Went to unbox the new generator yesterday and got a nasty surprise.
The box has been sitting on bricks on the back porch since it arrived. One per corner so there was plenty of air gap and as little contact as possible. I threw a tarp over it lest wandering eyes from the alley get any unlawful ideas. When I pulled the tarp back the box was covered in a thick layer of fire ants. Hundreds of them. I keep a can of wasp spray on the back porch so it got put to use. A few spritzes and the ants were all dead. I figured that was the end of it. Nope. Not by a long shot.
I cut open the box and was greeted by even more. A lot more. Thousands more. Turns out they had established a colony in the Accessories Kit box. When I opened it there were pupae and ants in an almost solid mass. Hosing down everything with wasp spray worked well enough. I got all the little buggers without getting any stings, but it was a bit unnerving.
We're right on the edge of fire ant territory so it isn't terribly unusual to hear of them, but having them establish a colony in a box set three inches off a concrete surface is a new one. One brick per corner so there was plenty of air gap. I figure the tarp was the key, it draped to the porch surface and the wrinkles on the box top gave them a nice comfy place to congregate. The inner box was just a bonus, a pre-made colony space.
I swept them up and collected the bodies in a coffee can. There were enough that it was over half full. I hit it with another round of wasp spray for good measure, then tossed it in the dumpster. Pretty sure I got the colony core, but I'll be putting out Extinguish Plus this evening just in case.
Brad
