Mint condition

For some time now, for maybe four or five months, my flatmate and I have been at war with some tiny red ants. They haven't exactly swarmed our apartment (hmm, except for a shocking discovery of a colony of them in a shoe box in my cupboard, which I had to flood out of existence in the bath) but we keep finding drowned ones in our kettle for no apparent reason.

This doesn't make much sense to us. Not long after we first moved in, there were some black ants that tried to storm our liquor cabinet (understandable, lots of sugar) but why these red ones seem to be attracted to boiled water, we have no idea.

Anyway, in accordance with the dr witmol code of living, I refuse to keep pesticides in my apartment as I believe they do humans more harm than the pests they eradicate. So I looked up some natural remedies for repelling ants. Among the ones that we tried were sprinkled borax (which I use for cleaning my bathroom anyway) which didn't work because it kept getting wet, and ground cinnamon, which just didn't work, perhaps because the remedy was species specific.

Yesterday I went to the farmers market (a visit that resulted in me rejecting to buy truss tomatoes at $9.99/kg no matter how organic or hydroponic they were) and happened upon a stall selling potted herbs. Excited by the prospect of keeping fresh rocket on hand, I also purchased a pot of common mint, remembering that mint was an ant repellent I hadn't yet tried.

My friends, we have success. For while sitting here transcribing an interview for a profile I'm working on, I spotted one of the critters brazenly marching around on my desk. I picked a few leaves of mint and crushed them, smearing a line in the path of the little trooper. Repelled, it attempted to tramp around the line until I decide to smear a circle of mint around it, to see what it would do. Caught in a holding pattern - getting to the mint border, then turning away, only to encounter another mint border - it went stir crazy.

Here's a pic (click on it to get the full image):


Unfortunately it soon died in a vinegar dropper accident as I attempted to form a mint maze with a vinegar watercourse, otherwise I would have a short video to post of its incessant, frustrated pacing.

Tonight I will fortify the kettle with mint turrets.

P.S: I'm not entirely sure whether the ant species in question is of the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad fire ant variety as I was led to believe these were Queensland's problem. However, I am unable to find a comprehensive field guide about behaviour (e.g. penchant for kettles, suicide by drowning, aversion to mint?) so I don't have any other species suggestions.

As yet I've not been stung by any of them, even though I've been picking them off one by one when they happen across my desk, so I don't know (and don't want to know) whether the resulting pain is like being burnt. Can anyone tell me what they think this ant is?