Month: October 2023

Yesterday I cleaned out the areas where I was gonna apply the silicone sealant. The liquid ant bait was a sticky mess but it got removed fairly easily with a bit of isopropyl alcohol and hot water. Underneath the kitchen sink was a tougher area to clean since it had much more piping to work around.

Once the areas were dry and clean, I got to work. The sealant I purchased came in a tube because I didn’t want to buy caulking gun and also I was gonna need to get into some tight spaces where such a gun would have not fit. I cut the tip of the tube off and in hindsight, I probably should have cut more off to get a bigger bead.

I started off in the bathroom because it had more space to work with. Under that sink, I’ve seen the ants get through the gaps along the bottom but not really the vertical ones, so I just sealed off those. The sealant is not as viscous as I’d imagined it to be, so I had to apply lots of force to get it out. That led to the bead being of varying thickness along the gaps. Some of it doesn’t look pretty but I think it covers all the gaps.

After I did the bathroom, I got tired, my blood sugar starting dropping, so I ordered some fried chicken and poutine. After eating, I took a nap, and wanted to play video games, so I left the kitchen for the next day.

This afternoon, I went to seal up the gaps under the kitchen sink. The amount of piping under there made it a major pain in the ass to apply the sealant. It honestly looks terrible in some places and I can’t even be sure the sealant covers all the gaps. For the places I definitely know the ants were emerging from, I did seal those gaps over without any doubt.

I have also being checking out the bathroom area since it was all sealed off. In the last 24 hours, I’ve seen exactly one ant underneath the sink. From it’s behaviour, it appears to be an ant that had been already in the bathroom when I sealed it off. It keeps walking along the corners where a gap would have been. That’s the only ant I’ve witnessed so far and I hope to keep it that way.

It’s too early to tell how well the sealant will work in the kitchen. I’ll be monitoring that area with great interest as well. I can’t say this issue is fully resolved just yet but I hope I’ve made some huge strides this weekend.

This week I was downstairs going to my bank when I saw a lady and her very large dog. I’m not sure what breed it was but it was large, like approaching a small pony size. Despite its size, it’s didn’t seem scary or intimidating, it was just a big dog.

As I was walking towards the bank, I saw the lady and the dog approach the bottom of an escalator. The lady wanted her dog to go on the escalator with her but the dog, stopped walking and just looked at the moving steps with trepidation. She was quite patient though and she spoke to the dog with encouraging words. Still, the dog held firm and even let out a single bark to let her know he wasn’t really wanting to do this.

By this time, I had walked out of view of this spectacle and I soon entered the bank, amused at what I had just seen. It took me a few minutes to deposit my lemonade stand money. Once that was done, I walked out of the bank, to retrace my steps to get back home. I quickly saw the lady and her dog in the exact same place. The dog still had not mustered up the courage to go on the escalator and the lady was still trying to encourage it to give it a try.

I didn’t have time to witness the outcome of this because I had to get home to make some dinner. I wonder what did happen in the end.

Upon reflection, I totally understand the hesitation on the part of the dog. Every person needs to learn how to get on an escalator. As a kid, I remember it being tricky and I got really nervous the first few times. As humans, we only need to worry about getting our two feet coordinated enough to get on the escalator steps. A dog has to navigate four feet onto the escalator. Also, it’s extra complicated because each set of feet need to be on separate steps.

I hope the dog figured it out.

The silicone sealant arrived on my doorstep on Tuesday but I’ve been too lazy to even open the package, let alone apply it to all the gaps and cracks in my bathroom and kitchen.

Part of the reason I’ve been lazy is that I need to clean all the surfaces before applying the sealant. I’ve pour a ton of that sticky liquid bait in and near these cracks and gaps, and I need to clean all of that off before applying the sealant. The area needs to be dry as well, so it’s a process.

There’s another long weekend coming up, so I’ll do it in a few days.

I want everyone to know that last week I discovered three dead ants in the glass that I was drinking from. I have no idea how long those ants were in my glass before I saw them. Just before making that horrifying discovery, I had just topped up my glass from my electric kettle. So either the ants were already in my glass before or I had just poured dead ants into my glass from my kettle.

Neither option is really great. I cleaned out both my glass and the electric kettle but the stain of that memory is still with me. It was at that moment that my war with these ants became more personal and made angry for the first time. These fuckers need to die.

It’s been a few more days since I set my ant bait traps. As I noted in my last post, there seem to be fewer ants in the kitchen compared to the bathroom, though I found a damn ant on plate that I was using on the weekend. They must be getting up onto the counter somehow. Looking under the kitchen sink, some times I see no ants and other times I see like two or three. There are definitely more under the bathroom sink.

The ant bait traps are definitely not “set and forget”. The bait dries up into this semi-liquid and semi-solid state, like if you poured out maple syrup and then let it dry out. The ants definitely aren’t interested in it in this form, so I have to almost daily re-apply new bait, in liquid form, in areas where they congregate. Even, most of the ants don’t seem interested in the bait anymore. I put the bait right along their travel corridors and many of them just walk around it. I don’t know why that is. I’m wondering if I should coat another bait type in the liquid bait, something like a small piece of chicken or something.

I have also decided I need to seal off the gaps in the cabinetry under the sink. I can see the ants going in and out of these gaps. I ordered a few tubes of clear silicone sealant, which will arrive on Monday. Will that be enough to keep the ants out? The problem is, I’m not sure if I’ve discovered all the points of ingress into my apartment. At least I know sealing these gaps isn’t a bad idea, so we’ll go from there. I just wish the bait traps were more attractive to them.