It’s never fun to stumble out of bed and first thing see a problem.
It’s better to have your coffee first.
I suffered through mice this past fall and winter. I kindly caught and released them, nice person that I am, although I considered other options. Maybe I should join the Franciscan order.
But I’m not so nice to the kitchen ants. Tiny, annoying little things. I will say, though, that they force you to clean up every crumb and kool-aid spill. They really like kool-aid.
I had a man come out last week and spray. It worked for a bit, but then they came back. Not as many as before, but more than two or three. I can tolerate that many, since it only takes a few seconds to squish them, but after that, it’s too much work and quite a mess. Windex, for what it’s worth, either kills them or knocks them out on impact. Then your counters look like an aerial view of a battlefield with tiny bodies strewn about. It’s yucky, especially on the walls where the matte finish prevents them from wiping up easily.
Yesterday morning, I made my way to the sink to fill the coffee maker. There had to be 500 ants in it swarming over a single knife covered in peanut butter. Peanut butter, I thought, who had peanut butter last night? I knew I hadn’t left this knife there before I went to bed.
As soon as I turned on the water, the ants ran for the sides of the sink and started climbing out. I was able to catch most of them with the spray nozzle, but the fast ones had to be Windexed and wiped. Such slaughtering at such an early hour is so unpleasant.
An hour or so later, Billy woke up and proudly said, “I had a midnight snack last night!”
Yes, darling, I noticed.
Only a few random ants in sight this morning. No midnight snackers either. I’ve got the pest man scheduled to come back out on Thursday anyway.
Reit This Way 
Ants are such a pain. I discovered the Windex thing, too. Weird, huh? The only bad problem is when they start ingesting it, and then you squish them. I don't know if I've ever smelled something worse! They do the same thing with Clorox. It's awful.
Here is a home remedy that seems to work. Mix a tsp of boric acid (from the drug store first aid aisle) with 4 TBSP peanut butter. Then put small amounts in bottle caps and tuck in the corners of your lower cabinets or on the kitchen window sill if you think that is a prime spot. You can also mix the boric acid with honey or syrup. It seems some ants like protein and some are more attracted to sugar.
Someone told us to put cinnamon sticks in areas we thought they were entering the house from…I can chase an ant away with a cinnamon stick, but this did not solver our problem either.
UGH! I couldn't agree more! We have them – so I may have to borrow a few tricks from the others who've commented. What about ant traps? … or a form of ant “bait”? … the stuff they take back to their nests, killing off the others? I'll be taking care of my ant problem today, too. Oh joy. 🙂
Reminds me of that movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” where the father insisted Windex was a cure for everything.
You can also just spray the kitchen floor with an inch layer of RAID, proceed to forget what you did 30 minutes prior, walk into the kitchen and fall on your backside. That's what I did a couple of months ago. No more ants though.
I like the “aerial view of a battlefield” line. Good stuff.
My mom has a concoction she uses for fruit flies…wine and dish soap. Wonder if it would work on ants?
BTW,your waiting for a love note post made me cry. Thanks. It's nice to know romance can still exist in marriage.
i heard lining the area where they are getting in with chalk.
we used to have ants in oregon. never were able to rid ourselves of them. we even had a fridge in the garage and i once opened the freezer to see a line of dead ants. . . they had gotten in then froze to death. i hate, hate hate the little buggers. dont squish them though because that releases a scent that attracts more ants (kinda like a help signal). i found 409 would actually kill them, windex always seemed to just stun them for me. BUT 409 on your floor leaves a gross kinda film.
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Just for the record, THIS Franciscan has no shame about killing ants and mosquitoes. If they kick me out of the SFO, so be it.
After we caulked all the seams in the kitchen counter AND removed the rose-of-sharon from below the kitchen window, our ant problems were over.