Ants!

[kman6234]

Almost had an ant-related disaster this morning when I was brewing my American Amber....

Ever since my wife and I moved into our house two years ago we've battled ants. I'm not sure why there are so many in our area but long story short I'm constantly putting down traps outside our house to keep them out.

This morning I was brewing in our detached garage when I spotted a huge swarm of ants nearby. Stupidly, I decided it would be a good idea to spray them with the hose as I was hooking it up to my immersion chiller. I then proceeded to alternate between stirring the wort to quicken the cool down and entertaining my 2 month old son who was assistant brewmaster for the day. After about 20 minutes I head to the kettle to stir the wort again and to my horror I see a barbarian hoard of ants b-lining up the hose straight towards my chiller. Apparently the water I sprayed on them pissed them off mightily and they sought revenge.

I immediatly started to panic and frantically pulled the immersion chiller out of the kettle and threw it on the driveway. I thought for sure my brew was a gonner. I grabbed a nearby flashlight and inspected my wort up and down for signs that they had infiltrated it. Luckily, it was totally clean. The wort was only chilled down to 80F but I decided to thank the brew gods, call it a day and rack to the fermenter. I waited a while until the wort hit 70F in my swamp cooler and pitched my starter. :cross:

 

[KayaBrew]

Might be worth it to call an exterminator, especially if they might be carpenter ants. Either way, it's money well spent especially because most professionals guarantee their work.

 

[Runyanka]

Are they fire ants like we have here in Texas? Those SOB's are mean and plot out revenge. I remember killing a hill out by our trash can, and then all of a sudden those same MF'ers came into the house and was attacking my hot water heater. I hate ants!

 

[kman6234]

They were just regular black ants. Luckily we don't have fire ants up here to the best of my knowledge. I couldn't imagine having to deal with those little buggers.

 

[Calichusetts]

THere is a soap...I believe called borax. Line your entire outside of your house with it...safe for pets but they carry it back to their nest and kill everyone. It can kill some plants so be careful, it also washes away in the rain so its nice. Only applied it once last year and no more ants, haven't even seen that many this year.

 

[thetragichero]

they don't have fire ants up in jersey, so i was in for a rude awakening when i moved down to florida
i learned very quickly not to water the lawn in bare feet!

 

[CoalCreekBeer]

Fire Ants are the Devil

 

[passedpawn]

Fire Ants are the Devil

Yes. Tenacious. They are mean.

 

[FastAndy]

This stuff is the best ant control I have ever used.

http://www.terro.com

I set out 3 of these and after about 2 weeks we had zero ants. It's been almost a year and a half since we've had an ant in our house.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Yep. Terro is good. I use it for the occasional bought of black ants in search of our cat food bowl.

I also spray around the house every 6 months with Bayer Suspend SC for Wolf Spiders.


When I was a kid, we'd find an Ant hill and pour gasoline down into it, set a fuse into the hole (not sure why we had them), light them a run away.

Always a good time.