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Published: April 26th 2011
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It’s now seven days since we discovered the colony of ants in the boot of the caravan. They actually came to light because, despite clearly being settled, unknown to us, in the boot, there was little there to feed themselves on and they decided to invade the kitchen, targeting the honey pot, which I discovered when I removed the ant-laden pot from the cupboard. I presume I hadn’t cleaned the outside of the pot as thoroughly as usual and had possibly left tiny residues of honey there. In our attempts to dispose of them from the boot using a spray, we only managed to encourage them to re-locate en masse to the front (kitchen end) of the caravan where they proceeded to file backwards and forwards in their numbers, clearly looking for more sweet things. Stock cubes and strepsils seemed to attract their attention next so I needed to adjust our storage system to hide the attractive things. Graham had certainly cleaned out the boot but, in hindsight, they would have been better left there to deal with rather than in the kitchen!! We bought some bait blocks from a nearby hardware store in Margaret River which the proprietor assured us
would be effective – “the best thing on the market” he stressed. The problem was the bait blocks had to be left to “do their stuff” unhindered and without the use of any additional sprays etc. The packet advised us to allow several days for the blocks to work. The ants would feed off them, take it back to the nest and eventually they would all die.
Over the days, the gap between the need to be tolerant and patient, and the desire to splatter or spray every ant we could see was virtually non-existent. But common sense told us that, with the possibility of the nest containing thousands and thousands, we would never eradicate them simply by spraying a few at a time. We needed to clear out the source and the blocks needed to be left to work. So the ants came with us to Busselton. Strangely, they never appeared to “spread” throughout the caravan. We rarely saw any in the bedroom end (just as well) and, apart from the occasional foray by some more adventurous ones into a cupboard or a drawer, they just paraded backwards and forwards along two separate trails. We don’t know where
they started or finished, we just saw them going backwards and forwards. There was no obvious change in their behavior when we left Busselton and they seemed to arrive in good spirits when we set up in Perth. We had bought some more bait blocks in Busselton, just to be on the safe side, and placed them in every conceivable suitable location. The van was top-heavy with bait blocks!
The instructions on the bait carton suggested that a noticeable sign of success (apart from them all dropping dead!!) would be an increase in activity after which, they would soon disappear. This seemed to be happening on day seven, Saturday, when their visible numbers increased markedly and their activity seemed “hyper”. We went to bed on Saturday night wondering whether the blocks were having an effect or the ants were about to launch a massive campaign to take over the whole caravan. But come Sunday morning there had been a remarkable change. The Pootling Possums had fought back from a seemingly impossible position to snatch victory from the jaws of a resounding defeat. Gone the need to check out of the caravan and into a chalet. Gone the need to
consult an expert to fumigate the caravan. Gone the thought of setting fire to the caravan and claiming on the insurance (that was just a joke – or was it?). THE POSSUMS HAD WON - HOORAH. Apart from the odd ant staggering about as if drunk, there wasn’t a single worrying collection of them marching backwards and forwards anywhere in the caravan. We checked everywhere and couldn’t find any! What a remarkable turn-around.
Of course, I wasn’t happy until I had thoroughly cleaned and sprayed everywhere I could get at, so every single cupboard and drawer was emptied and repacked methodically with any food item that might just be attractive to ants being stored in newly purchased plastic boxes. During the process we actually discovered articles and items we didn’t realise we had or had forgotten about so, for more than one reason, it was a very good exercise. It took most of Sunday and Monday morning to complete and still no ants were seen. I’ll follow up Mac’s suggestion by strategically placing a few bay leaves in the cupboards but while I realise now that this battle has been won – have we won the war?
And
- we haven’t found any dead bodies so where, the hell, are they?
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