hi.
i haven't really looked into it much, but i
don't think i can prove that it's the plants - just because ants and
plants are both everywhere. even if the plants did attract them, i have
little faith that removing them will take them away. and, honestly, that
wasn't really what i was thinking. if it was roaches, i'd be a bit more
concerned about the plants, but not ants...
my
hypothesis is that it's related to the weather. it's been an unusually
cold and wet summer. ants like it warm and dry. so, the cold and wet
soil has led them to migrate, and they ended up in the house. it's less a
pull hypothesis and more a push hypothesis - it's less that something
is attracting them to the house and more that the weather is forcing
them to explore, and they happened to stumble upon the house.
that
said, something else that's recently changed is the barbeque in the
front. and, i don't think i need an article to prove that ants are going
to want to be around where there's a barbeque, as anything that gets
dropped will become food. further, you can clean a barbeque, but you
can't *really* clean a barbeque. maybe you could ask if they've seen
ants around it and keep an eye on it.
but, again, i don't think that's the reason. i think it's the weather.
there's a study here, but there's lots of more info on the topic out there:
http://news.stanford.edu/pr/01/ants45.html
i think the only option is barricading them out. and hoping it warms up soon...
j
