Stupid Ants

[kevin_standlee]

As part of the process of restarting the apartment, I put the coffee grinder -- which I'd disassembled and washed before leaving for Japan -- back together again yesterday morning. But I forgot to put one part back in place -- the cover to the compartment where the ground coffee goes. In my sleep-fugged state, I hit grind and walked out of the kitchen. Coming back a few minutes later, I found grounds all over the counter. Rats. I cleaned up the mess and used what little coffee had actually landed in the container to brew a cup.

So this morning, I needed more beans in the grinder. Opening the freezer for the first time since I returned (that's where I keep the coffee beans), I saw what at first looked just like the mess on the counter from the coffee grinder mishap. That's odd. No, wait a minute, those aren't coffee ground -- those are ants. Dead ones. Lots of them, all over the freezer.

I guess you have to admire their persistence, if not their intelligence. They worked their way past the freezer seal and were all over the ice bucket and various other parts of the freezer, but the cold was too much for them.

Sigh. Well, at least I didn't need ice. I brushed the frozen ants out, dumped all of the ice, and cleaned the freezer as best as I could. At least they seem to have not gotten at the coffee beans.

Comments

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

At least they seem to have not gotten at the coffee beans.

And it's a good thing they're coffee beans, or you might never know.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Don't think that thought didn't cross my mind. *bleah*

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I have heard of this many times before. I suspect that in frost free freezers the cycling on and off to get rid of frost may allow a short window of opportunity for a scout to find a bit of something tasty in the freezer. Then once the trail gets started the process sort of just builds on itself. A few return with something good and that keeps them coming.

[johno.livejournal.com]

Our garage refriderator' freezer always has reefs of dead ants around the seal.

We don't understand it. No messy things live in that fridge at all and the ants don't seem to get into the fridge portion.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

Terro liquid ant baits.

Best thing ever.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Agreed, and I have them out in various places. But I didn't think of putting one inside the freezer. It hadn't even occurred to me that ants would go inside the freezer.

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we get them too. It's really weird. I have NO idea what they are going for, but it usually seems to happen during the hot weather. May be they want a/c too?
Annoying to clean up though. Especially since they don't seem to really get into anything, they're just All Over the Place.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I'm no less interested in the ants than I am in the fact that you apparently need coffee in order to be awake enough to make coffee. You're not the only one.

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

Oh, hell, that's a very typical need around my house. At various points, I've tried to make coffee without water, without beans, and without both.

This morning, I asked my husband, "Did you make coffee?" and he replied, "Nope. I wasn't awake enough."

[sfmarty.livejournal.com]

Over on another serv I frequent we had a lengthy bantering about what terrible messes we made while attempting coffee half awake.

Did you ever read Kevin O'Donnell's stories of his ants? Apparantly they were a constant battle. He had a freezer full of them too.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I'm relieved to know I'm not the only one whose freezer gets invaded by kamikaze ants!