I know I’ve posted before about being kind to insects, but when they take extreme liberties with your stuff, all bets are off.

Brace yourself before scrolling down to the photo. This is what I discovered in the garage cupboard today. I had to pull everything out and try to stay calm as I sorted out this catastrophe.

It was an ant invasion. I think they were coming in from the back corner which is where they were concentrated. When I moved things out, they ran all over the shelves.

They’d got into my oldest photo album. I soon realised it would be difficult to salvage as the ants were behind the photos and were eating them. So I vacuumed up the ants and took a photo of all of the pages – travelling back in time as I did – and ditched the album.

I thought the problem was just the two lower shelves but decided to clean out the whole cupboard anyway. The third shelf seemed fine, until I reached the far corner…

At that point, I realised the ant spray I had would not do the job, and went to Mitre 10 for reinforcements. The helpful assistant suggested some ant traps, but when I showed him the photo, he turned to a shelf higher up. A gel spray effective for up to 6 months was recommended.

I sprayed, vacuumed, sprayed, vacuumed, washed, wiped, and sprayed some more. The ants had spread right across the garage floor wherever I’d put things down. I began to feel itchy and at one point a huge insect came into my field of vision and, snatching off my glasses, I found a fine specimen of an ant walking across the lens. When everything finally seemed to be under control, I dealt with the pots I’d taken out onto the lawn. Lifting the lid of one I found another mass of ants.

The clean up took all day. I filled the wheelie bins and transferred some things into containers which I hope will be ant proof. After this experience, I imagine there will be nightmares.