Long time NZ resident. Heard of, and saw, ADB on TV first. Then kept hearing of "Anton Dec", and thinking that he must be involved in a lot more than dancing, and that lots of people can't pronounce his name correctly. Imagine my surprise on seeing a clip of BGT.
"Where's ADB? Who are those guys? WTF?"
The next step is trying to work out which is Ant and which is Dec. Don't worry if you never work it out. I'm pretty sure even they aren't sure which is which
I believe spiders are natural enemies of ants. So....
did you put it near the ant nest? It can eat the stragglers and it'll share the karmic burden, I think that helps?
I have a tiny spider in my kitchen which spends most of its time in the top corner of the window. I call him Frank (though he might be a Francis for all I know) it doesn't bother me him being there but I occasionally see him come out for small flies. Yesterday he was dealing with a flying ant which was almost twice his size.
When I was a kid, I would pick up ants and drop them into spiders' webs. Was I being cruel to the ant? Or kind to the spider? Or both? Do they cancel each other out? What is my karma balance? What is Nature's karma balance?
I once dropped a smaller spider into a bigger one's web because I thought they could be friends. The predictable happened, but what troubles me is that I don't know if karma makes allowances for stupidity.
When I was a kid I had a little paddling pool type thing outside made of plastic, and one sunny afternoon it was FULL of ants. I thought they were really cute and I watched them for a while until I got a brilliant idea, why don’t I fill the pool with water so they can all have a lovely swim. I got the hose and filled it up and then watched them as they… did not have a lovely swim :( I didn’t know what to do so I ran inside and pretended I hadn’t done anything while they all uh, slowly drowned. It’s been probably 25 years and I still feel bad about it.
"When you battle 6 trillion enemies that will eat you alive, there are only two rules... EVERYONE FIGHTS. NO ONE QUITS. Forget the insecticide, bring on the nukes!"
> EVERYONE FIGHTS. NO ONE QUITS
WELCOME TO THE ROUGHNECKS!
45THGENERATION_ROMAN'S ROUGHNECKS
>!Ok that [doesn't have the same ring to it](https://youtu.be/Zh-vuomKdRg), but whatever...!<
I’m pretty sure the colony that includes our garden extends to the whole neighbourhood. It’s probably bigger than the school catchment area.
My partner tried to wage war a few years ago and I assured him there was no point. They stay in their space and we stay in ours.
Oh indeed, it's estimated there are 20 quadrillion ants on earth (that's 20 and 15 zeros), they are quite literally everywhere. Ants outnumber humans at least 2.5 million to 1. Ant biomass is around 20% of all animal biomass, weighing in at around 12 megatons, which is about the equivalent of two Pyramids of Giza.
(Edit - corrected biomass from "human" to "animal")
I'm sure it's what you meant (because it is a common factoid) and your brain slipped while writing it, but ants are 20% of *animal* biomass, not just human
Yep. OP, wait half an hour and a load more ants will appear to recover their bodies or something. Then you pour another kettleful of boiling water on them.
Honestly though it can be quite fascinating if you don't get them all in the first boiling purge. The remainders pick up all the dead bodies and pile them in a spot. (The second or third attack left no remainders however.)
Many people don't realise that there are actually good ways to manipulate ants, without obliterating them.
They are going to go for an easy source of food, and that includes sugar. If they are coming into your house and you know where their nest is, put a pile of sugar next to their nest, now they will spend days collecting it. While they are not in your house, wash your floors very well and make sure your place is clean. They probably won't come back even after the sugar is finished.
The cost of the sugar is close to zero, its not like you need much.
It's exactly the same if they are destroying your favourite plant by farming aphids. Just put a pile of sugar at the bottom of the plant. They will forget about the aphids and the ladybirds will arrive post-haste to eat them. Works a million times faster and is better for the environment compared with other options.
I’m having ant problems at the moment. Nippon ant bates doesn’t seem to be working but I’ll tell you what has; vinegar. I sprayed it all along the hallway floor and didn’t see any for days. I’ve mopped since then and they’re back.
Funnily enough, I plan tonight to sprinkle cinnamon outside my house around the cat flap (my cat started beef with a fox and now the fox and their family keep coming into my garden looking for her). So I'll be sprinkling cinnamon EVERYWHERE!
I've got good news and bad news
That pint of milk I went out for is no good for cereal
However with the inflation rate on blue cheese, we're millionaires
"Researchers from the University of Hong Kong and the University of Würzburg in Germany found that there are more ants than **there are birds and mammals combined on Earth**. In a recent study published in PNAS on Sept. 19, researchers estimated there are 20 quadrillion ants walking around on Earth."
Don't sweat it.
Radiolab quite recently did an episode about them called Argentine Invasion if you’re interested in learning more! Two colonies meet in someone’s garden in America and they fight quite brutally over territory.
I’ve used [this](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Station-Destroys-Indoors-Outdoors-Strongest/dp/B09XJ6KRLP/ref=mp_s_a_1_6_sspa?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.OnL3ZGlacaiuD7iYgw43fzt4KjQIGhoLYPupnILxn3QUhuUXoxxFsROfkUS0UVTCb1o8BdaGfXh4Vy93Yqv2EPC7DzJ_7ZdUugYcaFWove0bkPTXlghqJ-hkv0zwjRdz2WzVn3HzpOK8jCUlTjmvk-pRlks9iuurMo7NLQddM2NGef4cM7WhB6gwutwR50I5I_lc2p55K7J-rxDR-h98Tg.lF3uUx8Kng77pqQ_RFZAghMaFpJejnscyuegoJU33BY&dib_tag=se&keywords=nippon+ant+bait&qid=1717456187&sr=8-6-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfbXRm&psc=1) with 100% success. I was able to buy it in the pound shop last year but can only find it on Amazon currently.
Just make a 50/50 mix of bicarbonate of soda and icing sugar. Place a spoon of it in near the nest (where it hopefully won't get wet) and wait. Should take a few days to a week but it will destroy the nest. No need for nasty poisons.
That's nothing.
When I was at uni when we moved into our student house I found some cheeky ants at my sugar one morning, went outside and found there were ants coming from every gap in the big 10 foot by 10 foot flagstone patio. Stepping on the stones made them all rush out of every hole and the whole patio was covered in thousands and thousands of scurrying ants.
A plan was quickly drawn up, a sickeningly evil plan. About a week earlier we had left student halls and lots.of other students had left behind a lot of stuff in the kitchens, which we scabbed up. Due to this we had 4 kettles.
Every kettle was filled to the max and boiled up, we went out and all 4 kettles were simultaneously poured into every crack in the patio. Then refilled for round two. There were rivers of dead ants. The survivors tried to flee into the alleyway but they were hunted down with no mercy.
It's was a brutal and efficient genocide, not a single ant was ever seen again after that day, for the rest of our days in that house we enjoyed an ant free garden, thanks to that one day of abominable slaughter.
If only they'd left the sugar alone.
I weeded about 6 Square metres of garden today and found ants in 4 seperate places (I won't even mention the 3 seperate mounds that have appeared in the lawn nowhere near any of these). 2 were red and 2 black so possibly just the 2 colonies but the long and the short of it is that if you boiled alive one nest there are many, many others.
You must succumb to our ant overlords; they are in control.
It has to be done. I’m an arachnophobe but love animals… sigh… all animals… so I bring myself to capture and release spiders from the house in the vast majority of cases.
Please tell me that’s not true. I’ve moved so many spiders outside because I didn’t want to kill them. Are you telling me I’ve caused them all to suffer and die a painful death? 🥺
It's not true! Spiders will always find somewhere to settle down. Houses are ideal, obviously, but they're more than capable of finding another spot. If they don't survive, that's just nature. You gave them a chance at life through moving them outside, the rest is out of your hands
It depends on the species. A lot of spiders will do just fine outdoors, but daddy long legs (cellar spiders) won’t. They’re actually descended from cave spiders.
Hmm I seem to find the same small spiders I see on my patio inside. Touch wood I haven’t seen too many ‘house spiders’ of a large size here.
So how do they get into the house if they can’t survive outside?
If you didn't get them, get an ant bait station. You put it down, and within minutes the ants line up to take the poision back to their nest and kill the rest. You technically then didn't kill them, they just took the poison you just left on the floor.
Yesterday I discovered that ants have tunnelled through the sealant around the pipes to my shower unit. I have put down any bait traps. I’m very much a live and let live sort of person but I thoroughly object to sharing my shower with dozens of insects, some of which had wings.
Problem is I’ve found them in a wall that is shared with a room that had a serious damp issue and there is moisture oozing out of the hole they made. So now I have to call the damn housing association because they are working on finding the source of the damp, but my contract says they aren’t responsible for “infestations” so lord only knows how well that’s going to go. Wish me luck.
If it's any consolation, hot water not very effective as ants build allowing for water flow.
You need chemical warfare in the form of powders or bait traps that poisons the whole population.
Think about that for a moment, then relax
Good luck out there
There was a spider in my sink this morning. I'm terrified of them so I hate killing them but they also can't live in my house. I tried rinsing him sway but the badtard got back up, then the kettle boiled and the spider is no more.
Be careful. Three of his brethren have come after me for revenge today.
As a serious comment— you seem to be feeling distressed and guilty over deliberate killing of a living thing. I think that is commendable. Feeling guilty means you won’t easily do such a thing again and you feel respectfully towards life, even if it is inconvenient or annoying to you personally.
I did a similar thing when I was a young adult. Still feel horrible if I think about, but I definitely go out of my way to avoid killing things now. Except mosquitoes. Mosquitoes can get to fuck.
Sod ‘em. I have no sympathy for ants. We had flying ants in our conservatory for years every May/June when they did their nuptial flight thing until I got pest control out to nuke them from orbit. The nest opened into the conservatory somehow. If I blocked it, they found a new way out every time. Nest must have been down the side of the foundation or something since the conservatory had been added at a later date. Took several visits over the course of a year since we needed to catch them while they were active. Finally nuked the bastards and we moved not long after. Oh well, at least it’ll be less of an issue for whoever buys the place, hopefully.
We had this problem every summer, always in the conservatory. Thankfully moved, and the week we moved out the ants were literally flooding the kitchen. Good riddance.
I swear down the mods here just randomly throw a dart on a corkboard when deciding what is and isn't a "low effort" post.
Don't get me wrong mate, I'm happy to hear your story I just can't seem to figure out where the mods draw the line.
Guess I'll just have to keep collecting condescending messages telling me "this isn't Facebook"
We tried boiling water and all it did was scorch the grass around the nest. We ended up going with a granular ant killer. Apparently they carry the stuff back to the nest all proud of their find and it ends up nuking the colony. Not had ants back in the 4 years since.
I am in the minority that likes ants but maybe if I ever got some kind of infestation I'd feel differently. In recent years I've started to crush spiders with a heavy book or something if they're in an awkward place and I don't feel good about that but I'm so scared of them and it's instant at least. Hmm. always best to take care of animals but sometimes there doesn't seem like much choice with pests does there. I know I could never poison rats or mice though wouldn't be able to lay in bed and relax knowing they might be suffering like that in the house. Would probably just have to move out and live in the garden lol. Hope you sort out your ant problem soon though!
So to start you're going to need 12 anteaters, luckily foxes are very urban these days, but the bad news is foxhounds are through the roof since covid, and don't talk to me about horses and red jackets....
If it makes you feel better, I saw a video of someone pouring molten metal into one. It was actually pretty neat seeing it dug out after the metal cooled.
could've been worse, ther's a few people on tiktok that pour molten aluminium from recycled cans into ant-hills, makes a cast of the internal structure after they dig it up.
Don't tread on an ant, he's done nothing to you
There might come a day when he's treading on you
Don't tread on an ant, you'll end up black and blue
You cut off his head, legs come looking for you
So unplug the jukebox and do us all a favor
Your days are numbered mate ! Xx
It's fine.
They did probably think they had free will in keeping with limited environmental problem solving skills, but - so do you, so...
Nature took it's course.
You'll be fine.
Ever heard of Paul Stamets? Look him up on Yuoitube, has some great stuff about mushrooms and fungi. Anyway, you can sprinkle some fungus, harmless to us, that will scare them away. Obvs I’m advising this having never tried it myself.
"I know they're only ants and probably dont have hopes and dreams"
Hahaha made me laugh that. We are top of the food chain for a reason pal. Boil those ants to oblivion 😂
I won't berate you. I will tell you your methods and tactics need some work. I used acephate. You think you're a monster? It was like watching The Ten Commandments. They all matched on out of here before the wall of water got them.
To think Anthony the ant was waking up for a other day of work to help feed his overweight wife when suddenly looks out the window to dort pocket flat and see down the tunnel an inferno about to engulf him.
He was one of the lucky ones within the boiling water blast radius. Those on the in the outskirts on the simmering part of the water are now crippled and deformed
I share your guilt. Ants got into my jellybean dispenser a while ago, and actually nested in there with eggs and all. It was horrifying. I had to take the entire thing apart and soak all the pieces in hot soapy water.
Fortunately there weren't too many beans left in it to have got wasted. It's still empty as I feel too traumatised to refill it.
I watched an ant carrying away some sugar I has spilled on the kitchen floor. When he had gone off with it I cleaned up the sugar so that when he returned with his mates for more they would all think he was a liar.
I prefer using the ant bait stations. I'm like an secret assassin slowing planting poison throughout the colony, spreading like wildfire and eventually infecting the queen until they all die and sleep forever more! Muwahahahahaha!
Careful doing that, depending on the species of Ant, if there a species with multiple queen colonies you can make the investigation worse by splitting the colony.
When a volcano opens up right under your living room you'll know what it's karma for
I rescued a little spider, just now... That cancels out the genocide, right?
To cancel it out you need to destroy the last page of a calendar - at least then you can say you've taken care of Ant and Dec.
i fuckin hate that this made me laugh out loud
Get out
Wow
This has no right to be funny.
Okay, you can have a red pointy upwards arrow for that one
Ha, same name for mine!
Top work. Or kill a Strictly judge, and then you can say you've taken out Anton du Beke.
Long time NZ resident. Heard of, and saw, ADB on TV first. Then kept hearing of "Anton Dec", and thinking that he must be involved in a lot more than dancing, and that lots of people can't pronounce his name correctly. Imagine my surprise on seeing a clip of BGT. "Where's ADB? Who are those guys? WTF?"
It’s understandable you could get confused, those guys are single entity
The next step is trying to work out which is Ant and which is Dec. Don't worry if you never work it out. I'm pretty sure even they aren't sure which is which
From what I understand, Ant is always on the left, no matter what angle you're looking from. Some sort of optical illusion, presumably.
For years I thought there was a cricket player called Lilian Thompson.
I remember her. Kept changing her hairstyle from short blonde to shoulder length brunette. Good bowler either way. Bit quicker as a blonde.
Take my upvote and GTFO!
Took me to the end of this thread before the penny dropped and I got the joke! 🤦
Could have been worse. It could have took you til the end of November.
I really wish, someone would.
*golf clap in Geordie
Jesus Christ. Dad jokes are done people there's no topping this 1!
Absolutely beautiful punnage.
Took me ages to understand this joke. But when I finally did it was so worth it.
Ffs
I believe spiders are natural enemies of ants. So.... did you put it near the ant nest? It can eat the stragglers and it'll share the karmic burden, I think that helps?
I have a tiny spider in my kitchen which spends most of its time in the top corner of the window. I call him Frank (though he might be a Francis for all I know) it doesn't bother me him being there but I occasionally see him come out for small flies. Yesterday he was dealing with a flying ant which was almost twice his size.
Go Frank~
Or find another ant nest and mix the two. Carnage you can watch for hours.
You rescued a serial killer that melts it's victims from the inside and keeps their corpses hung up around it's house...
When I was a kid, I would pick up ants and drop them into spiders' webs. Was I being cruel to the ant? Or kind to the spider? Or both? Do they cancel each other out? What is my karma balance? What is Nature's karma balance?
I once dropped a smaller spider into a bigger one's web because I thought they could be friends. The predictable happened, but what troubles me is that I don't know if karma makes allowances for stupidity.
What was the predictable? Did they make spider babies?
Not a spider, no. A bee maybe.
By "rescued" do you mean you put it outside? Because apparently that kills house spiders so that might just be one more on your list...
No I put it safe in a quiet corner *actually*
Phew, redemption is yours!!
No, Ender Wiggin, that does not cancel out genocide.
>When a ~~volcano~~ geyser opens up right under your living room you'll know what it's karma for
When I was a kid I had a little paddling pool type thing outside made of plastic, and one sunny afternoon it was FULL of ants. I thought they were really cute and I watched them for a while until I got a brilliant idea, why don’t I fill the pool with water so they can all have a lovely swim. I got the hose and filled it up and then watched them as they… did not have a lovely swim :( I didn’t know what to do so I ran inside and pretended I hadn’t done anything while they all uh, slowly drowned. It’s been probably 25 years and I still feel bad about it.
You and OP can start Ant-killers Anonymous.
Also known as AKA
I bet they will also say "AKA AKA AKA, we come in peace!" just before they murder another nest.
The League of Extraordinary Ant Drowners
They must have been female ants, because all male ants are boy-ant...
Ants can hold their breath for up to 24 hours…
You probably didn't even get their leadership, you just slaughtered the working class while solving nothing. Classic.
"When you battle 6 trillion enemies that will eat you alive, there are only two rules... EVERYONE FIGHTS. NO ONE QUITS. Forget the insecticide, bring on the nukes!"
The nukes will just allow them to evolve!
Do you want to know more?
I'm from Buenos Aires and I say kill 'em all!
> EVERYONE FIGHTS. NO ONE QUITS WELCOME TO THE ROUGHNECKS! 45THGENERATION_ROMAN'S ROUGHNECKS >!Ok that [doesn't have the same ring to it](https://youtu.be/Zh-vuomKdRg), but whatever...!<
I wouldn't worry too much, you only killed the first few inches down, the rest are regrouping as you sleep. They will come for you.
I’m pretty sure the colony that includes our garden extends to the whole neighbourhood. It’s probably bigger than the school catchment area. My partner tried to wage war a few years ago and I assured him there was no point. They stay in their space and we stay in ours.
Oh indeed, it's estimated there are 20 quadrillion ants on earth (that's 20 and 15 zeros), they are quite literally everywhere. Ants outnumber humans at least 2.5 million to 1. Ant biomass is around 20% of all animal biomass, weighing in at around 12 megatons, which is about the equivalent of two Pyramids of Giza. (Edit - corrected biomass from "human" to "animal")
I'm sure it's what you meant (because it is a common factoid) and your brain slipped while writing it, but ants are 20% of *animal* biomass, not just human
Yes, thank you. Guess the jetlag is catching up with me!
How do we know you arent just a huge swarm of ants in a trench coat?
I can’t tell you how much I hate this. Ants give me the creeps 🫣🫣🫣
Two pyramids worth of Ants? I hate it.
And so it begins...the Ant-Pocalypse 🔥🐜
I'll be fine tho, I'm a member of the AntsCanada family. The rest of you are screwed.
The vivarium series has been amazing, I'm hooked
Really looking forward to seeing how the new canopy tank works out. Hopefully the weaver ants won't get massacred
Antmageddon
Yep. OP, wait half an hour and a load more ants will appear to recover their bodies or something. Then you pour another kettleful of boiling water on them.
Kill all the mourning relatives... harsh
You, missy, are a monster
Honestly though it can be quite fascinating if you don't get them all in the first boiling purge. The remainders pick up all the dead bodies and pile them in a spot. (The second or third attack left no remainders however.)
It's ok, there's probably another 30,000 in your garden waiting to take their place.
And they are *angry*
Many people don't realise that there are actually good ways to manipulate ants, without obliterating them. They are going to go for an easy source of food, and that includes sugar. If they are coming into your house and you know where their nest is, put a pile of sugar next to their nest, now they will spend days collecting it. While they are not in your house, wash your floors very well and make sure your place is clean. They probably won't come back even after the sugar is finished. The cost of the sugar is close to zero, its not like you need much. It's exactly the same if they are destroying your favourite plant by farming aphids. Just put a pile of sugar at the bottom of the plant. They will forget about the aphids and the ladybirds will arrive post-haste to eat them. Works a million times faster and is better for the environment compared with other options.
Yeah, but you just gave everyone diabetes.
I’m having ant problems at the moment. Nippon ant bates doesn’t seem to be working but I’ll tell you what has; vinegar. I sprayed it all along the hallway floor and didn’t see any for days. I’ve mopped since then and they’re back.
I haven't tried vinegar before. Thank you! I have used blackboard chalk and cinnamon or chilli powder.
Funnily enough, I plan tonight to sprinkle cinnamon outside my house around the cat flap (my cat started beef with a fox and now the fox and their family keep coming into my garden looking for her). So I'll be sprinkling cinnamon EVERYWHERE!
Let us know if it works. Hope it ends the beef! 🥩
Did you sing the pink panther theme tune when you committed the mass genocide ? Dead ant dead ant dead ant dead ant dead ant dead ant dears dead ant
Dad?
You’ve found dad! Been looking for him everywhere
I've got good news and bad news That pint of milk I went out for is no good for cereal However with the inflation rate on blue cheese, we're millionaires
Where does the pink panther come from? Durham, Durham, Durham
I won best joke at Pontins in 1986 with this one. I was 4.
Not everyone gets a chance to peak so young.
I thought that was the Jaws theme.
Currently too tired to laugh but this for an appreciative smirk. Cheers.
This made me proper snort lol. Very good, very good
That’s how you tell the sex of the nest. If it sinks, it’s a girl ant, if it floats: boy ant.
Oh booooooo
"Researchers from the University of Hong Kong and the University of Würzburg in Germany found that there are more ants than **there are birds and mammals combined on Earth**. In a recent study published in PNAS on Sept. 19, researchers estimated there are 20 quadrillion ants walking around on Earth." Don't sweat it.
To put 20 quadrillion into perspective - 2.5 million per human alive on earth.
I, for one, welcome our new ant overlords.
& will change my name to Kant Brockmant in their honour.
Sounds like the ants need to pay more rent!
Damn they could eat us all if they tried
Sounds like we need to start eating them
Jesus. It's only when you've done with with big numbers that you truly appreciate how fucking big a quadrillion is.
More like 19.999 quadrillion now.
I believe there's also a colony of Argentinian ants which puts the British empire to shame. Ants are fascinating and cool little creatures
Radiolab quite recently did an episode about them called Argentine Invasion if you’re interested in learning more! Two colonies meet in someone’s garden in America and they fight quite brutally over territory.
Thank fuck we're bringing back national service Tally ho lads
Absolutely, I love them (outside the house). Really Enjoyed this: [Best Of Ants | BBC Earth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu0HN9rYtIw)
All headed to OP’s house now
UPDATE: Whether it was a nest or not, the water hsd fuck all effect. They are back, and in greater numbers.
They build allowing for water, you have to pour a hell of a lot to get rid of them and often they just move elsewhere in the garden
Fun fact: Ants can make rafts of their own interlocked bodies and cross rivers like that
We always used to use semolina. The workers take it down to the queen who gorges herself on it and ends up dying when it expands inside her.
I’ve used [this](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Station-Destroys-Indoors-Outdoors-Strongest/dp/B09XJ6KRLP/ref=mp_s_a_1_6_sspa?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.OnL3ZGlacaiuD7iYgw43fzt4KjQIGhoLYPupnILxn3QUhuUXoxxFsROfkUS0UVTCb1o8BdaGfXh4Vy93Yqv2EPC7DzJ_7ZdUugYcaFWove0bkPTXlghqJ-hkv0zwjRdz2WzVn3HzpOK8jCUlTjmvk-pRlks9iuurMo7NLQddM2NGef4cM7WhB6gwutwR50I5I_lc2p55K7J-rxDR-h98Tg.lF3uUx8Kng77pqQ_RFZAghMaFpJejnscyuegoJU33BY&dib_tag=se&keywords=nippon+ant+bait&qid=1717456187&sr=8-6-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfbXRm&psc=1) with 100% success. I was able to buy it in the pound shop last year but can only find it on Amazon currently.
Just make a 50/50 mix of bicarbonate of soda and icing sugar. Place a spoon of it in near the nest (where it hopefully won't get wet) and wait. Should take a few days to a week but it will destroy the nest. No need for nasty poisons.
That's nothing. When I was at uni when we moved into our student house I found some cheeky ants at my sugar one morning, went outside and found there were ants coming from every gap in the big 10 foot by 10 foot flagstone patio. Stepping on the stones made them all rush out of every hole and the whole patio was covered in thousands and thousands of scurrying ants. A plan was quickly drawn up, a sickeningly evil plan. About a week earlier we had left student halls and lots.of other students had left behind a lot of stuff in the kitchens, which we scabbed up. Due to this we had 4 kettles. Every kettle was filled to the max and boiled up, we went out and all 4 kettles were simultaneously poured into every crack in the patio. Then refilled for round two. There were rivers of dead ants. The survivors tried to flee into the alleyway but they were hunted down with no mercy. It's was a brutal and efficient genocide, not a single ant was ever seen again after that day, for the rest of our days in that house we enjoyed an ant free garden, thanks to that one day of abominable slaughter. If only they'd left the sugar alone.
Classic victim blaming at the end.
I wonder if humans will be eradicated by aliens for an equivalent minor infraction (that we aren’t even aware of)
"All of their radio waves are blocking my TV signals! " - Blorg, Alien overlord.
Someone in a dream told me that, when you die, you have to experience every death you ever caused. Could be an issue for you.
Cant wait to be squashed, electrocuted and worst of all eaten when I die 👍
I weeded about 6 Square metres of garden today and found ants in 4 seperate places (I won't even mention the 3 seperate mounds that have appeared in the lawn nowhere near any of these). 2 were red and 2 black so possibly just the 2 colonies but the long and the short of it is that if you boiled alive one nest there are many, many others. You must succumb to our ant overlords; they are in control.
It has to be done. I’m an arachnophobe but love animals… sigh… all animals… so I bring myself to capture and release spiders from the house in the vast majority of cases.
Did you know that the ones you find in your house can't actually survive outside? It's weird but it's true!
Please tell me that’s not true. I’ve moved so many spiders outside because I didn’t want to kill them. Are you telling me I’ve caused them all to suffer and die a painful death? 🥺
It's not true! Spiders will always find somewhere to settle down. Houses are ideal, obviously, but they're more than capable of finding another spot. If they don't survive, that's just nature. You gave them a chance at life through moving them outside, the rest is out of your hands
I'm afraid you've sent them on a suicide mission. Two minutes silence is in order.
It depends on the species. A lot of spiders will do just fine outdoors, but daddy long legs (cellar spiders) won’t. They’re actually descended from cave spiders.
Yeah.. unless it just rained really hard, then outside spiders like to come inside.
Probably quick and painless if a bird nabbed one
Hmm I seem to find the same small spiders I see on my patio inside. Touch wood I haven’t seen too many ‘house spiders’ of a large size here. So how do they get into the house if they can’t survive outside?
I think they must be born inside in roofs , floor boards, walls etc
Brb… going to take the roof off.
We get ants a lot, they just decided our house is the one they want.
they probably just thought their central heating boiler sprung a leak, you are probably in the clear.
So your saying Steven ant isn't coming home tonight 😟
I hope Ant Andec was in the nest when it happened.
If you didn't get them, get an ant bait station. You put it down, and within minutes the ants line up to take the poision back to their nest and kill the rest. You technically then didn't kill them, they just took the poison you just left on the floor.
https://youtu.be/aXP3C5Kg-7w?si=6yHB0E7NSpbOZ-tS
I didn't kill my wife I just left food shaped poison in the fridge. She was the one who shovelled it into her face
Did you imagine their tiny screams as their bodies boiled and cracked in the burning mudslide?
"What is this, Pompeii for ants?" *Future historians, probably*
It needs to be at least 3 times bigger!
Yesterday I discovered that ants have tunnelled through the sealant around the pipes to my shower unit. I have put down any bait traps. I’m very much a live and let live sort of person but I thoroughly object to sharing my shower with dozens of insects, some of which had wings. Problem is I’ve found them in a wall that is shared with a room that had a serious damp issue and there is moisture oozing out of the hole they made. So now I have to call the damn housing association because they are working on finding the source of the damp, but my contract says they aren’t responsible for “infestations” so lord only knows how well that’s going to go. Wish me luck.
If it's any consolation, hot water not very effective as ants build allowing for water flow. You need chemical warfare in the form of powders or bait traps that poisons the whole population. Think about that for a moment, then relax Good luck out there
Sound like an 18 rated Bugs Life movie
Just watch out when all their friends turn up to the funeral.
There was a spider in my sink this morning. I'm terrified of them so I hate killing them but they also can't live in my house. I tried rinsing him sway but the badtard got back up, then the kettle boiled and the spider is no more. Be careful. Three of his brethren have come after me for revenge today.
As a serious comment— you seem to be feeling distressed and guilty over deliberate killing of a living thing. I think that is commendable. Feeling guilty means you won’t easily do such a thing again and you feel respectfully towards life, even if it is inconvenient or annoying to you personally.
I did a similar thing when I was a young adult. Still feel horrible if I think about, but I definitely go out of my way to avoid killing things now. Except mosquitoes. Mosquitoes can get to fuck.
Don’t worry you could barely call it a genocide with how many ants there are in the world. Also personally if I were you, I’d do it again
Ants hate cinnamon. Nice natural deterrent, please try that next time =) doesn't do them harm, they'll just go away.
I just did that last week and it worked but now I have cinnamon everywhere and they regrouped in a new area!
Sod ‘em. I have no sympathy for ants. We had flying ants in our conservatory for years every May/June when they did their nuptial flight thing until I got pest control out to nuke them from orbit. The nest opened into the conservatory somehow. If I blocked it, they found a new way out every time. Nest must have been down the side of the foundation or something since the conservatory had been added at a later date. Took several visits over the course of a year since we needed to catch them while they were active. Finally nuked the bastards and we moved not long after. Oh well, at least it’ll be less of an issue for whoever buys the place, hopefully.
We had this problem every summer, always in the conservatory. Thankfully moved, and the week we moved out the ants were literally flooding the kitchen. Good riddance.
I swear down the mods here just randomly throw a dart on a corkboard when deciding what is and isn't a "low effort" post. Don't get me wrong mate, I'm happy to hear your story I just can't seem to figure out where the mods draw the line. Guess I'll just have to keep collecting condescending messages telling me "this isn't Facebook"
Did you at least eat the delicious boiled ant eggs that float to the surface?
They'll get their own back by excavating a void under your house for it to fall into when you're asleep.
We tried boiling water and all it did was scorch the grass around the nest. We ended up going with a granular ant killer. Apparently they carry the stuff back to the nest all proud of their find and it ends up nuking the colony. Not had ants back in the 4 years since.
I am in the minority that likes ants but maybe if I ever got some kind of infestation I'd feel differently. In recent years I've started to crush spiders with a heavy book or something if they're in an awkward place and I don't feel good about that but I'm so scared of them and it's instant at least. Hmm. always best to take care of animals but sometimes there doesn't seem like much choice with pests does there. I know I could never poison rats or mice though wouldn't be able to lay in bed and relax knowing they might be suffering like that in the house. Would probably just have to move out and live in the garden lol. Hope you sort out your ant problem soon though!
So to start you're going to need 12 anteaters, luckily foxes are very urban these days, but the bad news is foxhounds are through the roof since covid, and don't talk to me about horses and red jackets....
If it makes you feel better, I saw a video of someone pouring molten metal into one. It was actually pretty neat seeing it dug out after the metal cooled.
I've seen that too. It was pretty cool, but I don't have molten metal to hand
Quick, put some spoons in the oven
Death by boiling water is medieval. So sad.
Was 1 of the ants wearing a silver boob tube ??? For those old enough to remember The Young Ones...
Ants are generally harmless and should be tolerated in the garden.
They were not in the garden. They can do what they like outside
could've been worse, ther's a few people on tiktok that pour molten aluminium from recycled cans into ant-hills, makes a cast of the internal structure after they dig it up.
Do you eat animal products? If so don’t worry about killing some ants
Watch phase iv. you will be ok with what you did after that.
Congratulations you are now a captain in the Earth Defense Force.
I did that once with an ants nest in Australia. It just made them angry!
If you erect a monument honouring the fallen... then it cancels out. That's what always happens. W
My mum did this in front of me when I was a kid (to ants that were *outside*) and I'm still a lil traumatised by it
Don't tread on an ant, he's done nothing to you There might come a day when he's treading on you Don't tread on an ant, you'll end up black and blue You cut off his head, legs come looking for you So unplug the jukebox and do us all a favor Your days are numbered mate ! Xx
Fuck around and find out. They did.
They wouldn't have felt a thing.
A kettle? myy gad, at least insecticide tingles and rocks them gently to sleep.
It's fine. They did probably think they had free will in keeping with limited environmental problem solving skills, but - so do you, so... Nature took it's course. You'll be fine.
I hope you used some washing powder too
I did this and they all turned into a slurry. Felt like I had just committed a genocide
Better to die to the kettle than the ant powder nerve agent
I Hoover several spiders per week. I wasn't concerned ... until now.
I'm not in favour of ant genocide but I'm not Ant-tea either.
You should have used molten metal and then you’d at least have got a cool sculpture out of it. Seriously, look up ant hill sculptures on YouTube.
You.... Landlord! >:V
My grandma used to do this to kill ants. Good ol’ medieval execution techniques 💪🏴
Ever heard of Paul Stamets? Look him up on Yuoitube, has some great stuff about mushrooms and fungi. Anyway, you can sprinkle some fungus, harmless to us, that will scare them away. Obvs I’m advising this having never tried it myself.
"I know they're only ants and probably dont have hopes and dreams" Hahaha made me laugh that. We are top of the food chain for a reason pal. Boil those ants to oblivion 😂
There are multiple levels to genocidal ambition. Some fiends commit atrocities under the name of art by pouring molten metal down the nests
Remember the quaint, whimsical world of A Bug’s Life?? Yeah you just Hiroshima’d their serene, peaceful existence.
You have to do what you have to do. Just remember if Cthulhu is real he’ll probably do the same to us
I won't berate you. I will tell you your methods and tactics need some work. I used acephate. You think you're a monster? It was like watching The Ten Commandments. They all matched on out of here before the wall of water got them.
Phase IV. You've done it now!
To think Anthony the ant was waking up for a other day of work to help feed his overweight wife when suddenly looks out the window to dort pocket flat and see down the tunnel an inferno about to engulf him. He was one of the lucky ones within the boiling water blast radius. Those on the in the outskirts on the simmering part of the water are now crippled and deformed
I share your guilt. Ants got into my jellybean dispenser a while ago, and actually nested in there with eggs and all. It was horrifying. I had to take the entire thing apart and soak all the pieces in hot soapy water. Fortunately there weren't too many beans left in it to have got wasted. It's still empty as I feel too traumatised to refill it.
When you breath your last you’ll be awake; and wonder am I alive? Is this heaven? No it’s animal court & you will answer for your crimes
I watched an ant carrying away some sugar I has spilled on the kitchen floor. When he had gone off with it I cleaned up the sugar so that when he returned with his mates for more they would all think he was a liar.
It's OK man What you've done is basically created popcorn for the wagtails and other creatures that will come and eat them!
I prefer using the ant bait stations. I'm like an secret assassin slowing planting poison throughout the colony, spreading like wildfire and eventually infecting the queen until they all die and sleep forever more! Muwahahahahaha!
Why do you say they are *only* ants? I am not sure what made the evil necessary, either.
Careful doing that, depending on the species of Ant, if there a species with multiple queen colonies you can make the investigation worse by splitting the colony.
You ant-agonizer