Salad Days
My daughter runs out of her bedroom and into the kitchen. ’Mummy, can I have a knife?’
You’re not even four years old yet, what the hell do you need with a knife?
‘What do you need a knife for sweetheart?’
What do you think I am, stupid? I’m not giving you weapons, I’ve seen the way you brandish a soft toy, nothing sharp is getting within 2 feet of you.
‘I’m making a salad.’
Oh.
‘A salad?’
She nods earnestly and takes hold of my hand. ‘Come and look. mummy.’
Oh isn’t that cute. She’s brought some grass and flowers in to make a salad in her play kitchen. How sweet.
Oh, there’s some more over there on the toy box.
And another one on the hall floor.
Damn it, how many more ‘salads’ am I going to have clean up later?
Wait, did that one just move?
Oh My Fucking God, they are all crawling with ants!
Kids, aren’t they just brilliant?
Now if you’ll excuse me I have to Google ‘how to rid house of ant infestation.’
I'm Heather, an ex expat, now back in blighty and living in Lancashire. Which is just like Lapland only less snowy...and stuff.
er, stamp on them before they send for their friends.
wouldn't that encourage their friends to come and collect the remains of their fallen comrades? (maybe not, I'm a bit hazy on the social structures of ants)
Tea tree oil is supposed to work wonders, I am about to trial it myself when my bottle arrives from ebay.
Right. I'm bringing my kids up on egg and chips. It's much safer.
Oh joy! Just what you don't need in the house. Ants. And salad (bleurgh).
Lovely. Ants add a bit of crunch to the salad don't they!? I believe ants follow a scent left by the others. A good clean of where the little guys are walking should put the others off the trail. Good luck.
Easiest thing is to just chase them with the vaccuum. If you put a cayenne powder or talcum powder boundary around them, they'll stay in the general area, then you just suck them up and vaccuum up the powder when you're done.
-From a mom whose kids have also made salads and who once had a laundry line above an ant hill.
The other alternative is to bring in a bunch of spiders. Or the dogs might eat them. Or if you stick flypaper in the corners, but the kids might try to eat it.
Hhhmm… mine never did the salad thing, but he wasn't averse to making cakes from mud! In a perverse way, I miss those days when he was little… 17yr olds don't really do that sort of thing now. Instead they hold all your cutlery and crockery to ransom, and you find you have to barter for them back when you look in the cupboard and dishwasher and realise you're down to four plates…
I've heard talc is a good way to stop ants coming in… once they've managed to breach your defences (with a little help from your daughter), I think drowning them and cleaning the floor of their super-duper trail is the best solution!!
She's making salad, huh? How precious. And she obviously has healthy eating habits. Sorry about the ants, I've heard that they won't cross a line of cinnamon….
*Shudders* I hate ants!
At least she's trying to be healthy? >_<
I used to make something for mum by throwing lots of pulled up grass and dandelions into a margarine carton and putting water in it… it was probably meant to be soup… or a pond?
*shudders* ants are better than earwigs? *double shudder*
*shudders* ants are better than earwigs? *double shudder*
LOL, a protein component? aware of food groups, very astute
.
We have ants, we learned to get along together, it's the cockroaches that have to go.
oh dear, so much conflicting advice!
Who knew it was all so complicated and complex?
ooh, thats interesting. It's probably a lot less likely to get sprinkled all over the house like talc would too
Who knew salads could be so dangerous. although i'm sure the Daily Mail must have already run a story about how they give you cancer.
I'm not sure which is more offensive!
Well I suppose the good news is that at least they were carried in, so didn't leave a trail through the front door.
I quite like the idea of hiring a crack team of ninja spiders…but the vac is probably the most likely.
your knowledge of body disposal is slightly worrying…did you used to work for the mob?
oh god, can you imagine what state my house would be in if I started sprinkling cinnamon about the place with my two monsters around? I think the ants might be preferable
they're not my favourite creatures either, and they are so BIG here! *shudders*
sounds delicious!
Ewwwww!
You have cockroaches? Bleurgh, I feel a bit unwell just thinking about them!
sorry but am lmao.
And hun-ants are living creatures-you wouldn't want their murder on your hands would you?
oh yes I would! Fecking things!
Oh come now-just get a dustpan, sweep them up and take them back outside to their families.
tee hee! I did removed them as gently as I could *no ants were harmed in the
making of this blog post*
LOL-wipes brow.
I don't know what has come over me but in the past year or so I break into a sweat at the thought of killing anything even an ant. I feel so cruel. Chicken and stuff I see the purpose, it nourishes you and so on, but a pointless death makes me sad.
woosy me.
I know what you mean. i have no problem in the killing for food but anything
else (unless of course it's a mosquito) makes me feel very uneasy