Ant-free storage tips?
Just when I thought I was winning the war against the Argentine ants in my apartment... Aaaargh!!! It seems that they really love Daily Bread too...and the holes in the crumb provided perfect little tunnels for them. I will spare you a photo of this sad stage of my bread's life :) I can't leave bread on the counter for this reason, so once it is cool I have been putting the loaves in a plastic bag and I hang the bag on a hook from the wall in an attempt to evade the ants. This seems to work sometimes, but every once in awhile they find it and within 2 hours the bag is completely infested (I usually immediately put the entire mess in another bag and throw it in the freezer to kill the ants and salvage whatever is left). So I have found myself hanging bread from alternating doorknobs and hooks throughout the apartment so the ants can't find it...this is CRAZY. I think most people in these apartments give up and store their bread in the fridge, but I really wish I didn't have to do that because the bread doesn't seem as good afterwards...
Any storage suggestions???? Please help!!!
This is probably no help to you, but here goes any way.
I don't know if you know that ants love to get into ripening figs while they are still on the tree, and we were told when we had this problem that the best way to stop this was to put a circle of ash round the tree, ants do not like ash and will not walk on it,,,,and I also think they don't like Bay leaves, you could put the dry leaves in any and every thing.
worth a try................qahtan
We have a similar problem with ghost ants in Florida in the winter. We of course seal all items like flour in plastic containers. We put bread in the microwave overnight. You may also be able to use your oven for storage.
We also wash all counters with lysol which the ants don't seem to like
Thanks to all for the great ant-proofing tips!!!! I am going to buy a large airtight container today :) I also really like the idea of storing crusty bread in the oven...I'm not sure if ants explore that territory, but I guess I will find out soon enough! Another idea I thought of is to buy a small table and put each of the legs in containers with soapy water so the ants can't crawl onto the table top :)
I would really like avoid using poison, so I can certainly vouch for the "clean, clean, clean" theme suggested by jef-lepine :) Absolutely everything is kept in sealed jars, my bottles of oil are standing in small containers full of soapy water (ant "moats"), any baking products that I do not yet have containers for are kept in the fridge, flour and sugar spills get wiped up ASAP, and I have been busy with the silicone plugging up all the "entry holes" as I find them. It has certainly been quite a project!!!
Thanks again for all the ideas...I am baking more bread today, so I will see how the new storage methods work :)
hey bayleaves don't stop ants and never will
laurel or bayleaves are mostly used to stop silverfish, weavils and other tiny pesky thingies but not ants
Imagine how many millionaires there would be if bayleaves stop ants
I just received about a week ago, a vacuum sealed bread box I ordered. So far, it's working great! I have had fresh bread stored in it with no wrapping for 5 days and it is as soft as ever. There is no evidence of mold and it still tastes good. I store the bread cut side down on a flexible cutting mat that fits in there perfectly. I think I could fit 2 loaves and some rolls in it at the same time. It is a bit pricey for a bread box, but with just the two of us, I was tired of throwing out half of my hard work!
Nancy
What is the manufacturer's name and the model number of that vacuum bread box? Thanks.
sPh
sp..just click on the link, written in blue in the previous post
I am not particularly fond of that vendor; I was hoping to find other sources.
sPh
I brought an ant killing product made by Vandal (Google: Vandal Ameisen, that's ant in German) which was treated plastic, you put it out in the ant trail and the ants walk on it etc and drag the poison or fungus back to the nest and within 24 hours it rots out the nest. I used this in Indonesia and it was so powerful the ants didn't make it 3 meters before they dropped dead. I let the dead ants lie, and as they would gather up their own, they eventually made it back to the nest. No more ants. I would still put my cooling racks on jars with little "moats." They also make a marker pen to draw invisable lines that ants don't cross. Works great. I'm not so sure about storing things in the oven unless it has a built in mouse and rat fence or net inside. I also have had the problem of having an open rafter roof, and the rascals would invade my kitchen on a regular basis. I kept my food in the fridge or the air conditioned room, that deterred most critters, and storage cans and jars. I also made a critter proof stock room. About the oil bottles in water, try a tray with deep lip, then you can push all the bottles into the middle and don't have lots of little moats around. Change the water every day to avoid mosquitoes.
Aren't you glad you've got winter now? :) Mini Oven
I used to store my bread in the microwave and then we moved into a new place. I can say the small ants can get everywhere. They got in the microwave to my cinnamon raisin bread. We got an ant "Earth Kind-stay away" (potpourri type bag) it seems to work where I put it but I need more! lol. I moved the stay away bag from under the kitchen sink entry point to the cubbord entry point after finding ants everywhere and now there are no ants there. The stay away bags are non-toxic ( I have 2 dogs, 1 cat) I would recomend them as a detourant not as a means to exterminate but they do work. If you find an entry point drop a stay away earth kind bag there. Vinegar is good too if you mix 1:1 vingar:water in spray bottle and wipe counters down I actually just put straight vinegar on my sponge and wiped stuff down and it works for a while. Right now I have my bread in the fridge and I prefer it that way than covered with ants. Maybe you can get a bread box with air holes and somehow fasten some silk screen to block the air vents? I'm currently seeking the same answers as you, I may just get a Rubbermaid type container idk also they will go to the oven, or at least mine. They are relentless little scavenger workers!!!!! ?