Ominous Development

When we cut down the monster Eugenia hedge on the north side of our house, we realized that the chain link fence between our house and the neighbors was kind of ugly, so Cindy decided to plant something to dress it up a bit.

Pretty Flowers

The plant she chose was a vine called Thunbergia, or Black Eyed Susan Vine.  It had pretty flowers, it grew fast and it's definitely prettier than the fence.  However, after the vine had become established, it began to show a more sinister side; it soon became apparent that the vine had designs on world domination.

Creeping Toward The House

We watched as it rapidly spread out of the flower bed, across the sidewalk and crept toward the house.  Not wanting our house to disappear beneath the vine, Cindy has chopped it back numerous times, but it keeps creeping back.

However, the other day, she discovered an even more disturbing development.  She went out to check the hummingbird feeder at the end of the fence and found it swarming with Argentine Ants devouring the sugared hummingbird food.  That was odd, since we have a water baffle between the feeder and the hook it hangs from and there was only one dead ant floating in the water.

Hummingbird Feeder

However, it soon became clear that the ants had evaded the baffle by marching across a tendril of the Thunbergia that had snaked across to the feeder, providing a convenient highway for the ants.

These ants love sweets and are always on the search for food sources.  Since they are prolific and have no natural predators in Southern California, they are pretty much everywhere and it takes great diligence to keep them out of the house, particularly in dry weather, when they're in search of water.  Or rainy weather when their nests are flooded.  Or any other time.

Argentine Ants are enough of a nuisance by themselves, but when they start teaming up with the Thunbergia?  Look out, world.