A horrendous heatwave scorched the world this month. I hear the UK was in the 90s (32°C) and the thermostat in my flat registered 113°F, which is a whopping 45°C and this was at 6pm!
The hot weather has brought out the bugs in full force. Ants in particular are rampant, as they are on the search for water. They love bathrooms but kitchens are a double whammy as they might get to pick up a few crumbs on the way.
One of my first LA encounters with an army of ants was waking up one morning to find my cats’ kibble literally moving up and down. I was mortified. Upon closer inspection I realized it was infested with ants! As a Londoner I correlated insects in the home with being dirty, but I soon learnt that it was part and parcel of living in a hot country. I moved here before Google, so solutions weren’t as readily available; through trial and error I came up with the idea of placing the food bowl in a slightly larger bowl filled with water to create a moat thus preventing the ants from reaching the food. This didn’t stop them from scouring the rest of my house for supplies, though. I worked my way through the ‘Good Housekeeping’ tips. I tried everything from vinegar to chalk lines, talcum powder, coffee grounds, caulking up the points of entry but all were very temporary measures. Then one day someone suggested ‘ant hotels’. These are small, discreet baits that you can place around the house. The ants take the bait back to the nest and it kills the colony. They really do work. You can easily find them on Amazon, Home Depot or Smart & Final. This year I pulled out my trusty arsenal and the ants were gone in 24 hours. But for the first time I started to feel a bit guilty by my mass murder and with Google now at the tips of my fingers I looked up the advantages of keeping them around. We all know the benefits of bees but I was humbled upon learning the important role ants play. They are often referred to as ‘Nature’s Gardners’. According to Harvard University, not only do they ‘turn and aerate the soil, disperse seeds which aids in pollination’ they also ‘eat a wide variety of organic material and provide food for many different organisms.’ This includes all of our food waste. Elsa Youngsteadt a researcher at North Carolina State University conducted an experiment in NY. She and her team set out cages loaded with hot dogs, cookies and potato chips across 24 grassy street medians. The next day, as much as 85 percent of the food was gone. Bugs (including ants, beetles, mites and other small creatures) ate an average of 3 or 4 grams in 24 hours, 2 to 3 times more than in the parks. The more they eat, the more they take from the mouths of rodents.
“This means that whatever the ants eat isn’t available for the rats,” Youngsteadt said. “The ants aren’t just helping to clean up our cities, but to limit populations of rats and other pests.”
So I think it’s time to learn to love or at least live with ants. As without them who knows what state our environment would be in? Whilst I still don’t want hundreds of them living in my apartment I’m going to allow the odd one or two to wander freely. A friend of mine has an exterminator spray the perimeter of her house monthly, this seems to deter entry but allows them to continue their good work outside.
Do you have an environmentally friendly prevention method that actually works? Let’s save the ants and by default help the world!
Send your suggestions to BritsinLA@gmail.com
Lastly, do not leave out spoons of sugar water for the bees – it will do more harm than good. It‘s another case of ‘fake news’ . Sir David Attenborough was falsely quoted as endorsing this. The BBC demanded that Facebook remove the viral post but I see it is still circulating almost a week later.
There are a few good websites out there if you want to fact check before sharing across social media. I like www.snopes.com but I’m sure there are plenty of other good ones out there.
It’s rather apt that as I sign off this week I have an ant exploring my arm. 🐜
Cheers
Eileen
PS: Make sure to visit us on Facebook @BritsInLA for daily news, upcoming events and lots of competitions. We have another pair of tickets to give away for 80’s pop stars Paul Young & Midge Ure “Soundtrack of Your Life” tour for their show at El Rey Theatre on August 31st.
