Grumble Thread

[Petrushka]

Well, I've either received a refund or the item has arrived regarding the online purchases but: the ants are still about.

Have you tried that Antstop I mentioned? If you followed the instructions to the letter the ants will have gone in a few days.

[Joseph K]

Yes, my mum bought it, and she says she followed the instructions but I'm going to buy another one (she threw away the box so can't confirm or deny whether instructions were followed).

[Petrushka]

Yes, my mum bought it, and she says she followed the instructions but I'm going to buy another one (she threw away the box so can't confirm or deny whether instructions were followed).

Wonder if she forgot to remove the tabs Once tabs are removed, place in a spot where you see the ants: this is their 'run'. They take the bait back to the nest and that should solve the problem. It's perfectly safe to use on kitchen table tops but keep away from food, pets or children. If I remember correctly the box says the ants should be gone in a week or less and that's we found. Been using Antstop for many years and it's a lot better than spraying around some dangerous white powder,

[Joseph K]

Wonder if she forgot to remove the tabs Once tabs are removed, place in a spot where you see the ants: this is their 'run'. They take the bait back to the nest and that should solve the problem. It's perfectly safe to use on kitchen table tops but keep away from food, pets or children. If I remember correctly the box says the ants should be gone in a week or less and that's we found. Been using Antstop for many years and it's a lot better than spraying around some dangerous white powder,

[Dave2002]

For a cheaper, DIY, method: https://www.pestguides.com/how-to-ki...killer-recipe/

Mmmmm.

I use Nippon gel - which comes in tubes. Does seem to work - after a while and not too expensive.

Amazon ASIN B000TAUBSC

[oddoneout]

For a cheaper, DIY, method: https://www.pestguides.com/how-to-ki...killer-recipe/

Borax and icing sugar used to be a standard home remedy for ants, but for some time now it hasn't been possible to buy borax - only boxes of borax substitute - as it's banned in UK (and EU, not that that matters now...) so that isn't an option.
My parent's first home had a persistent ant problem with nests being set up inside the house under the tile floor and then the critturs marching into the kitchen, pantry and elsewhere. I found out years later that DDT was penultimately involved in solving the problem - the ultimate solution was a job change necessitating a house move...

[Bryn]

Borax and icing sugar used to be a standard home remedy for ants, but for some time now it hasn't been possible to buy borax - only boxes of borax substitute - as it's banned in UK (and EU, not that that matters now...) so that isn't an option.
My parent's first home had a persistent ant problem with nests being set up inside the house under the tile floor and then the critturs marching into the kitchen, pantry and elsewhere. I found out years later that DDT was penultimately involved in solving the problem - the ultimate solution was a job change necessitating a house move...

I wish I had known about the borax sales ban. I chucked out a box of it I found at the back of the cupboard under the kitchen sink a couple of years ago.

[cloughie]

I wish I had known about the borax sales ban. I chucked out a box of it I found at the back of the cupboard under the kitchen sink a couple of years ago.

I’ve heard that icing sugar and bicarb work.

[johncorrigan]

I’ve heard that icing sugar and bicarb work.

I heard that just antagonises them, cloughie!

[Bryn]

I heard that just antagonises them, cloughie!

[johncorrigan]

[Anastasius]

One advantage of living in Northumberland is that it is so wet that the ants never come.

[Serial_Apologist]

My groan of the day has to be TV adverts.

Since the re-introduction of the Shake-and-Vac ad with flipperty-gibberty prancing "houswife" joyfully disturbing downstaris like a 50s stereotype in love with wonderful new domestic technology, the quality of telly ads has been on the slide. It has now reached a new nadir, one example the blissful ignoring of Alan Sugar's one good bit of advice, always to product place the name as soon as possible and keep it up there - so one wonders if it is the car or beautiful women being advertised as the product. And women are still sold to us as product ancillaries, for all the decades of campaigning - just occasionally one sees a man changing a baby. Then there are the ads which break the first principle etched into us in Business studies that you never, never ever, under any circumstance, raise anything unpleasant in contradistinction to the product you're trying to advertise: we now have ads referring to armpits; stinking rooms left unsprayed with Glade, or whatever the product is; a child throwing up in a kitchen sink while Mommy is serving up.

At least the hands were judicious when using Fairy Liquid; one knew that the swish car being driven as supersonic speeds across the Arizona Desert by a dashingly handsome actor in sunglasses would be driven at a maximum of 70 mph and more probably mostly through traffic jams by the you who could identify with the nasty cartoon bacteria about to be exterminated by Dettol. Then there's the Flash ad that uses a tune that, surely, a sizeable section of the population who are obviously not within the marketable demographic because they hate it. Then there's the fact that ad breaks are longer than they were to start with - some of them taking up a whole ad break with one item without saying much without it being repetition - and that the TV companies cram these breaks into the programmes, rather than having them on concentrated between programmes. And finally, again unlike in the early days when some logo would flash onto the screen, adverts are now sequenced without intervening breaks, so that one is not sure to which ad one is watching: the next one or the one before.

Don't get me wrong: advertising is necessary if we are going to have to choose between products; but let us be treated as the intelligent beings the product makers obviously don't care about, and at least be told something about the product, other than the fact that it has twin rotary brushes means that it doesn't clog up with hairs and that going cordless means your batteries allow you less than half the time needed to vac your property properly before the power runs out. The only product we learn something out about its efficacy is feminine sanitary wear!

I'm sure there must be lot more one could say about advertising.

[Zucchini]

I was waiting for your analysis of ant adverts. But ...

[eighthobstruction]

I'm sure there must be lot more one could say about advertising.

....Oh yes....how else are we to know we are so happy happy - multiracile - happy happy - multiracile, happy happy - multiracile.... clean, clean, clean....new....and ready for a flutter on the dogs, horses, football, bingo, fruit machines....always ready to have a pension plan, funeral plan, and ready to take your boss to the cleaners....

....when the fun stops....stop....