In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 487 of 1154
Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
I take it you find the complete reality to be too much for you, and consider a complete set of actual facts to be trolling.
Do you prefer 5-word snippets that tell you want you want to hear instead?
Trolling was the intent. It's why comrade sig posted such a whopper. I'm glad you agree she was trolling the thread she posted it in. Good for you comrade kiki. Good for you.
T
Stupid people don't know they're stupid, and they certainly don't realize how obvious it is to others.
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Back from my errands. Seizure meds topped of for another month.
Had lunch at the little hot dog/hamburger place in the strip mall next to the pharmacy. People there had orders coming out of their ears. Pretty big ones too. It was good to see them busy. 
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Quote:
Originally posted by THG:Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
I take it you find the complete reality to be too much for you, and consider a complete set of actual facts to be trolling.
Do you prefer 5-word snippets that tell you want you want to hear instead?
Trolling was the intent. It's why comrade sig posted such a whopper. I'm glad you agree she was trolling the thread she posted it in. Good for you comrade kiki. Good for you.
T
Stupid people don't know they're stupid, and they certainly don't realize how obvious it is to others.
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Well, I managed to make it out early enough to walk the dog and do more yardwork. I planted a succulent - rock purslane - a few years ago. All of the specimens in the neighborhood are polite, pretty-flowered plants, but these turned into monsters! So I clipped the flower stalks which were looking very messy, trimmed a bunch back and actually dug one up, as well as pruning back a bush from the driveway. Another righteous bin filled!
Then we had a long and sharp discussion with the retirement people about what the heck they were doing. The person that we spoke with, who prolly felt somewhat ambushed, promised to have the research group look into it, and we should get a call next week.
After that, it was kitchen-work and making dinner. Now, I need a nap!
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:
Well dang but the Argentinian ants came back a couple of months ago. At first they were at very low levels and tolerable, but since then their numbers have increased and they've created significant ant trails to the kitchen sink and trash (they haven't found the cat food yet).
For years - YEARS - I would try different things to block or clean away their chemical trails. I've tried cinnamon and cloves, dish detergent and carpet cleaner, aspirin and diatomaceous earth - I've probably tried 50 things by now if not more, and every single one has failed.
But I recently tried something that works! HAND SANITIZER! They sort of flinch away from following their trail when the hand sanitizer is wet, and after it dries, they just won't cross that line.
AHA!!! Take THAT! Argentinian ants.
Yeah, but it's just a temporary wipe away of their pheremone trail though. If they found something they like, they'll keep coming back and making new ones as long as they're alive.
Not sure about Argentinian ants, but they sold this 5 pack of indoor ant-bait at Menard's that couldn't have cost more than $4 by me and that killed all trace of whatever ants were in my house around 3 years back. They had gotten so bad by that point that if I fell asleep after eating a bowl of cereal I would wake up with about 300 in the bowl and a solid line to and from wherever they were coming from. One bait trap and less than a day later they were gone. Except for the ones that decided it was a good idea to swim in it, they had the decency to bring it back to their hive and kill everybody there and not leave trails of dead carcasses all over my floor too.
Good luck. I'm not afraid of much, but after my previous problems I'm a 40 year old man that has an irrational fear of ants.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:Thanks SIX.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
SIGNYM:
Well. Here it is July 7th and I still haven't gotten my rear in gear. All I've managed to do was little piddly stuff: We always do "safe and sane" fireworks for the 4th, which we did again this year. Went with hubby and dd while they went to see the doctor. As I mentioned, replaced a couple of thermostats and put up and indoor/outdoor bluetooth weather station. Repaired a couple of hose ends so I could insert trigger grip nozzles, helped sort wire and screws, walked the dog and yada yada. Small stuff.
But I have plans for tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that, so I think I just needed a break. I feel like my energy might be coming back, and after a nice rest most of my aches and pains have throttled back.
So here's hoping I get a good night's sleep and wake up ready to roll tomorrow.
SIX: It's hot by you, ain't it?
Don't hurt yourself.
Managed to get out early enough to walk the dog, do yardwork yesterday and have a righteous bin of yardwaste to show for it. Also helped hubby sort out more stuff in the garage.
DIDN'T manage to get out early this AM, so contented myself with walking the dog, watering the flower garden and watering and harvesting the veggie garden (cucumbers, zucchini, and avocados galore), and tracking down the fuckups that hubby's retirement plan managed to create, as well as grocery shopping (yet to do).
But tonight I'm going to irrigate the whole property in prep for weeding over the next few days.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
#WEARAMASK
Just make sure you take some breaks if it's too hot by you still.
It's actually going to cool off to the mid 80's for a few days here, so I plan to take full advantage of that. I'm going to attempt to jack up that front porch overhang tomorrow. I've gone rediculously overboard on supplies and materials. I've got 4 pole jacks that can lift 20,000lbs each when fully extended (38,000lbs if not extended), a couple of insanely long 4"x4"'s, cinderblocks, piles of wood and screws and brackets for any repairs I'll need to make, and 100sq ft of chicken wire to keep the raccoons out if I have to expose a lot of stuff underneath before jacking.
Would be nice to have some assistance, but it looks like I'm on my own again for this one. Slow and steady wins the race.
In any case, just got back from my brothers and a long day of mostly driving. It was a little hairy there at first because of the damage done by the previous botched attempt at a repair by my old man, but I was finally able to figure everything out and my brother's scooter is in working order again. I also had to teach him a lesson about inflating tires, since the front tire only had 11.5 lbs of pressure in it, and the back tire that is directly below where he sits had a scary 3.5 lbs of pressure in it.
I also had to stress on multiple occasions that he's going to need to retrain himself on riding that bike now as if it were a new one, since his top speed is likely to be much greater than it was before and leaning to make turns is going to be a lot easier (and easier to just tip over) if he tries to do it like he had to when they were that low.
There might be other issues with it, but there wasn't enough time to look into it now. Strange knocking noise it makes on occasion and couldn't for the life of me figure out what was making it. All the bolts are tight everywhere though and I'm about 99% sure that nothing should fall apart. I let him know that I didn't think anything going on would put him in any danger other than leaving him a few miles away and needing to walk it back home if something went wrong, but to be careful until I can come back for a few days and spend more time on it.
We also managed to fix his dual recliner couch that he was convinced we were going
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Quote:So far with the hand san, so good.
Originally posted
Yeah, but it's just a temporary wipe away of their pheromone trail though. If they found something they like, they'll keep coming back and making new ones as long as they're alive.
Not sure about Argentinian ants, but they sold this 5 pack of indoor ant-bait at Menard's that couldn't have cost more than $4 by me and that killed all trace of whatever ants were in my house around 3 years back. They had gotten so bad by that point that if I fell asleep after eating a bowl of cereal I would wake up with about 300 in the bowl and a solid line to and from wherever they were coming from. One bait trap and less than a day later they were gone. Except for the ones that decided it was a good idea to swim in it, they had the decency to bring it back to their hive and kill everybody there and not leave trails of dead carcasses all over my floor too.
Good luck. I'm not afraid of much, but after my previous problems I'm a 40 year old man that has an irrational fear of ants.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
I've done lots in the past to wipe away the trail (alcohol, bleach, ammonia, vinegar, carpet cleaner, dish detergent, laundry detergent ...), and it hasn't worked.
The hand san has both glycerol and polymer in it to give it body, to keep the alcohol from evaporating too quickly to kill pathogens. It seems like the stuff that gets left behind after the alcohol evaporates is unpleasant for the ants. It's been over a week and they still haven't crossed the line.
Yeah, I tried all the bait products from the hardware stores, but no such luck. The Argentinian ants don't go for it.
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It's good for your mind to not see them for sure, but that doesn't mean they're not in your walls or floors and wreaking havoc behind the scenes. If you haven't been able to kill them, you really need to know if they've actually left or if they're just not going for your food anymore.
What I read on ants during all of my research when I was having the problems is that they will make shelter that doesn't need to be anywhere close to a source of food if they feel the place is good enough. (Something crazy like one or two miles away even, if memory serves) A closer source of water is much more important to them, but even that doesn't have to be merely a few feet away.
Maybe I should send you a few pictures of what they did to my back porch just to make sure that you're taking the situation seriously. They're absolutely terrifying to me now.
I really wish I had started taking videos back then like I do now. As bad as the story of the milk bowl was, if you saw what I had seen that same year in a 4" exposed area by the wall in a corner by the shower base in my unfinished basement, you'd probably have nightmares about it. There were literally thousands upon thousands of them walking both ways that were so "thick" it looked like a black pulsating Lovecraftian horror from far away.
All I had on me at the time was totally-not-safe-for-indoors poison, but since I didn't have kids or a dog and didn't go down there much, I sprayed it around that area immediately.
Did you ever try that Amdro ant block?
It claims to take out Argentine ants.
https://bit.ly/3fqGtEE
https://thd.co/2C3Tsxt
(I used Bitly to shorten the links because they were making my post runoff the side... First one is Menards, second one is Home Depot)
That stuff has worked fantastic outside for me.
My two problems with it are that it's pretty much no good after it gets wet because it breaks down the food bits they attach to the poison, and that it's far too expensive to fill an entire spreader and do my lawn with it.
The huge $15 bottle says you can treat the entire perimeter of (the average) home 5 times.
I don't use it that way anymore though because of the water issue and the large amount of rain we always get around here. (Actually, since you're in California it might not be the worst idea if you do as long as you have reason to believe it will be quite a while before any rain).
Now I alternate spraying the perimeter of the house and garage every 3-4 weeks with two different types of poison by using 4 gallons from my 2 gallon Round Up sprayer (Sigs will tell you how nice those are).
Then, in between sprays if I ever happen to see any ants anywhere near the house, such as on the concrete patio in the front, I will just drop about a table spoon or two of this around the activity and the next time I look there aren't any.
Back before I had beaten them away from the perimeter and the activity next to my house was fierce, I would drop it right on their trails and when I'd come back the next day the trails had gone cold and I'd see anywhere from dozens to hundreds of them lying dead around the pile.
I just want to make sure that you're giving the possible outcomes of a bad ant situation the seriousness it deserves. Before I had lived with it firsthand, if somebody told me what ants were capable of doing to a house if left unchecked I never would have believed it.
And good luck.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Out for a walk in a bit.
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