Mike Beversluis

Sunday, April 13, 2008

For Laura, How to get rid of ants (without calling the exterminator). Rusty Shackleford could not be reached for comment.

There is an interesting chapter on how to deal with ants in "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!". The author (one of the most prominent physicists and blah blah) did not treat the problem of how to get rid of them though, if I recall correctly.

An alternative, according to a joke popular in Sardinia, is to kill one ant and all of the others will attend its funeral. The joke is based on the true fact that certain species of ants collect the corpses of dead ones that belonged to their nest.

By JTS, at 14 April, 2008 14:50
There is a very good chance that, despite the $325 we dropped on exterminator fees, I will get to buy some borax.

By Anonymous, at 16 April, 2008 14:22
Indeed we tried this product, and indeed it appeared to work ... at first. But now, either our ants have built up an immunity to this borax/sugar concoction like iocane powder or they've learned how to avoid it like the plague that it is.

Plus, you've got little puddles of poison sitting on business cards all over your house. Not ideal when you've got babies crawling and walking and eating everything they can touch.

By Anonymous, at 16 April, 2008 18:19