Anthony HortonLadies, I generally don't mind having a few ants around the house, but I really don't think a shelf in our laundry press is a good place to keep your brood.
I guess it's the ants' house now.
If it were just a few workers foraging around the kitchen I'd be confident about persuading them to go elsewhere just by being scrupulous about preventing them from getting into any of our food. These girls have clearly settled in to our laundry, however. I'm not sure that they'll pack up and leave just because food becomes more scarce in the immediate vicinity.
Anyone want a colony of, I think, Ochetellus glaber? Free to a good home.
A while back the kid was asking for some pet ants. I guess they're in luck...
I don't think tiny black house ants would have been first choice of species though. We'd probably have gone for one of the big Camponotus species, so it would be easier to see what they're doing.
The laundry ant colony has at least given me something interesting to point my cheapo USB microscope at.
Lots of workers looking after the larvae, some callows, and a few alates.
The bright light from the USB microscope clearly agitated them, which suggests to me I might be able to persuade them to move the brood out of the linen press by opening the doors, taking out the linen, and thereby denying them the darkness that they need to feel that the brood is safe. I'm sure they'd only move as far as the nearest dark nook or cranny, but that would still be a move in the right direction.
They've gone! I checked the linen press this morning and the ants were no longer there. That established colony with their brood laid out on the cupboard shelf have packed up their eggs, larvae, pupae and alates and moved out, leaving no trace behind. I didn't even see any individual workers wandering around the laundry or kitchen.
I don't know whether it was me disturbing them with bright lights or something else that prompted them to relocate, and I don't know where they've moved to, but as long as they're no longer all up in our linen I'll take that as a win.
Oh no, they're back! Or, more likely, never really left. The brood is now one shelf further up the linen press.
Clearly more drastic action is needed in order to make this cupboard unappealing to them. At a minimum I'm going to have to take out all the towels and linen for a while. Bare shelves in an open cupboard will, hopefully, be too exposed to be considered a suitable nesting site.
Urban legend has it that wiping surfaces with a little diluted vinegar acts as at least a temporary house ant repellent, I may give that a go too.
I believe this is, according to Australia standards for weights and measures, a metric shit tonne of ants.
Maybe two shit tonnes.
Anty chaos ensues.
"Save the brood!"
"Where are we taking it?"
"I don't know, I thought you knew."
"I was just following you!"
Well that's a pleasant surprise. I was expecting to find thousands and thousands of them in there when I finally got to the home alarm box, but there were just a few hundred or so.
That's the linen press completely emptied of linen and left open. The ants are dispersing and going somewhere else, but I've no idea where.
Matt Godden@spacelizard Recall finding an ant colony inside an NBN modem. No sign of them otherwise, aside from the occasional ant on a kitchen bench.
@metaning Some ants are definitely attracted to electrical/electronic equipment. It might just be the warmth, but it does seem that there's more to it than that.
Macquarie University has a robotic/remotely operated telescope at Siding Spring Observatory, and it has been taken down something like half a dozen times by ants invading the electrical switchboard cabinet and electrocuting themselves en masse. Several times they didn't just trip all the breakers, but somehow managed to wreck them, requiring replacement.
Su_G@spacelizard @metaning
I remember that! I wonder how they dealt with it in the end or whether it’s ongoing… 🤔
I remember that! I wonder how they dealt with it in the end or whether it’s ongoing… 🤔
PhilWill@spacelizard gps signal lost
@spacelizard
You’ve made this story very entertaining! Following with interest… great video clips too! 🙏🏻😁
You’ve made this story very entertaining! Following with interest… great video clips too! 🙏🏻😁
Judy Schmidt@spacelizard point a fan in there and get it chilly
@geckzilla Chilly is hard to come by. The outside air temperature right now is a balmy 23°C.
@spacelizard Well, they like it to be uh, extra toasty I guess! so just make it less toasty.
@geckzilla My strategy is to deny them cover. Nesting in the dark recesses of a tightly packed, infrequently opened laundry cupboard is one thing. Nesting in a bare, completely empty cupboard with the doors left open is another. For now at least this seems to have driven them off, there are no ants in there now.
I'll leave the cupboard bare and open while we're away for the next two weeks, and if it's still all clear when we get back maybe we can try using the cupboard again.
JWcph, Radicalized By Decency
Demallien@spacelizard could be worse. Could have been mice.
@demallien Ooh, I remember the mouse plague in NSW some years back. Not nice.
Trish Roberts
Sarah E Bourne@spacelizard Ground black pepper deters them. Usually. Although they clearly don't like it, they will put up with it if they're determined about something.
Nazo@spacelizard I have always wished we could just figure out whatever pheromone says "this is a bad place, don't be here" and just put it down around the house or something. Effectively just telling them to leave.
Though I suppose it's also possible that it could vary quite widely.