San Martin
– Ants and mice spent more than a month crawling around a Santa
Clara County southern courthouse before chemical pesticides appear
to have halted the invasion.
San Martin – Ants and mice spent more than a month crawling around a Santa Clara County southern courthouse before chemical pesticides appear to have halted the invasion.
The mice weren’t the biggest problem at the prefabricated portable courthouse building – a temporary home since after the courthouse developed mold in1995. It was the ants that had especially agitated several people who work there, according to two who spoke in condition of anonymity for fear of losing their jobs.
The employee break room was the epicenter of the ant explosion, the sources said, but the insects had also infested employees’ desks located near the break room and several corridors in the rear of the building. The ants never made it into any of the courtrooms or other public areas, according to the sources, but one said mice had been seen in at least one courtroom.
“It’s not affecting public service or anything,” the source said. “It’s just the employees. Nobody wants to go into the break room and have ants crawl all over them.”
The problem had been going on for a month or more, but it peaked early this week, one source said. No one could avoid seeing “little trails” of ants all over the break room, and they were swarming inside the refrigerator, inside the microwave oven and even inside the bottled water jug.
“The microwave does not kill them,” the source said. “It makes them speedy.” On Friday, however, the ant infestation was “much better,” this source said. “I haven’t seen an ant in two days, even in the break room,” the source said Friday. “There’s not that much excitement anymore.”
What happened was this:
The county contracts with Orkin for all its pest control, and Orkin staff had been trying non-chemical means of eliminating the ants since at least July, according to company spokeswoman Martha Craft, in Atlanta.
“That would be caulking up cracks and crevices through which ants can get in,” Craft said. “The problem with the trailer is that it’s not made to be tight. … Inherently in the way it’s made, it’s got all kinds of cracks and crevices where ants can get in, which was part of our problem.”
Since the ants couldn’t be kept out, Craft said her company eventually got an OK to use chemical pesticides.
One of the courthouse sources said this approval probably came within the last week, after Superior Court administrators made their quarterly visit to San Martin.
“We were all complaining,” the source said. “Then it seemed like they took it a little more seriously because they heard us and then saw it and (thought), ‘Oh yeah, it is disgusting to have to work like that.’ ”
Orkin used four different ant pesticides: granules, bait stations, gels and liquids, Craft said. The goal was not just to kill the invading ants but to have them carry the poison back to their nest.
“The way you solve the whole ant problem is to kill the queen,” Craft said.
Ants are smart, however, and will not carry anything back they suspect might be deadly. With four different varieties of poison, however, Craft said it is likely that at least one will make it to the queen.
That may well have happened.
Craft did not know what mouse control measures had been taken, but one source said that’s not such a concern.
“The mice don’t bother me,” the source said. “I like animals. I just don’t like the ants.”
Peter Crowley is a staff writer. He can be reached at 408-847-7109 or [email protected].
