Sorry!!! I apologize for the ingredient that was MISSING in the Rhubarb Cobbler a couple columns ago!! I am very sorry for any inconvenience that I may have caused you in your baking process.
One cup of flour should be added to the sugar mixture. I promise that I DID proofread that recipe before pressing “send” on my computer, but I still missed seeing the needed ingredient! Again, I am sorry for that mistake. ( Thank you to two friends, DeAnn and Marlene, who promptly called and wrote an email to make me aware of the problem. I appreciate your taking the time to do that!)
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This week we had several unwanted visitors in our kitchen. Actually there were so many we could hardly keep up with them, much less count them. We were actually gone for a couple days when my mom called and said we had an invasion of ants! My brother, Tom, was here with mom, and he put out some ant traps, along with some Terro liquid near our back door entering the kitchen. When we arrived home, it seemed most of them had gone, but by the next morning they had returned with new troops.
I wiped the area clean, scrubbed the floor, and proceeded to get ready for battle again. We again used Terro in several places along their “trail”. It was unbelievable how the little pieces of paper were absolutely covered with ants for a few hours. Suddenly when we looked again, the papers were empty! We hoped that they had returned to their nests never to return. That has been three days ago, and we have no ants right now. We are grateful for that!
I decided to do a little research on ants to see what is supposed to work when sometimes the action taken doesn’t do the trick. First, my reading told me to decide whether I was dealing with sugar ants or grease ants. There were two ways listed to do this:
1. Spray the ants with ant spray. If they curl up in a ball and die, they are grease ants (also called thief ants).
2. Put a little spoonful of peanut butter near the trail of ants, and also a little spoonful of jelly nearby. Watch to see where the ants go. If it is the peanut butter, it is a grease ant and likes protein. If it is the jelly, then it is a sugar ant.
A grease ant can get into almost any space because it is so small. It is common in homes, especially kitchens because of the presence of food. They can crawl through any crack, and makes its nest both inside and outside your home. The first thing you must do is get rid of any food or even crumbs lurking around. For the bait to do any good, they must not smell food.
Cleaning the area before putting any ant killer or bait down is essential. That can be done with bleach water, apple cider vinegar, baking soda, or any favorite household cleaner.
I chose to use Terro this time and it worked. However, there are two “recipes” that are recommended for both sugar and grease ants. These are homemade remedies:
For grease ants:
Mix 2 Tlbs. peanut butter, 2 Tlbs. honey, 1/2 tsp. boric acid powder or granules
For sugar ants:
Mix 2 Tlbs. mint jelly, and 1/4 tsp. boric acid powder or granules
Put the bait on a sturdy piece of paper or cardboard, or a small, flat plastic lid. Place the mixture along the trail that you encountered the ant infestation. The ants should swarm around the bait in a couple hours. The boric acid acts as a stomach toxin on ants. Whatever kind of ants you are dealing with, to get rid of them for good you will need a treatment that kills the entire colony. After they ingest the poison or bait, they will carry it back to their nest and die. Replace with moist bait as needed. Use until you no longer see any trace of these unwanted insects.
*** Of course, children and pets need to be kept away from any ant bait or poison.
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