“Veganism is a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as is possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose."
Here’s how I’ve been dealing with this situation, and I hope my experience can help others as well.
At most I’ve had like 25 ants at the same time inside the house, first they were only in the balcony and in some of the plants. They were only outside so I just let them be.
After 2 weeks (more less) they started to get into the small area between the balcony and the kitchen. When I saw several of them I used a broom to gather them and then one by one I took them outside, very carefully. Because the slightest touch scares them (of course) they returned to their colony and I sealed the entrance with silicone. No casualties.
Then I tried several things to repel them, but only ground cinnamon did the work. But I had to re-do the cinnamon barrier a couple of days after. I also cleaned their tracks with vinegar, all of the kitchen and small area I mentioned before.
They came back, they made new entrances/exits but now they were closer to the kitchen, repeated the same process: brooming, taking them to their colony, sealing with silicone, and putting a barrier with cinnamon. This time I used a spray with water, vinegar, peppermint essential oil (13 drops), and clove essential oil.
This spray repels them but if you spray them directly or a spider (probably any insect) by mistake they will die. I learned this the hard way, because when I sprayed some of the insects were in the cracks and I couldn’t see them. Casualties :(
So I sealed every entrance, had 2 different barriers but they still managed to come back of course.
Then I bought a spray which I got from a store where everything is organic, so I thought it would not be that toxic. First time I read the word Biocide, didn’t know what this meant, so after I bough it and came home I sprayed the corners with it, after is when I looked for the meaning of this word... It also said not to breath in the vapors, but because it was in french, and I was so stressed out because this ant thing was becoming a real problem now, first thing I did was to freely spray the problematic areas while not protecting my life.
The new spray helped for a while, but the smell is too strong, it’s a biocide (!), and now I don’t want anything to do with it anymore.
For a while it seemed everything was under control.
One morning I saw the ants in the kitchen floor, lots of them, and now they were eating the cats’ food! Where are they coming from now?! Surprise, surprise, they are coming out from the floor in the toilet room (toilet and shower are not together here), besides the kitchen. Same procedure, brooming, getting as many ants as possible, without hurting them, in their colony and sealing the entrance. Spraying and then getting the ants that couldn’t make it to their ‘anthouse’ into the balcony. I can say I’m an expert now in grabbing ants with my fingers without hurting them.
So, it’s already been like 3 or 4 weeks, last time I saw the toilet invasion was like 3 days ago. Hurray? I hope so. I found another entrance/exit in the balcony, same procedure, and this time I made a solution with vinegar, water, essential oils, and ground cinnamon. That really repeals them but I have to keep spraying.
Will this be the end of it? I don’t know. And just so you know, the kitchen is not dirty, but they are super smart, strong, persistent, and I’m sorry our worlds clashed like this. But I can’t just let them in, it just would be more catastrophic.
P.S. I imagine them surrounding the whole apartment, the floor for sure, they just have to make a turn and make another hole before they invade again.
Edit 1: They are back. Did the same procedure. But I went back to using the ‘biocide’ spray on the toilet floor... Only time will tell.
FYI: Looking for natural methods to get rid of ants I found diatomaceous earth. Do you know what it does to insects?!
"DE is an off white talc-like powder that is the fossilized remains of marine phytoplankton. When sprinkled on a bug that has an exoskeleton (such as bed bugs, ants or fleas) it compromises their waxy coating so that their innards turn into teeny tiny bug jerky. But it doesn't hurt mammals. We can eat it. We do eat it! It's in lots of grain based foods because lots of grains are stored with diatomaceous earth to keep the bugs from eating the grain!
On a microscopic level, the diatomaceous earth particles are very sharp looking. These particles stick to an insect and get stuck between its exoskeleton joints. As the insect moves, it gets physically cut up.
Another explanation is that diatomaceous earth sticks to the insect and somehow causes them to dry out. I think this approach involves scratching the insects waxy layer which then allows precious moisture within the insect to get out.
Both are true and connected. DE is almost pure silica (with some beneficial trace minerals); under a microscope, it looks like shards of glass (glass is made from silica). On any beetle-type insect that has a carapace, like fleas and cockroaches, the DE works under the shell and punctures the body, which then dehydrates and the insect dies. DE is totally nontoxic. There is no buildup of tolerance like there is to poisons because the method of killing is PHYSICAL, not chemical.”
So, ants have been almost everywhere now. They have not invaded in great numbers, so it has not been that complicated to get them into their entry holes and then seal the entrance. Last time we had the black/ big ones in the bathroom sink, and on the other side of the apartment we had very tiny/blond ants. I bought another product spray barrière rampants. This one keeps them away better than the other spray, no casualties have been reported ;)
