Ants plague local residents after onset of rains, cold weather (w/video)

They arrived on Christmas Day: Tiny, numerous, and bent, apparently, on spoiling one family’s festivities.

Ants.

“My mother always buys a big box of See’s Candies for us to share after we exchange gifts,” said Cotati resident Tara Hints. This year, her mom had unwrapped the box in advance so she could carefully select everyone’s favorite chocolates.

“However, once we opened the box we found that it was swarming with ants, and on further inspection we saw that there was a trail going along the mantle above the fireplace,” she said.

Hints’ family was just one of many in the North Bay to be visited, in time for the holidays, by hoards of ants driven inside by recent rains and cold temperatures.

Petaluma resident Jean Conrad encountered the small but abundant creatures upon returning home last Friday from a short trip to visit family for Christmas.

“There were ants in the kitchen, ants coming through the front door, ants parading down the hallway and going up the wall,” she said.

She promptly applied a remedy she remembered someone recommending - a spray made of vinegar and water - and called a local pest control company, the same one she used 15 years ago when ants invaded her home.

Steve Pasquale, who responded to the call and owns the company New West Pest Control, says he’s gotten as many as three times the usual number of calls from residents desperate to rid their homes of ants since this winter’s rains commenced at the end of November.

“I feel like I’ve gotten way more calls than usual,” he said, adding he could have worked 12 hours on Christmas Eve if he’d chosen, responding to people desperate to rid their homes of the insects before the actual holiday.

Mike English, general pest control manager for the regional pest control company Hitmen, likewise said he’d been getting “just an abundance of trouble calls for ants.”

And Warren Lum, a sales specialist in the gardening and nursery section of Friedman’s Home Improvement, said he had seen demand for ant control products triple since the rains started.

The types of ants that invade homes are driven inside when its “too wet, too cold or too dry,” said Brian Fisher, curator of entomology for the California Academy of Sciences. “Right now, it’s wet and cold, so it’s a double whammy.”

While many residents reported experiencing an insect invasion following last month’s heavy rains, others reported them first appearing in late summer as dry conditions peaked. Amy Carlisle of southwest Santa Rosa said she first encountered ants in August when she moved into her parents’ rural home. They’ve persisted since then, which she attributes in part to the rain.

“It’s so much fun,” she said dryly. “They’re everywhere.”

Fisher said the most common type of ant to strike homes is the non-native Argentine ant. This small, dark insect is more susceptible to drought than species native to California, so it tends to seek out moist areas in irrigated yards or near homes where it can access water, he said. When heavy rains flood those already-moist areas, the ants head inside seeking refuge.

“The misconception is they move inside because food is left out,” Fisher said. “They’re just finding food because they’re inside your house now.”

While ants may not enter the home seeking food, they often find it, driving homeowners crazy.

Kim Nelson said she had to throw away “most of the cupboard” after ants infiltrated her Cotati home. She described the two weeks she has spent battling ants as a “nightmare.”

“Everything I look at moves,” she said. “I’m constantly looking on the floor, the counter - it’s the first thing I do when I come downstairs in the morning,” she said.

Local residents reported ants entering their homes through whatever portal they could find: a shower drain, a door crack, a crevice in the wall. From there, they swarm trash cans, toddlers’ sippy cups, houseplants, coffee makers and dish washers.

Fisher emphasized that such ants don’t carry disease and suggested homeowners adopt a more welcoming approach to the critters. They might even use the opportunity to observe them, he said.

“They’re fascinating,” he said. “It’s nature coming inside.” He recommended people avoid using poisons that he said can merely drive ants deeper into homes and suggested applying local baits or sealing off ants’ entry points. The ants will stop trying to come inside when the wet, cold weather ends, he said.

Numerous residents wishing to avoid harsher pesticides described employing a bevy of folk and organic remedies: sprinkling a natural powder called diatomaceous earth, applying orange and peppermint oils, even creating barriers out of dryer sheets. Some reported success from such methods, while others said they felt forced to move on to more extreme measures, including ant traps or pesticide sprays. Still others, not interested in dealing with the insects a second longer than necessary, called in an exterminator.

Hints, the Cotati resident, said her family tried a tip they’d heard for repelling ants: cinnamon.

“We dusted the mantle and the doorways leading outside with it,” she said. “We haven’t seen any trails in the house since.”

Nelson also started with the most benign method possible since she didn’t want to put her dog at risk. She used a hand-held vacuum to suction them up. But the ants kept coming, “marching their way into our kitchen,” she said. She and her husband tried placing traps outside the house. But the invasion continued.

“Now I’m just spraying Raid in the cupboard,” she said. “I don’t care any more.”

Carlisle, of Santa Rosa, likewise has tried a range of remedies, from simply squishing the ants to caulking entry points and applying Raid outside.

At the same time, she said, she’s coming to understand that ants are a just a part of rural life.

“You have to accept it’s gonna happen,” she said. Still, she acknowledged, “I do a lot of swearing every time they come in.”

You can reach Staff Writer Jamie Hansen at 521-5205 or jamie.hansen@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jamiehansen.