Roommates?

I woke up yesterday to the delightful discovery of a few hundred ants trailing from my dishwasher across the kitchen to Millie's food tray. All plans to stop by the school and the district office flew out the window while I grabbed the vaccuum cleaner (hey, it kills them as it sucks them up) and got to work. A few hours later, I had washed my countertops with a solution of Mr. Clean and hot water, and sprayed Clorox Clean-Up around the dishwasher.

To be safe, I made a special trip to WinCo for some window (WinDo?) cleaner. I talked to Heather last week, and she told me her exterminator reccommended it in combating ants--something about eliminating the pheremone trail they leave behind when they are stealing cat food and whatever else they can get their scissor-like mandibles on.

This is how I came to find myself on my hands and knees on the kitchen floor, with a rag in one hand and a bottle of window cleaner in the other, scrubbing linoleum row by row and feeling decidedly itchy and bad-tempered.

That finished, I spent an enjoyable enough evening, watching movies, making a home-made veggie-loaded pizza and ever-so-carefully cleaning up after myself. I figured I probably hadn't ended the ant problem, but I certainly had it well in hand.

I woke up this morning to find another few hundred (possibly thousands?) ants on my kitchen floor, following the exact same path they were taking yesterday--straight to Millie's food.

I almost cried.

But instead of crying, I pulled out my trusty vaccuum cleaner and started hoovering the little suckers up. I sprayed window cleaner at the source--my dishwasher--and washed Millie's food and water dishes in hot soapy water. Her food now resides on the dryer in my laundry room, in the hopes that this will solve part of the problem.

And so, my friends, I am off to the manager's office to borrow some bug spray, and then to the grocery store for some ant traps. Dad reccommended I buy two. I'll buy four. I'm perfectly well aware that I will never entirely eliminate ants from my home--but they're certainly going to get the battle of the century from me!