small plastic water bottle. I think a big gallon soda pop bottle would work better, but I don't have access to one. For this type of trap, cut off the top 1/3rd of the bottle, invert it so the narrow spout is inside, place the sweet stuff in the bottom with a few drops of soap. It has not captured any yellow jackets, but I'll give it some time and see if one of my junk-food-eating neighbors has a gallon soda pop container.

 

I just hope these traps don't catch any honey bees.

 



 

REVIEW OF STINGING CRITTERS IN CASE YOU NEED A REFRESHER COURSE:

Yellow Jacket


 

Honey Bee

Bumble Bee

Wasp




Now what to do about the giant spiders coming in the house at night?

The Winter War is upon us...