Friday, April 30, 2010

Invasion of the Mailbox Ants!

Millions of ants were inside my mailbox with their little ant eggs several days ago. They did this last year and left after I scrambled them around a bit. Not this year! First I scrambled them. Nothing. Then I put ant bait in the mailbox. Nothing the next day. So I wiped them out with a paper towel and then washed the inside and outside of the mailbox with soapy water and a cleaning solution of vinegar and water and put the ant bait back in there. When I got the mail yesterday afternoon many of them were back. These ants are relentless. So I went to Lowe's and bought the hard stuff - yes, the poisonous screw-the-environment spray and sprayed the fool out of the mailbox, inside and out. This morning they were all dead. So I cleaned the poison out of the inside of the mailbox and sprayed the posts and bottom of the mailbox. Just because I have them, I put the ant bait things back inside at the back of the box.


I googled and found that this is much more common than I thought. It makes me feel bad that this is called an ant nursery. I'm a baby ant killer and their mothers!

Damn! I just read this from a mailman on his blog HERE:
Sometimes during a heavy rainstorm a colony of ants will seek refuge in a rural-type mailbox. Desperate people, finding thousands of ants climbing through their mail, will get out the poison and spray. Then they wind up with a sticky box full of countless ant carcasses. The best way to get rid of the ants is simply to leave the mailbox open. The ants, not liking the light and the vulnerability, will immediately begin to move out, and will soon be gone, eggs and all, leaving no trace that they were ever there.

6 comments:

David Dust said...

I would have gone right for the can of RAID. The Environment be damned - I don't want ants in my Ladies Home Journal...

Ken Riches said...

Damn, such an easy solution.

Unknown said...

In the country I have several places from which I am attacked. I have never been attacked at the mailbox however. When I have to do it, I will get some more of the traps I use in the house and let you know. A teenager in the hardware store clued me in on it...and though I can't remember the name now...I will let you know when I have to get it again. I know it when I see it.
It's almost overnight effective, and visibly so.

Unknown said...

The advice to just leave the mailbox open is right on the money!! Thank goodness I came across the suggestion on this page before I got out the raid! We recently had 5 inches of rain over 2 days, and the ants had invaded and taken over my mailbox. Once it stopped raining, I left the mailbox door open and within two hours, the ants indeed had completely moved out. They have not returned. What an easy, painless solution!

Unknown said...

I did this but then the mail lady closes it again everyday so they come right back

Unknown said...

Wish I would of read this before I ran for raid!!! But I opened the mailbox and the ants came running up my arm and I freaked out! So I now know better next time....peace!