I think the rain puts them on the move and brings them inside.
Sure enough there were ants in my sink area right where I expected to find them. Swift action without prevarication is required in situations like this. The only thing that gets them for sure is Terro ant killer.
You gotta check if they are protein/fat seeky or sugar seeky. This group went after the straight solution but have really gone gangbusters on the peanut-butter Terro mix.
Usually, after the Terro I’ll see them once or twice until the season is cool again; but they’d be omnipresent if I didn’t use it. Sprays, wiping the counter with bleach etc, are futile and this is what I’ve resorted to.
I wish we could deal with the scorpions that way. I try to let a few wasp nests stick around to let them control them… and try to sprinkle diatomaceous earth in piles around the house. Helps some - just don’t want anything too toxic with our dogs around.
I’ll have to keep the Terro idea in mind. So far, we have been lucky over the past few years.
That ant could have been drunk but it was caught in the viscosity of the beer and appeared exhausted from trying to escape. Poor thang.
The wasps have been out in force too. I usually leave them alone unless they become a nuisance or take up residence in my tool shed. That elicits a rapid response as the only time in my life that I’ve been stung is in there…
This has been a really bad year for ants here in Portland with a super mild/wet winter. We’ve had to put the Terro out quite a bit. It normally works really well but they just keep coming in waves.
Where do you live that you’re seeing scorpions? For whatever reason, I’ve seen them here in N. Florida enough. I have to say they are the most terrifying of insects even those these are somewhat harmless and not at all like the big black ones you see out west.
I normally don’t advertise products for free but we have had good luck using Ortho Home Defense. I pour it into a garden sprayer and apply to the whole foundation and all the base boards in the garage. That tends to keep the ants at bay fairly well.
A couple of years ago I pulled off the garage baseboards and power washed the sills. the ants had moved up into the walls on the south side. After it was good and dry I sprayed the Home Defense stuff in around the sills really heavy and put the base boards back on. It seemed to slow them down.
They are bad up here in DFW too. I’ve been chased all over the yard by them over the past week. Eventually we will have to call out a professional to fight them off because they have built nests where I cannot spray them myself or knock them off.
