Philippines

Dealing with Ants in Your House in Thailand

1 Comment / Uncategorized /

Thailand, like anywhere warm or troipical, has a lot of ants.  If you live in a house in Thailand you will almost certainly have a problem with ants at some point.  Here are my top tips for dealing with ants, and keeping them away.

Facts

  • Ants live in colonies.  Some stay in the nest and look after the young, others go looking for food (scout ants).
  • Once scout ants have found a food source, they make a scent trail back to the nest, so that the other ants can follow the trail to the food source.  These are the lines of ants you see taking the same path.  The trail can last for days, even after the food source is gone.
  • Ants love food.  They will find any crumbs or traces of food you have left in your kitchen.  Once they have found them the rest of the colony will turn up to take a share.
  • The ant colony lives around the queen ant, the leader of their colony.

How to get rid of ants

  • For ants in the kitchen, use a old cloth or tissue paper, spray with surface cleaner, and wipe the ants up.  Once you have got all of the ants, thouroughly clean the whole area.  You need to remove the traces of food, and any scent trails they have left.  Follow the trails up the walls, floors, etc and clean these too.
  • If you have big ants elsewhere in the house (e.g. bathroom) you most likely have a queen ant in there somewhere.  You MUST find the queen ant and get rid of it. The queen ant is much bigger than the others. The other ants are coming to work for the queen, and they are settling a colony.  You do not want it in your house.  If you have a wet bathroom, hose all of the ants down the drain.  Ensure you get all of the ants, especially the queen.

How to keep ants away

  • Keep everything very clean.  Ants are only coming for food
  • Empty the bin everyday.  Keep the waste outside.
  • Ants don’t like talcum powder.  Try sprinkling around areas where ants are coming into the home.
  • Ant killer trays are available from shops.  These trays contain posined food that the ants take back to their nests.  The ants in the nest also die.
  • Ant chalk bars are available. Draw chalk anywhere where ants are entering the home.  It will turn them back, and kill any who come into contact with it.

Hopefully these tips will help keep ants our of your home.  If you know of any other tips, please leave them in the comments below.

Dealing with Ants in Your House in Thailand Read More »

Manila, Phillipines

Leave a Comment / Uncategorized /

We arrive at Manila airport after a long 16 flight. Fly ing is an odd experience, but I don’t dislike it. We get through customs, I am intrigued by all of the different types of people. As the doors open to the outside world the heats me, as I stand in my jeans and jacket. Welcome to somewhere other and England.
We wait 2 hours for the bus, which then projects us through Manila at breakneck speed until we arrive at out hotel.
The hotel window opens onto a view of a similar hotel wall about 3 feet away. It’s best to keep the curtain drawn. We eat at the hotel restaurant.
Everything is very cheap, even in this inflated area. The
At late evening it is still 28 degrees Celsius. We venture onto the streets, with the constant bustle of street life. People selling food, guitars, just about anything. We buy some snacks from a 7 Eleven store, which I notice has an armed security guard.

Manila, Phillipines Read More »