Forget the Dog Days; It’s Ant Days of August

When ants marched into Cari Llewellyn’s kitchen like a column of Roman soldiers, she stayed calm. She wasn’t even upset when they rampaged in her clothes hamper. And she could cope with them overrunning her fireplace.

But when she found a platoon of them sipping from a glass of water on her husband’s night stand in their bedroom, Llewellyn lost it.

“I freaked out. I said, ‘That’s it! We’re calling Orkin!’ ” the Northridge homemaker said. “It’s disgusting.”

It’s the ant days of August and the triple-digit heat wave has driven the little creatures into Los Angeles homes, offices and restaurants by the zillions. Residents are fighting back with everything from bug spray to baby powder as well as calling pest control specialists in record numbers.

Even so, the brigades continue to maneuver in sinks, shower stalls, cupboards, pet food dishes and, incredibly, even the freezer compartments of refrigerators--where they have been found frozen to a crinkle. “It’s hand-to-hand combat, every day,” said one exasperated homeowner.

And it’s often a losing battle. Entomologists and pest control experts say the offending ants are being driven inside for the same reasons as people these days: It’s cooler and there’s water. If you think you’ve been hot, consider this: Down where the ants live, the ground is 10 to 15 degrees hotter, experts said.

As a result, ants troop inside about the same time every year and people often complain that the problem has never been worse, entomologists said. But in recent weeks, the annual ant invasion has taken on the dimensions of a plague, adding to the miseries caused by the record heat and challenging the sanity of those who seek to stamp them out.

“It’s driving them crazy,” said Orkin Exterminating Co. sales manager J. P. McConnehey, who has 100 or more frustrated people calling his office every day. “Most . . . say, ‘I can’t believe all these ants. I’ve never had them so bad . . . I have them all over the place.’ ”

“Actually, they are driving us crazy,” said Tim Saunders, president of Mission Pest Control in Laguna Hills. He estimated his company’s monthly calls have risen from 3,000 to 5,000 largely because of ants.

Saunders said he has developed a grudging admiration for the insects’ industriousness and persistence.

A colleague in Santa Ana, Andy Allaire of Newport Exterminating, is feeling equally overwhelmed. He said his company usually is flooded with calls about fleas this time of year, but ants have taken over the business.

“Our secretaries are so tired of having people call with ants . . . it’s become repetitious. Typically (callers) are just saying they’ve got ants everywhere and they can’t take it anymore.”

Orange County exterminators blame not only the weather, but the proliferation of new homes in areas where ants already are established, or in once-arid areas that now have well-irrigated gardens.

But long-time residents are also among the besieged. Judy Bone, a Mission Viejo resident who has been in her home 18 years, just wants the invasion to stop.

“It’s creepy when you come down for a cup of coffee in the morning and a few minutes later find them crawling up your arm. When one of them is walking across your forehead . . . that’s when it gets crazy.” Bone said a pesticide service sprays outside her home every other month or so, but it hasn’t done much good this year.

“My husband has gone outside with the neighbors and together they’ve hunted down ant hills” and destroyed them, she said--but to little avail.

“The next day, they’re back again” in her kitchen.

The invaders are Argentine house ants, small black ants that do not sting but are aggressive enough to eat any termites that may stand in their way. Social creatures, they live in colonies of hundreds of thousands and there are countless colonies. Even more ominously, said Dr. Roy Snelling, a retired entomologist who works with the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum, ants have terrific memories and they are natural-born teachers.

That means, he said, that “even if you kill every single one of them they’ll come back because they lay a scent trail that . . . the others are going to follow.”

The best strategy, he and others said, is to find where the ants are coming in and block that point or spray it with pesticide from the outside. Snelling uses cat flea powder but other entomologists and health officials said that technique can be hazardous to children.

Others sprinkle boric acid or baby powder outside the point of entry or spray with Windex or Formula 409; some use caulking or even Elmer’s Glue-All to seal it off. Many resort to firepower in a can, the powerful ant poison sprays, although many health experts recommend using them only outdoors.

But, said Snelling, ants are nothing if not persistent.

Alison Bell, a writer who works at her Venice home, would agree. “They’re encircling my house and the circles keep coming closer,” she said. “Sometimes they’re climbing up the outside of the house and trying to get in the window and I really feel attacked.”

Bell said she sweeps her kitchen floor 20 times a day trying to contain the trail of food crumbs that her 2-year-old leaves in his wake. But it’s not enough.

“It’s always a losing battle,” she said. Although she follows the experts’ advice and tries to find their entry point, “the next day they’ve fooled me and they’ll be in the closet.”

The only relief, she said, is when she visits friends and discovers that they are just as besieged as she. It feels good to realize, she said, that “the ants weren’t just singling me out.”

Kirk Psenner is fighting ants on two fronts: at home and at the Silver Lake restaurant he co-owns, the Cobalt Cantina.

Despite his thrice-daily attacks on ants with window cleaner, he still sometimes faces the ticklish situation of seating a customer just as an insect scurries across the white tablecloth.

He uses a menu to block the diner’s view while deftly sweeping the ant to the floor.

“It’s only been like this the last week or so,” he said. “This is the worst I’ve ever seen it.”

Pest control workers said that insecticides, correctly applied, are the most effective weapon against ants. But many people are reluctant to spray poisons in their home, and nontoxic remedies abound.

Llewellyn, the Northridge homemaker, jury-rigged an ant-sweeping device by stuffing a nylon stocking into the tube of her vacuum cleaner and fastening it with a rubber band. After vacuuming them up, she takes the ants outside and bombs them with bug spray.

Others use boric acid powder, vegetable oil, onion or garlic juice, grout and even hair spray to disrupt ant trails.

Bernard Jennings faced an infestation of his poolside refrigerator, where determined ants had even penetrated the freezer. Jennings and his wife drew the line, literally, laying down thick stripes of chalk along the rear of their Studio City house, around garbage cans and outside doorways.

“It’s had an amazing effect,” he said.

Despite the annoyance, some residents have resigned themselves to cohabiting with ants until the heat subsides and the insects retreat. Others have developed a perverse affection for the hard-working creatures.

“As far as bugs go, ants are my favorite,” said Tom Case, a lawyer who lives in a Santa Monica apartment.

“They don’t bite, they don’t cause diseases, they don’t buzz in your ear and they’re not nearly as ugly as cockroaches. If I had to pick a bug to share my apartment with, ants are it.”

Snelling, the retired entomologist, also recommended accommodation. As a Cherokee, he was taught to acknowledge the natural order, not wrestle with it.

“The Native American tradition is that we are a part of the circle of life,” he said. “We learn to live with these things and each has its place and as long as we understand and respect that place we don’t have much difficulty.”

Times staff writer Julie Marquis contributed to this story.