Thursday, July 23, 2015

Reasons Why I Dislike Summer... But Mostly Just the Ants

When I was a kid, Summer was my favorite season of the year. School was out. We enjoyed swimming for hours upon hours at the lake or public pool. Sleepovers at friends' houses. It was just all around good fun.

Now, the season seems like more of a hassle than it is fun. What the heck happened?!

As I have grown older, I have begun to enjoy Summer less and less. I'd use the term "hate", but I don't know if I completely hate it. Not yet anyways. (Maybe if you give me a few years, I'll change my mind.) I'll just say I dislike it... a lot. Especially right now as I sit here on my bed with a fan blowing on me because my AC refuses to cool my bedroom properly. (Let's count that as reason #1 I'm bitter about Summer.)

depositphotos/antrey

One of the main things I dislike about Summer are the bugs. Ugh! I hate bugs! I could have also titled this post "Reasons Why I Dislike Bugs".

As Summer crept up on us here, I had my first battle with the bugs this year. Fleas to be exact. My yard and house were infested. They seem to be gone for now because of the heat and dry weather. Fingers crossed that it stays that way.

There are also those huge water bugs. I call them roaches, but I don't know if that's really what they are. Anyways - I can truly say that I hate those things! They come out during the Summer, and they just need to find someone else to scare the crap out of. Seriously.

But the bugs that are really bothering me right now? Ants. Each Summer, I have a battle with mostly just sugar ants. They come inside and get into things they shouldn't. They don't hurt when they bite, so for the most part they are just a nuisance. I'm happy to announce that I haven't had any sugar ant problems this year.

Instead, we have fire ants. And they've been coming inside of the house. I really dislike fire ants.

The last moments of some fire ants on my counter. 

When you think of an ant, you'd imagine they'd be after pieces of food - right? Well, not these fire ants. They are weird. Sure, they find an occasional piece of food my three year old daughter drops on the ground. But what they are really after is my boyfriend's sweaty gym shirt he left on the bedroom floor or my dirty underwear in the laundry basket.

Sometimes, they don't discriminate with the laundry though. These fire ants also enjoy fresh laundry. It does smell like fresh ocean mist and is incredibly soft, so I guess I can't blame them.


I had the last straw with these pests a few nights ago. It was late, because I stay up late. I was getting ready to go to bed, when I heard one of my pet rats let out a screech. It wasn't one of his "my brother is fighting with me" screeches. It was kind of different. I looked over from where I was sitting and there was no brotherly scuffle, so I just continued what I was doing.

About 5 minutes later, my 3 year old daughter was talking about "ants" and "the babies". She calls the rats babies. I walked over to their cage to investigate and asked her where the ants were and she started pointing. Sure enough, there were fire ants all over their cage.

I quickly pulled out the rats and made sure they were ant free. Next thing I knew, I was hauling their huge cage out into the yard so I could hose it off at 1 am in the morning. Something I hadn't planned to do until the next day. Hey - at least it wasn't too hot outside, I guess!

I have a product coming in the mail that I am hoping will help with the ant problem. I'm going to have to be even more diligent in cleaning the boys' cage now. It seems as though these weird fire ants also like rat urine. Jack and Gus will be getting fresh towels more often, because this has me worried about them.

Taken on the day of the ant incident. The boys had been out playing for several hours beforehand. 

It's never been a problem before, so I'm going to have to keep a close eye out. I feel so bad my poor little babies had ants in their cage but am glad I caught it before they were injured. I already check on them all the time, so now I find myself checking on them even more often.

If the ants want to indulge themselves with my laundry - fine. But once you mess with my babies, it's on!

I am ready for Summer to be over with already! How about you?

16 comments:

  1. Ants everywhere here as well...in the kitchen, in the shower, on the windows! recently had to build a makeshift water moat to put them off my hummingbird feeders. We also get these strange jumping bugs that scare the crap out of me by hiding around corners and in small places until they see me coming! yikes! I am not a fan of Summer either. Can't stand this heat and humidity. Ready for Winter over here!

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    1. Sorry you have the ants too :( I guess I'm not alone on this one. I can't imagine what those jumping bugs are but they sound awful lol.

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  2. Oh ICK!!!! Ants everywhere!!!!! I have never had them quite that bad, but I do how annoying and gross they can be!!! I hate bugs too, and I definitely agree if there is ONE thing I hate about summer, it's bugs!
    ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!

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  3. Oh, the poor babies! I hate ants too, although I don't think we have fire ants here. With the droughts we get in CA sometimes ants come in the house just looking for water. But they still have to go! Ick! And I agree... I wouldn't say I 'hate' summer, but it's definitely my least favorite season!

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    1. Lucky you no fire ants! I do think they might be looking for water sometimes. But like I said they are weird, so I'm not sure exactly what it is they are after. I went to the lake on the 4th of July and ended up with about 20 ant bites on my feet while trying to watch fireworks.

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  4. We don't really care for ants either, especially those fire ants. Our Momma got bit by them and ended up in intensive care several years back.

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    1. Oh no! One of my friends on Facebook just mentioned that she was really allergic to them. Hope those ants leave your Mom alone!

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  5. Yuck ! Mum hates bugs too ! We are lucky, we don't have too much bugs inside, they rather stay outside. Purrs

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  6. I had a lot of problems with ants coming onto our closed-in porch and getting into the cat food. A few years ago, I found the perfect solution: I draw a line with regular chalk on the floor all along the wall from where the ants come in. They will supposedly not cross the chalk line, and so far, our porch is free of ants.

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    1. Wow who knew something so simple would get rid of the ants. I don't know if that would work for me here, but it sounds like a cool idea.

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  7. I mostly like summer, but the bugs are definitely the one thing I hate about it. Knock wood, we haven't had ants in the house (yet) this year, and thank goodness we don't have fire ants. But I've been bitten by other ants when working in my gardens, and it hurts!
    I didn't know fire ants went in houses...aren't their bites really bad? Or is it only if you're allergic? I remember the one time we visited TX, my sister-in-law telling me to be sure to watch out for their nests.

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    1. I'm not really an ant expert but fire ants are really the only ones I'm used to being around. So I'm pretty sure that these are fired ants. Their bites do hurt and itch a lot and leave a mark. I think that if you're really allergic to them then it's worse.

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  8. Ants are gross! Sometimes when the weather gets hot we see a lot of them outside, but thankfully, we have none in the house.

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  9. Eww, I detest ants. I had a very bad experience with them as a child. SO gross!

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  10. I don't have ants, I have neighbors LOL Let me explain - my neighbors on the one side where our lawns touch - do not bag their grass. This causes those little teeny tiny bugs that bite the hell out of you when you're outside. I have a beautiful patio that I never use because it's ground level and my entire body gets bitten instantly. I love summer, just hate my neighbors LOL

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    1. Haha, sounds like a nuisance to me! Ants or not... bugs just need to go somewhere else!

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