Hordes of Thirsty Ants Plague S.F.

Hordes of thirsty ants driven by drought and heat are invading homes throughout the San Francisco Bay Area in search of water, and residents say no one seems to know how to stop them.

The ants are climbing out of light-switch plates, creeping into baby bottles and even making their way into freezers.

“They are getting into bed with people. When you turn on the water, they come out of the faucet in globs. People finding themselves taking baths with ants,” said Dick Wolbert of Jackson Pest Control in Novato.

Experts say the tiny insects are only looking for water for their bone-dry nests, but unsympathetic human hosts are calling exterminators.

‘Creating Hysteria’

“It is really, really bad this year, and it’s creating hysteria,” said Kevin Pendergraft of California Exterminators in Walnut Creek. More than 150 calls have come in each day since last weekend, when temperatures soared to record highs, he said.

Even ant fans wish the ants would march somewhere else. As a scientist, Benny Fouche admires ants as “survivalists,” but as a homeowner, he is being driven crazy by the insects’ persistence. Fouche, a research associate in urban entomology at UC Berkeley, looks for nests in the yard of his El Cerrito home but admitted that he probably is wasting his time.

“Unless you get the queen, I can almost guarantee that the ants will out-persevere you. They’ll just keep coming,” he said. “The colony needs food and water. They have thousands of workers who will sacrifice themselves.”