León, Nicaragua - November 27, 2012

washing in the detergent

If there was such a thing as an ant newspaper the headlines would read something like this: "Heavy flooding caused the evacuation of 1,000's" & "No Safe Haven for the Evacuees - 1,000's perish!"

Why are we writing about this? Well, as you know (if you have been reading the blog for a while) we have been "fighting" with some fire ants that have made our green area home. A few months ago we were advised by our landlord to try spreading laundry detergent on the ground. We tried this and had great success - however, it was only temporary.

On Saturday when we were putting the laundry on the line to dry the ants were back with a vengeance and we decided it was time to try the treatment again..... On Sunday we found a couple of ant holes and poured a little detergent on them and put a little water on it to hurry the process..... On Monday morning, as we were quietly eating our breakfast a horde of ants (carrying their eggs) arrived at "Safe Haven Casa Polden". Hummmmm, we quickly showed them the door and decided that immediate action was needed. Off Pat goes to purchase the necessary, cheap detergent and when he returned we immediately set to work. We liberally sprinkled the ground with two small bags of detergent and soaked the ground (which caused the detergent to bubble and run down into the ants nests). With that chore done we decided to head to the pool for the afternoon.

the hordes invade

When we returned we could see ants scurrying around but there didn't seem to be any cause for concern on our part.  Little did we know that the ants had been plotting revenge! Fast forward a couple of hours to just as we are finishing a lovely dinner...... just as we are preparing to clear away the dishes I look up at the front door and all you can see on the wall and on the floor are - ANTS! Literally thousands of them! This time we decided that we were no longer concerned with preserving life - we needed to bring out the big artillery! That's right - after trying many different methods to convince the ants to move to a different home we finally broke down and killed them! When Pat took a look outside he saw thousands more on the march into the house - so he had to spray them too!

The pictures I took really didn't turn out very well - but the one on the left gives you an small idea of what was happening. All those dark blotches are groups of ants (not single ones).

After a night of wondering how many ants would invade the house while we were sleeping we were pleasantly surprised to find they had left us alone. We did have the carnage to clean up though. Also, we decided to repeat the detergent and water to try and dislodge the stubborn ants that were still digging in the lawn! Don't worry - we have bought another spray can of Baygone to deal with any intruders!