| Have you noticed that when the temperatures start | | | | bread crumbs in the forest only better because birds |
| warming up at the end of winter you start seeing ants | | | | eat Hansel and Gretel's crumbs (and ants find them), |
| crawling all over your kitchen counter? Spring is almost | | | | while ant trails have a smell that ants follow. That smell |
| here, and those warming temperatures are waking up | | | | doesn't disappear so quickly like breadcrumbs can. |
| the colony that's stayed all snug and cozy inside your | | | | So the scouts leave their scented trail on their way to |
| walls through the cold months. | | | | finding a food source. That trail tells the scout where |
| Their food supplies are low, and it's time for the | | | | home is. |
| foragers to go gathering. | | | | When the scout finds food, it grabs a load, and starts |
| You pay little attention to the ants at first because you | | | | back along the trail it left on the way to the food. As it |
| only see three or four of them crawling along the | | | | carries the food back to the colony it leaves a new |
| edges of the counter top. Normally you just squish the | | | | trail. This trail has a different smell, a smell that the |
| ones you see, and keep on doing whatever you were | | | | worker ants follow to the food so they can haul it |
| doing. A couple days later you notice movement again, | | | | back to the colony. |
| and suddenly you're looking at a dozen or more ants | | | | That's all interesting enough isn't it, but it doesn't fix your |
| moving back and forth along the counter wall. | | | | problem of ants all over your counter, in your cabinets, |
| After another few days you walk into your kitchen | | | | and attacking your food does it? |
| and there's a cluster of ants all over one spot on your | | | | What pest control techniques can you use to do that? |
| counter. You look closer, and see they've found a few | | | | If you don't want those ants bugging you all spring and |
| breadcrumbs, and they've formed lines of ants, one line | | | | summer long your first step is clean up all those spills |
| crawling to the little pile of crumbs, and another line | | | | and droppings where you find ants gathering. Doesn't |
| carrying those crumbs back toward the hole where | | | | matter if you see anything in that spot, if ants are |
| they're coming out of the wall. | | | | traveling to, crowding up on, and crawling away from a |
| As the days become weeks you see more and more | | | | certain area along the same trail they came from, |
| ants, and now they really start getting on your nerves | | | | something edible is there. |
| because they're all over your counter, they're in your | | | | Clean that place with soap and hot water to get rid of |
| cabinets, and they're attacking your food containers. | | | | whatever food the ants found there. |
| Ever wonder how the ants find those little bits of | | | | Next use soap and hot water to wash away their |
| food? | | | | scented trail. Clean along the path where you see two |
| Much of the time you see a crowd of ants piling all | | | | lines of ants crawling. It's where the ant lines are going |
| over something you can't even see. You know it's | | | | in opposite directions. |
| food of some kind that you've spilled or dropped, and | | | | If you wash away their trail the ants at the food |
| didn't clean up only because it's so small that you didn't | | | | source get lost, and can't find their way home. |
| see it. | | | | And the ants coming out of the colony have no way |
| Ants are experts at sniffing out those little spills, and | | | | of finding their way to where the food was. |
| droppings. When their food supplies need rebuilding a | | | | Keep doing just those things, and you force the ants to |
| few scouts head out looking for anything edible. The | | | | look for food someplace else. You won't get rid of the |
| scouts leave a scented trail that shows them the way | | | | ants, but they won't send a large invasive force into |
| home. | | | | your kitchen. As long as you keep things clean all you'll |
| Those trails are a lot like Hansel and Gretel's trail of | | | | see are those occasional scouts. |