I had an article in last month’s tenant newsletter about ants. A couple of people emailed me afterward asking if there was some way of getting rid of ants without pesticides. I have been asked that before, but sorry, I really don’t know of any effective way to do that. Ants lay down a chemical trail when they find food. Other ants can follow that trail – and for a considerable time and distance from their nest. One method of controlling ants that I know doesn’t work is yelling at them. A few years ago, I had a tenant who tried that. She lived in the house next door to me. I could sometimes hear her yelling at the ants in her kitchen: “Get out! Get out!” A neighbor living in the apartment house on the other side of her once called the police because of this. He thought my tenant was being physically attacked, but when the police arrived, my tenant explained to them that she was OK and that she was just yelling at the ants in her kitchen. I am sorry that I wasn’t there. I would have liked to have seen the expressions on the faces of those policemen when my tenant told them that she was yelling at the ants in her kitchen. However, this is Berkeley, so it is quite possible that those policemen were not surprised by this explanation.
Mark Tarses Newsletter
