Ants

I hate bugs. Ants are bugs. I think Michael J Fox said it best in the Secret to my Success, "Anything with more legs than me..."

So this weekend I discovered a trail of ants. They somehow discovered the soda that I accidentally spilled a week or more ago. Actually I didn't spill the Coke, it came from the manufacturer with a defect. Regardless of the blame, some Coca Cola was spilled and I didn't clean all of it. There was still some left clinging to the plastic bag and some that splattered further than I expected.

I have a trail of ants and a decisions to make. I pressed ahead and decided to exterminate the invaders. I went to the grocery store and bought the poison. This was the "ants take it home and poison their friends" kind of poison.

But that wasn't enough for me. I looked online and decided more decisive action was required. I cleaned the area where the ants were going. I cleaned all the areas I thought that ants might be interested in. Then I set out the bait traps for the ants.

That wasn't enough. I couldn't wait for the poison to take effect. So I looked online. I found that ants don't like spices, and a number of spices were suggested. Looking in my spice rack, I found one spice that was mentioned: Cinnamon. So I drew a circle on the ground around the ants POE (point of entry). I placed a group of traps within the circle, just in case.

It turns out the ants really don't like the smell of Cinnamon. They literally climbed the wall to avoid crossing the line of cinnamon. Thankfully, they actually seemed to like the poison, so only a few ants ventured up the wall.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one with any problems. A number of my fellow condo-mates complained to the condo management company and they sent in the pros. But, the pros didn't show up until this morning, and my anti-ant methods seemed to eliminate the ants before they even showed up.

So I will claim victory!