The Ants and Me

Every spring we have a kitchen battle with little black ants. We’ve never been able to find how they are arriving and thriving in the kitchen. It’s a continual case of chase and smash and as quickly as they arrive in the spring, they go away. 

Except yesterday there were a lot of them. I traced them to my Cuisinart Coffeemaker. Half of it makes delicious coffee and the other half will do hot water. It’s been a lovely addition to the kitchen.

But yesterday the ants were all over it. I raised the lid of the hot water side and they were inside! What were they doing there? I gave chase and thought I’d won after I emptied the water and all seemed ant-less. 

Several hours later, they were back. What was this? The coffee side was just coffee. I raised the water lid, scraped out the ants, closed the lid. Raised it–there were more ants! A careful examination of the lid showed it had an extra piece. Some place they could hide? I thumped it and ants appeared. I got out a knife, did a bit of an operation on it and removed the extra piece, only to find ants and eggs! No wonder I couldn’t get rid of them. They had colonized my coffeemaker!

I unplugged it, turned it on its side and gave it a hot water bath. So far–and I haven’t put their hiding place back together and I won’t–there are no ants. 

Goodness!