Mary, thank you for taking the time to write such a thorough post. I was just telling telling Darren in a PM that I feel awful killing insects and that I capture the large ones and put them outside.
This morning I flipped on the kitchen light and there were far fewer baby ants searching for something. I sprinkled cinnamon on the floor yesterday so this may have helped but I saw one tugging a large crumb of something with it’s tiny body and felt bad. I followed Bunny’s advice and used vinegar to wipe them and the cinnamon up. I will reapply the cinnamon.
It’s funny that you say that, about intention, speaking to them. Last year, my fourth year of pulling my hair out with them, they were invading the second floor, bathroom, living room and kitchen. They are along the foundation outside and we watched hundreds of winged ants fly away, from the side of the house, along one of our basement windows. They are coming out of the cracks along the sidewalk. I read that when their colony is big enough they make flying drones who then go create a colony somewhere else. (Sorry neighbors!)
I do a lot of ant research, but I’ve never read about what you’re suggesting. It makes sense to a certain primal part of my brain so I will give this a try. I wonder if I accidentally did this last year because at a certain point they were just gone and I didn’t see them all summer. I had no idea why my interventions were suddenly working at that point, and not before. It will be a nice experiment.
