Ants are an issue here too – mainly in summer. I keep my sugar in glass jars with rubber seals. I sit any wet, sugary thing in a dish of water in the cupboard (eg. honey, sweet chilli sauce, etc). I line the edges of the food cupboard with bay leaves (fresh or dried), which stops them but the leaves need to be replaced every two or three months (compostable, no drama). I have a spray bottle of eucalyptus oil mixed with water and a dash of detergent under the kitchen sink. This will kill them in their tracks and also act as a deterrent long enough for them to find another way in.

We are sub-tropical, so we get all the bugs – ants, cockroaches, spiders, you name it!

Good luck!

I feel your pain! I went to Puerto Rico over Christmas in 2004 and when I returned home there was a line of ants in perfect formation starting from the window in my bathroom all the way down hall and into my kitchen cupboard. I nearly died of heart failure when I opened the kitchen cupboard! They were EVERYWHERE!!! They had 3 weeks of uninterrupted feasting and had practically taken over the whole kitchen. This was a serious infestation… Anyway, I went to the nearest convenience store and bought a can of Raid which I do not recommend b/c not only does it poison the little critters in nearly poisons you as well… Plus then you have to wipe up dead ants everywhere which is extremely gross and new ones just keep coming back. I also tried the plastic ant traps and they didn’t work v. well either. I also tried a bunch of homeopathic remedies that unfortunately didn’t work too well, cinnamon, paprika, pepper etc. But what worked super well was this liquid gel called ‘terro’ and yes like everything else it comes in a plastic container. BUT the plastic container is v. small. And sometimes you have to make sacrifices in order to maintain your sanity. The stuff really worked. I haven’t had ants since 2004, not one even with all this rain. Basically, they carry the gel and take it back to their nest where it kills off the whole colony. However, they LOVE the stuff so you have to be willing to put up with ants for 3-4 days until they slowly disappear… If you don’t want to purchase the plastic (even though it is v. small) I would try some concoction of boric acid mixed with something sweet.

Good luck!

Resulting plastic challenge: I didn’t know there was going to be so much water on the ground when I left the house this morning so I stepped in lots of giant puddles in my sneakers. Well, my left sneaker is starting to come apart, actually, so tons of water got into my shoe and got my sock all wet. Also, these shoes just aren’t supportive enough when I workout so I have to get new ones. Gerg. I know it’s going to impossible.

Winter in Michigan is snow, damp, rain, clouds, etc. It has been SO cloudy and gloomy this year. It keeps thawing and freezing. We get 6 inches of snow, then it melts.

Plastic is a huge problem in winter because EVERYTHING is either made of plastic or comes in plastic: waterproof snow gear, boots, salt for sidewalks, etc etc. I’m knitting the kids wool mitts & hats, but it is heartbreaking when your 6yo comes home and tells you he left his hand-knit, home-dyed hat on the playground with not a whit of concern. Ack!

If you have borax (I doubt it’s available plastic-free), mix with water and sugar for a trap.

BTW: loved your split-pea soup recipe. I blended it up, absolutely yum.

You can get Diatomaceous earth. But I don’t know if you can get it plastic free. It works really great to get rid of ants. One year we had them crawling all over our play room, they had infested the wall BIG time. It still creeps me out.

But I’d take it over -40, over the windchill.