Yard kittens and ants

Ooops! Here a couple of back entries that didn't get entered for "operational reasons". (Well, that's what the airlines say when planes are late).

August 2009

Roof kittens become yard kittens

The two kittens we had been feeding on the neighbor's roof finally came down. Luckily all this time no one has moved in yet but since that could change at any time, we needed to figure out a way to get the kittens to come down into our yard and eat there (not to mention that it would be a whole lot easier for us to feed them there!) We started putting their food closer and closer to the edge of the roof near our place. Then I started putting it on the wall between the two apartments. They protested at first but hunger overcame fear and soon they were eating on the wall. But the wall is narrow and more than once they knocked the food off the wall trying to both get at it at the same time. And the ants were becoming a problem on the wall. But the problem was, how to get them down?

With some trial and error, we made a cat ladder from tree branches, plastic twine, and left over wood, with the rungs close enough together for kitten legs. In no time at all they had figured out how to use it and now gallop up and down several times a day!

And now they have made themselves at home, playing with a rubber centipede a friend donated!

September 2009

Be careful where you sit
We have had some major ant wars recently. There are several species which like different habitat. There are the medium sized black ants which mainly live outdoors but march around in columns and seem attracted to water. (See picture.) They only bite if you accidentally compress them while they are running over your body somewhere.

There are the tiny almost no-seeum brown ants that LOVE the cat’s food dishes, and any kind of crumbs, sweet or savory. They are wide ranging and love to bite. These monsters can crawl into beds, on chairs, desks, computer keyboards, etc. They seem to live in cracks in the wall.

Then there are the medium sized red ants – miniature fire ants. These live outdoors (so far) and march in columns. They are especially attracted to dead bugs and animals, and cat food. They bite without provocation and cause quite an itchy burning bite and the pain can last for days.

We finally declared war because it was getting so bad. We found some “ant houses” at the hardware store filled with a syrup that attracts the ants. They take it back to their nests and it kills off the whole lot. This seems to have been effective with the small brown ants. I can once again take a nap on the floor without being bitten up.

The red ants were especially annoying as they seeme to be taking over the back yard. We didn’t want to spray because of potential harm to pets and environment. And since the roof kittens are now yard kittens, we didn't want them playing with the leaky "ant houses" we used in doors. I found instructions for natural methods on the internet. So for several days I would pour boiling water on the main nest holes and then douse the area with blenderized pomelo peels and water. Citrus peels are supposed to have some ingredient that insects don’t like. Pomelos have very thick skins and so I was able to quickly make a lot of the mixture. Now a month later, the ants are still there but in greatly reduced numbers and confined to a much smaller area.