The Ants Go Marching One by One

Except at our house they are marching five or ten abreast. We have an infestation of ants this year. They seem to be here some years and some years not. They are tiny ants, not really a problem except being a nuisance. 

They seem to love dog and cat food, so they get into the dishes and make Scotchy and Creamsickle very unhappy. Creamsickle especially does not like ants on her cat food; apparently, they tickle as she swallows them. 

They are too tiny to step on, there are too many of them to try to kill a few at a time; harsher methods are needed, but I am cautious about using chemicals because of my lizard, I don’t want to make him sick. I found one method of removing ants by accident, I apparently dropped a small piece of a corn chip on the floor and a few hours later it was covered with what looked like hundreds of ants. I grabbed my portable vacuum cleaner and just sucked the whole works up. For a couple of days, we actually planted baits then waiting until they drew out the ants and vacuumed them up. At one point I watched them move a piece of potato chip across the floor for several inches. For an ant that is so tiny it is hard to see with the naked eye that is quite a feat. It didn’t seem to matter though; the number of ants never seemed to diminish. I was able though to trace their trail until I found the entrance place into the house. 

I finally gave in and bought some ant bait stations to put near the entrance, along the trails and near the dog and cat food dishes. The first evening the activity around the baits was enormous. By the next morning the activity had dropped dramatically around one of the baits and the ants were heading in another direction. I put a second bait near that trail to entice them; soon they were congregating around it. Before long the activity started dropping near that bait station too. 

I am hoping we have stopped the marching of the ants. There is one thing I have noticed though, there seems to be an increase of spiders near the ants. I guess our natural pest control force is on the job.

Thai Rice Noodle Salad

1 (8 ounce) package dried rice noodles

1 tablespoon olive oil

¼ head romaine lettuce, chopped

¼ red bell pepper diced

¼ cucumber diced

¼ cup chopped red onion

3 green onions, chopped

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, or to taste

1 (1 inch) piece fresh ginger root, minced

¼ jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced

2 cloves garlic, minced

Sauce

1/3 cup olive oil

¼ cup rice vinegar

¼ cup soy sauce

¼ cup white sugar

1 lemon, juiced

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground turmeric

¼ teaspoon paprika 

Fill a bowl with boiling water, add rice noodles. Cover bowl and let sit until noodles are softened, about 10 minutes. Drain. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and toss to coat. Mix romaine lettuce, pepper, onion, green onion, ginger root, jalapeno pepper, and garlic with rice noodles. Whisk the sauce ingredients together and pour over rice noodle mixture and toss to coat.