You know, I believe I have posted at least three or four times in the recent past about the gradual spike in our ant population, but I have to throw this out there again. I am really wondering what is going on with these insects, and I have about decided there must be a connection between this and the fact that our winters are warming.

We live in the woods, and there is very little in the way of insect life here that really bothers me-they live here too and as a rule we get along fine. We do have the interior of the home treated once a year for roaches since they are thick with all the leaf litter about, but we have never had a problem with anything else...until the last several years. The numbers of sweet-loving ants (using sweet-loving broadly since I'm not precisely sure what kind they are) has sky-rocketed, and their behavior around a bait station has noticeably changed. Years ago, if I began seeing scouts I simply got a piece of foil, added a few drops of Terro, and spent a little time and patience watching to see where they were entering the house. THe bait was set, within hours they were swarming it, and within another day or so they were no longer a problem.Six months to a year would pass before I ever saw another ant. I am quite fastidious about keeping foodstuffs sealed and cleaned up---prevention being the key, you know.

The last few years things have drastically changed. Now I see ant scouts ALL WINTER LONG, but the strangest thing happens after they have found the bait station: they report back, the colony hurries forth to utilize the new-found food, they gorge themselves and then do the usual gradual die-off.....and then within a week are back in full force and numbers all over again, and always in the same place.

I am scratching my head trying to figure this out. Is it that there are larger colonies of ants in my yard and possible that their scouts can "read" the trails of other scouts from other colonies and follow them into the house?? Is the Terro not quite killing off an entire colony and within a week its numbers have rebounded?? What?? I have been going through incredible numbers of ants!!

I am at a loss, I don't care for exterminator's non-selective chemicals, and Terro is fairly benign unless you are a sweet-loving insect. I never had to deal with little ants scurrying about my kitchen like this and I'm going through Terro like the hummers go through sugar water. And it's brand-new stuff, not old dried up stuff that's been sitting in the garage for years.

THe last time the exterminator came for our yearly treatment I asked him if this was a common concern and he said that he gets more calls for ants now than anything else except maybe ladybugs.

Gotta be the weather. But why do they keep coming???? I bet I have had no less than ten "swarms" of ants so far in the past three months alone. THey must be laying down a trail like mice and rats sometimes do.....