Ant update to Kickoff weekend to season, Full house and ANTS!!

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Baygirl

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I made it through the weekend. Had to move another couple the next morning due to his wife (ice queen, aka beeatch) seeing 8 ants in her room. It's never good when a guest asks if they can talk to you privately. I did go out and got the DE powder from Lowes. I put as much powder as I could all along the perimeter of the two rooms and bathrooms. I was able to keep it in the room for 3 days before more guests were checking in. Went back in yesterday and one room saw one ant and the other I saw 5. Today 2 and 0 in the other room. The pest control came by this morning to put some of their powder in both rooms inside and out and bait down in the crawl space. I can't wait until this is over. We have guests checking into the one room today that have been here before. I will let them know about the ants and they should only see a few now or give them the option to move. I have blocked a few rooms for the weekend just in case. It's going to hurt $$ wise for blocking on a holiday weekend, but it'll help keep my sanity if in fact the ants are too much for someone.
Hard to believe this weekend is Memorial Day!
Breathe breathe breathe.. we have a full house this weekend and one of our rooms still has ants. They are carpenter ants and we've put the liquid baits down for a few days, had exterminator come and today guests are checking in that room and there are still ants. Not quite as bad as they were but they are still there. There isn't a hotel room to be had since it's college graduation. I am keeping my fingers crossed the guests are understanding and I can move them tomorrow if they can hold out one night in the room. I plan on telling them when they check in that I just noticed them today when cleaning.. (a little white lie) I went in the room in the past hour and saw two. So the numbers are getting smaller, but we'll see if the guests think it's a big deal or not. I will kill them with kindness.. thanks for listening, had to vent to someone who would understand my stress!
 
Gee I am so sorry! I hope people are nice and the exterm does a good job.
 
Take a deep breath for sure. Several times over the past ten years we have had little things that have left rooms imperfect. We have handled it by NOT focusing on it and checking with them generally about satisfaction earlier on in their stay. If you're down to just a couple, it may be worth thinking about something else and NOT mentioning it at all, but still being prepared to move them the next day and even being prepared to offer them another room for a different reason.
 
Get some "diatomaceous earth." You can sweep it around the room and in the cracks and it will fix the problem, quickly.
 
Guests just checked in! Was upfront about the couple ants..wink wink and they seemed fine with it. Said they could live with a few ants. Let's hope it stays at a few. I do have a back up tomorrow if they don't have a good night tonight.
Thanks for listening.. Time for a drink!
 
we had a guest leave complaining about swarms of mosquitos. We panicked!! Ran upstairs to see how bad it was. Stood in the room. Looked around. Looked at each other. Looked around. I found a couple of knats. He found one mosquito. If that was a swarm, I guess there was no pleasing them. Glad they left.
 
Those were the last two, fleeing for their lives!.
Duff2014 said:
Those were the last two, fleeing for their lives!
heehee
grrrrrrrr, I hate when such little critters cause us to stress.
Go have that drink. I am sure the guests won't mind a couple of ants.
 
Glad they were nice. With just 2, I probably would have dispatched them, hoped they were the last now non-survivors, and moved on. Then IF they said something would fall all over myself with apology and offer the move. With it is what it is, may they not see any more.
 
With the spring, we get roly polys, ( potato bugs). The locals call them carpenters, although they are not carpenter ants. They are everywhere, every place on the island. The only good thing about them is, they eat earwigs ( yuck). We spray for them but they're still around. When a guest points them out I say " They're the scourge of Newfoundland" and just keep going. Don't make a big deal of it and the guests won't sense your horror of it all.
regular_smile.gif
 
With the spring, we get roly polys, ( potato bugs). The locals call them carpenters, although they are not carpenter ants. They are everywhere, every place on the island. The only good thing about them is, they eat earwigs ( yuck). We spray for them but they're still around. When a guest points them out I say " They're the scourge of Newfoundland" and just keep going. Don't make a big deal of it and the guests won't sense your horror of it all.
regular_smile.gif
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2cat_lady said:
With the spring, we get roly polys, ( potato bugs). The locals call them carpenters, although they are not carpenter ants. They are everywhere, every place on the island. The only good thing about them is, they eat earwigs ( yuck). We spray for them but they're still around. When a guest points them out I say " They're the scourge of Newfoundland" and just keep going. Don't make a big deal of it and the guests won't sense your horror of it all.
regular_smile.gif
I thought you all called them sow bugs up there?
 
With the spring, we get roly polys, ( potato bugs). The locals call them carpenters, although they are not carpenter ants. They are everywhere, every place on the island. The only good thing about them is, they eat earwigs ( yuck). We spray for them but they're still around. When a guest points them out I say " They're the scourge of Newfoundland" and just keep going. Don't make a big deal of it and the guests won't sense your horror of it all.
regular_smile.gif
.
2cat_lady said:
With the spring, we get roly polys, ( potato bugs). The locals call them carpenters, although they are not carpenter ants. They are everywhere, every place on the island. The only good thing about them is, they eat earwigs ( yuck). We spray for them but they're still around. When a guest points them out I say " They're the scourge of Newfoundland" and just keep going. Don't make a big deal of it and the guests won't sense your horror of it all.
regular_smile.gif
I thought you all called them sow bugs up there?
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Joey Bloggs said:
2cat_lady said:
With the spring, we get roly polys, ( potato bugs). The locals call them carpenters, although they are not carpenter ants. They are everywhere, every place on the island. The only good thing about them is, they eat earwigs ( yuck). We spray for them but they're still around. When a guest points them out I say " They're the scourge of Newfoundland" and just keep going. Don't make a big deal of it and the guests won't sense your horror of it all.
regular_smile.gif
I thought you all called them sow bugs up there?
I called them sow bugs in Ontario. When I called them that here, no one knew what I was talking about. I googled it, found roly polys, potato bugs, no carpenters. Figures that Newfoundlanders would come up with something totally opposite to what everyone else would understand.
 
With the spring, we get roly polys, ( potato bugs). The locals call them carpenters, although they are not carpenter ants. They are everywhere, every place on the island. The only good thing about them is, they eat earwigs ( yuck). We spray for them but they're still around. When a guest points them out I say " They're the scourge of Newfoundland" and just keep going. Don't make a big deal of it and the guests won't sense your horror of it all.
regular_smile.gif
.
Looked up potato bug and got the Jerusalem cricket- yikes!
Looked up roly poly and got the the pillbug- not so yikes. Must be that one.
 
Yes, pill bug. The cats used to play with them but they've seen so many, they don't even bother anymore. I go through the house in the morning before anyone wakes up and I pick them up and flush them. I've even clear caulked all the baseboards and any cracks that I can see to stop them from coming in. The bedrooms are pretty good, bathrooms not too bad. They just get in everywhere. It's a combination of the ocean and the fact that we burn wood for heat. I think they love both. Water and wood, that is.
 
Once a year we get a few stray carpenter ants. I've had to do the carpenter ant dance with guests, so I feel for you Baygirl! They're just so darned big that it creeps out the guests. Hopefully they've given up and won't reappear while your guests are there. Not much you can do but plead for mercy with the guests. They always seem to appear on one of the busiest days of the year!
 
Yes, pill bug. The cats used to play with them but they've seen so many, they don't even bother anymore. I go through the house in the morning before anyone wakes up and I pick them up and flush them. I've even clear caulked all the baseboards and any cracks that I can see to stop them from coming in. The bedrooms are pretty good, bathrooms not too bad. They just get in everywhere. It's a combination of the ocean and the fact that we burn wood for heat. I think they love both. Water and wood, that is..
Pill bugs also like to eat the paint off the walls.
 
Holy cow, scrambled eggs! Are your pill bugs treated with radioactive gamma rays??? I've never seen that happen. I think I would light torch if I saw one eat paint!!!
 
Sounds like you have some good normal folks in that room! Thank goodness sometimes I think they are a dying breed.
We have our share of carpenter ants here as well. Usually they don't find their way inside but never say never. Today I had a unwelcome guest in the room I was cleaning. A lizard. I chased it down and finally got it into a garbage can and out it went. It was breathing so hard poor thing.
 
We get stink bugs which are really gross. Like the name says, if you step on them they smell terrible. Exterminators really can't help much. I've also had the cracks sealed up, but I guess there are still a few cracks that were missed. It's great when the ants and the stink bugs show up to the same party. Didn't have any of the carpenter ants inside the house til the exterminator "drenched" a very large ant hill outside the house. Hope these are just a few stragglers.
 
We get stink bugs which are really gross. Like the name says, if you step on them they smell terrible. Exterminators really can't help much. I've also had the cracks sealed up, but I guess there are still a few cracks that were missed. It's great when the ants and the stink bugs show up to the same party. Didn't have any of the carpenter ants inside the house til the exterminator "drenched" a very large ant hill outside the house. Hope these are just a few stragglers..
I get stink bugs and wasps. Since we took down the chimneys with the new roof, we have fewer wasps. I think this is the year of the locusts. Joy, Joy. Will know soon.
 
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