For the fourth time this summer I am battling ants in the kitchen pantry. These are those tiny little ‘sugar’ ants. It was hard to find an online photo as they are SO small.

It is not unusual to find a few exploring in early spring. I got rid of those. Then while we were on vacation my Grandgirl found them in a cookie tin. (I had to wonder if the lid was left askew?) She killed them off and cleaned up the pantry.

We were not home two weeks when they returned to the pantry. I sprayed, cleaned got rid of them. Yesterday I not only found them in the pantry but in that same cookie tin with the top firmly affixed. HOW?

Reading up on safe ant repellent sprays I mixed blue Dawn soap 50/50 with water and put it in a spray bottle. It was also said they hate lemon so I mixed lemon juice into the sprayer. I sprayed the suspected tiny crack where the footer boards meet inside the pantry. I sprayed the baseboard they were traveling upon. As the website said, it made for easy cleanup wiping up Dawn solution!

I am not afraid of bugs, but I do not like them IN our home. There is a spider living under one bathroom cabinet. I have only seen it once or twice. It leaves a pile of dead pill-bug carcasses on the floor beneath the edge of the cabinet and I know it has been well fed. I leave it alone.

Last night as I was about to take my blood pressure I spied a spider on the rug next to my side of the bed. I tried to capture it but it literally jumped away under the bed frame. Drats. I do not like spider bites. As the blood pressure cuff was inflating I spied a tiny ant walking across the base of the floor lamp. I am literally outnumbered! Yes, this is the same wall area as the pantry. https://www.science.org/content/article/how-many-ants-live-earth says Counting ants is a bit like counting grains of sand on a beach. But six researchers have proved they were up for the task. They’ve come up with the latest—and most comprehensive—estimate of the number of ants in the world: 20 quadrillion. That’s 12 megatons of biomass—more than all the wild birds and mammals taken together. Yes, we are seriously outnumbered!!

Good news is that while the ants and spider aggravated me, my blood pressure was nice and low.

Now, to go check that pantry for any possible invasion!

Go to the ant, you sluggard;
    consider its ways and be wise!
⁷ It has no commander,
    no overseer or ruler,
⁸ yet it stores its provisions in summer
    and gathers its food at harvest. Proverbs 6:6-11 NIV