We've been fighting a major battle with some ants over the last few months. Because I have pets, I've been using some hippie organic spray that ends up killing the ants but the residual smell causes me to flashback to my days of relying on Ben-Gay to loosen up the throwing arm. Then after a few days, the damn ants return. I'll see a few gathered around the sink, obviously the scouts, then before long they're all headed to a few forgotten crumbs which I failed to wipe off the counter. Spray. Kill. Repeat. Thing is, I don't know what type of ants these are. They don't sting and they'll die if you stare at them too long. I think metafilter has helped me figure out a way to find out. I'll be submitting a photo to "What's That Bug?". I'm frustrated and I want to know what I'm dealing with in this war of wills. I'll let you know what I find out.
Now for a few interesting items and a pretty good song for you to download:
Headed to Edinburgh? You might want to consider taking the Trainspotting tour, in which "an essential piece of contemporary work [is] brought to life on the streets where it belongs." Heroin detox hallucinations will cost you extra.
The Alternative Dictionaries: Slang, profanities, insults and vulgarisms from all the world.
You Ain't No Picasso has done it again. This time he's made an "indie covers album." Seventeen indie bands convering some familiar (and often bad) songs. Be sure to check out the Mountain Goats doing Ace of Bases' "The Sign."
What's so special about the video for Smog's "I Feel Like the Mother of the World"? Think Chloë Sevigny in a maid outfit and sporting an eye patch. Can't confirm that the eye patch happened during the filming of Brown Bunny. Here's the video.
Carrie gets it straight from the editor that the Oxford American's Summer Music Issue is at the printer and will be mailed in a matter of days. She also gives us some details:
The Summer Music Issue (the seventh in the magazine’s history — the last one won a National Magazine Award in 2003) will come with a companion CD with 29 songs, perfect for chugging along the highway in a ‘66 Chevy, given that you can get the ‘66 Chevy to run. The CD looks like a mix of little-known cuts by big names (Al Green and Elvis) as well as “unduly obscure gems.” A wide mix of eras and styles, as you’d expect, with Lightnin’ Hopkins, Bessie Smith, Erma Franklin (Aretha’s older sister), Loretta Lynn, and loads of others, getting their due. Also a song by Zora Neale Hurston (yes, she sings!). Lots of good writers doing the appreciations too (Charles D’Ambrosio on Joe Tex, for example).
In honor of this news, Syntax of Things will offer, for a limited time, a free download of a song from the 5th annual edition of the OA's Southern Music edition. And it's an interesting song, but I guess I'll let you be the judge of that.
+ Download "James Alley Blues" by David Johansen & the Harry Smiths
I had those ants when I lived in Cali. What I did was to take an aerosol can and a lighter and just completly flamethrow their swarms. Effective at killing the ones in plain view and totally freaks out the ones who manage to escape. Think Dresden - real carnage and chaos.
The fire destroys their little lines of communication and sends a message back to the queen that you are not a human who is to be trifled with.
Then, instead of cleaning up the charred bodies, just leave them there. That will let the ants know that they are in the realm of a real sick mammer-jammer. Also, the stench of their death will be in the air and it will repulse them.
Usually, the ants will then move to another location of the kitchen. The process will need to be repeated until there are ant carcasses everywhere. Just tell the company that they are spilled coffee grounds.
Finally, the ants will be so traumatized by what they've seen that the queen will decide to invade another apartment in the building rather than risk the rising VA costs for PTSD.
Good luck
P.S.: It helps to quote Bush when you are flamethrowing the ants. "We will not falter, we will not fail," "Freedom wil be defended," "Fool me can't get fooled again," those sorts of things.
Posted by: Varg | July 28, 2005 at 10:43 AM
Well, although I can't follow up on the above post and how cool it would be to throw flames and stuff, I use those little ant motels, they work really good.
Posted by: Beckie | July 28, 2005 at 12:03 PM
Hey, great link to those cover songs! Thanks!
Posted by: Pauly D | July 28, 2005 at 12:45 PM
Varg, damn funny. However, I envision a television interview in which I have to explain why my apartment went up in flames. "Well, I was tired of the ants. I decided to treat them to a little aerosol-napalm, and well, I guess a few of them went back to the den, still on fire, and the next thing you know the place was going up like the Branch Davidian compound."
If it gets to that point, I'll take photos.
BTW, I'm currently trying the ant hotels. They seem to be ignoring them.
Posted by: Jeff | July 28, 2005 at 07:18 PM
It's an obvious question, I know, but forgive it. Are you putting the hotels along their "path" Ants are creatures of habit and will not stray from the path they created from the food to the hive.
Posted by: Beckie | July 29, 2005 at 11:53 AM