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There were ants all over my cake!!!

post #1 of 23
6/17/11 at 8:10am
Thread Starter 
I'm making a cake for my friend's daughter's birthday. It's a Scooby Doo / Flower Power themed party. I've just gone nuts over this cake. Earlier this week I made the fondant and icings. I even made a small practice tie-dyed cake just to make sure I knew what I was doing. Yesterday, I colored all the fondant in the appropriate Scooby Doo colors, and then started in on the cakes last night after dinner (the party is Saturday). When I went to bed at midnight last night, the top tier (chocolate) was crumb coated and in the fridge, while the bottom tier (vanilla tie-dye) and 9 chocolate cupcakes were cooling on the bar in the pub room (it was my dining room until my husband took over - whole other story). I got up this morning all ready to start in on my cake again after my morning coffee ... but what I shock I got. My cake and cupcakes had a swarm of ants on them. They were all over the cakes, cooling wracks, and bar. There was a trail of them coming from the outlet on the wall, across the floor, and up the side of the bar. So now the ants are gone, the room is clean, my house smells like bug spray and bleach, and the cakes are in the trash. Time to start all over. icon_sad.gif
The Kitchen Dunce http://thekitchendunce.blogspot.com
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The Kitchen Dunce http://thekitchendunce.blogspot.com
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post #2 of 23
6/17/11 at 8:20am
Oh no!!! icon_cry.gif Lesson learned. Sorry that happened to you icon_cry.gif Those darn ants know how to find the good stuff, don't they? icon_wink.gif
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post #3 of 23
6/17/11 at 8:22am
Damn ants! I hate those little buggers. All it takes is one to find a good source and he brings in the troops.
Sorry this happened to you and I hope its all smooth sailing from here.

p.s. I hope you stopped them from the source so more dont make an unwanted appearance.
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post #4 of 23
6/17/11 at 8:29am
Ohhhh so sorry you're dealing with that!

I dealt with it years ago in another house only the yummy they were looking for and going after was the dog food! There is a wonderful product called Terro to be found in most hardware stores. Comes in a little bottle and is a corn syrup type liquid laced with Boric Acid! The ants LOVE IT! The come, they indulge, they leave, taking their full little bellies with them back home.......where they die.........and all the other members of their clan devour the dead, thus ingesting the same poison! icon_smile.gif

Disclaimer: Do NOT use unattended where there are household pets or children.
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post #5 of 23
6/17/11 at 8:37am
I lived down south for a long time. Had a major problem with ants coming from the outlets until a wonderful guy showed me a trick...

Borax!!! Yes, the powder borax for your laundry!!! Its under $5 a box and well worth EVERY penny, is not as toxic as normal bug killers that don't always work (plus the left over whitens whites lol).
Open up your outlet cover and sprinkle some down in there. It can actually be used anywhere you have a problem with ants.
We also had a spot they were coming in around a light in the ceiling...so he mixed it in some jelly and squirted it up in there with a syringe since you really can't pour powder "up".
The jelly attracts them, they carry it back to the nest and whamo!
Just dont put it in the slits in the outlets where you stick your plugs in, you have to do it behind the cover because the ants follow the warm electricity lines.

Good luck!
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post #6 of 23
6/17/11 at 8:45am
My grandparents always used to have a line of borax in the doorways into the house as a barrier for the ants. She swore by it also. We all just leared to step over the powder line on your way in.
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post #7 of 23
6/17/11 at 8:58am
I also read somewhere that for those annoyingly tiny ants if you leave out some cornmeal they'll eat it and take it back to their colony. Apparently they can't digest the cornmeal so they all starve to death. Sounds gross but supposedly it works.
Sue

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Jeremiah 29:11
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Sue

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Jeremiah 29:11
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post #8 of 23
6/17/11 at 9:21am
you can also get ant BAIT at Lowes, I think the brand is andros, you can sprinkle it around the foundation of your house (I would remove the outlet cover and sprinkle some in there too) they carry it to the queen and it kills them for several months.
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post #9 of 23
6/17/11 at 9:25am
Don't do pesticides and other dangerous things near food. Use vinegar.

http://www.thenewhomemaker.com/vinegar

(#13 in In the Kitchen section)

http://www.ehow.com/how_4541844_rid-ants-vinegar-water.html

Ants will never make it to my counters because I always clean with vinegar and water before and after I cook/bake since I don't want chemicals near my food.
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post #10 of 23
6/17/11 at 9:26am
FYI Borax works for all kinds of bugs. Especially roaches and fleas. Here in the deep south, we know about bugs. icon_wink.gif. When I moved here 30 years ago from upstate NY, I got introduced to all kinds of critters I never knew existed.
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post #11 of 23
6/17/11 at 10:31am
Thread Starter 
Thanks everyone for the helpful tips. We have problems with ants every May/June. A couple of weeks ago they were real bad around the kitchen sink, so we sprinkled that outside stuff around the foundation outside the kitchen and by the back door. I make sure that I poor bleach down the drain each night before I go to bed and I wipe down the kitchen with Clorox wipes every night as well. That has kept them out of the kitchen. I cooled the cakes in the other room because of this. The pub room is on a different outside wall of the house...the only side we didn't treat. Time to get the Borax back out.
The Kitchen Dunce http://thekitchendunce.blogspot.com
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The Kitchen Dunce http://thekitchendunce.blogspot.com
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post #12 of 23
6/17/11 at 11:31am
Boric Acid is nontoxic and cheap also. It is so non toxic that it is used as an eye wash. There was an expensive Roach prevention powder years ago. It was 99% Ortho Boric Acid. Ortho just means pure. It works great to prevent ants and other bugs.
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post #13 of 23
6/23/11 at 7:50am
OMG that is awful! I am so sorry that happened....All of the money and time spent ! This is certainly a lesson learned and great advice!
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post #14 of 23
6/23/11 at 9:03am
i had a similar incident at my shop, i had six dozen cupcakes on the counter on cookie sheets covered with plastic wrap so i could decorate them the next morning. I have never had any issues with ants or other bugs , so i get in and start working finishing up my cakes first then go to do the cupcakes and under the plastic the cupcakes were covered completely in ants, so i had to throw them all out and call in extra help to bake and decorate to make up for lost time. the borax works, we have every zone lined with it that cant be seen by customers and we mized it with vinegar and sprayed outside and well as mixed it with sugar and set in piles out side the shop so ants would carry it back to the colony. havent had any more problems.
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post #15 of 23
6/23/11 at 9:10am
We get the ants really bad in drought years.

There are a few things you can do to keep ants off of food, if you can't eliminate all of the ants or prevent them getting in the house. One is to set each leg of your table in a small dish of water. Then the ants can't get up the table. They also can't figure out how to get on a shelf that has adjustable leveling legs, like this one: http://www.target.com/Prospace-Chrome-Tier-Wide-Shelving/dp/B003JVGQA0/ref=sr_1_23?ie=UTF8&searchView=grid5&keywords=chrome%20shelf&fromGsearch=true&sr=1-23&qid=1308845332&rh=&searchRank=target104545&node=1038576%7C1287991011&searchSize=30&sessionID=184-4514411-9479308&searchPage=1&searchNodeID=1038576%7C1287991011&searchBinNameList=subjectbin%2Cprice%2Ctarget_com_primary_color-bin%2Ctarget_com_size-bin%2Ctarget_com_brand-bin&frombrowse=0
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