Ants are "bugging" the crap out of me

[Liberalynn]

Pun intended. I've tried vinegar and water, pepper, washing counters down with clorox, plastic bagging all sugary stuff, cleaning and cleaning again, about tweleve ant buttons, Raid Home and garden spray, I googled and everything and they are still running around my kitchen like it is their playground.

Any suggestions here? Or do I just have to put up with them until they decide to leave. I've squashed so many of them you wouldn't think there would be any left.

[vadawg]

1. petfinder.com see if you can pick up an anteater

[Liberalynn]

2. I don't think those are covered in the town code.

;) :rofl:

[HopeHoops]

3. Boric acid knocks out the whole colony.

DO NOT buy "No Roach" or any of the commercial brand (translation: FREAKIN' EXPENSIVE) packaged boric acid containers. Get the store brand boric acid in a large container for a couple of dollars at any pharmacy (it is used for eye wash solution).

Just use a small spoon to put it around the baseboards on their main routes. Push it in a bit don't leave a lot of excess where pets can get to it. It isn't a "poison" as such, but it can give one a stomach ache. If you have a REALLY bad area, I've mixed it with honey on a piece of aluminum foil and set it out as bait - they attack it quickly and then you can use the trail they create to put a concentrated stream of boric acid down.

It kills the colony because they take it back with them and it makes its way into the queen's food supply. She bloats up and can't eat and essentially dies of starvation. No queen - no colony.

[Liberalynn]

7. I will definitely buy some to try.

Thank you. :hug:

[auntAgonist]

4. We have them too! Tiny little things they are..

I've tried vinegar it's supposed to work. I think they are diminishing one day and then the next they've multiplied. We have them on the tiled floors and in the bathrooms. None in the cupboards.

One day my husband called my outside and showed me a very large black patch on our gravel driveway, yikes ... it was ANTS a HUGE patch of them, moving, crawling ... "shudder"


I HATE BUGS


aA

[Liberalynn]

8. They do seem to disappear for awhile and then come back in record numbers.

I can't believe they are so early and so many this year. We already have mosquitos here too and thats odd for this time of year. I never recall them being around this soon.

I too hate bugs. I know they serve a purpose, I just wish, they'd serve it away from me. :rofl:

[no name no slogan]

5. Given the talk of the last few days, I saw that as "bagging" the crap out of me at first

:whew:

[Liberalynn]

10. It would be really bad if the ants were bagging too.

:rofl: Come to think of it ants are like republicans, they are pests and there are far too many of them.

[TZ]

6. I've had luck occasionally with Combat Ant

those little disc thingies that you put down in the middle of the ant trials.

[Liberalynn]

9. I will have to try those too

I have been trying the Raid brand but so far they aren't helping at all.

[MajorChode]

11. Ant baits are usually the most effective type of control

However, first you have to identify what type of ants you have. Many times your county extension office will have some good information for your local area. Here's an excellent ant identification web site for Nebraska, which may also work in your area:

http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/ants/

Once you identify the type of ant, you can choose the most effective control.

[Liberalynn]

16. Thank you for the link

i am pretty sure that we are dealing with the Carpenter ant, which they say really doesn't respond as well to baits on the site you sent. I am going to start searching for the saw dust like they suggest, and try the other things they recomend along with buying a different kind of bait too, in case I am wrong in my identification. Calling cooperative extention is a good idea too.

[MajorChode]

20. Most extension offices I have dealt with are very helpful

You can even take some of the vermin to them and they will identify them for you and point you towards a ton of information.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. I've had limited success with the borax/sugar trick.

But the little poison trap things worked like a charm.

I think the brand was Torro.

[Liberalynn]

18. Definitely sound like Torro would be a good thing to try

[BlueCollar]

13. I've always relied on Terro Ant Killer....

It appears to be very effective. Put a few drops in the area and the ants line up to consume it. After several applications they disappear for good. Use regular counter top cleaner and a paper towel to wipe it up. Good luck.

I buy it at the local supermarket













edit: spelling and purchase location

[hvn_nbr_2]

14. Depends on which kind of ants you have

This is probably an over-simplification but generally ants are either sugar-eating or fat-eating. You have to use the bait that suits their taste--steaks on the barbie won't make vegans flock to your back yard.

Most of the ant baits are for fat-loving ants. They generally have poisons that you want to be careful with. Terro (boric acid based) is for sugar-loving ants. It's basically sugar and Borax dissolved in water, so you can make your own but getting the right proportions has been kind of tricky for me. There are many recipes on the internet, but they vary widely in the proportions of ingredients. Borax isn't as poisonous as the multi-syllabic chemical stew stuff for the fat-loving ants, but you don't want to drink Terro. It works by a different mechanism--basically it swells up inside them and you may not want to visualize the results.

In either case, the idea is that the foragers take the bait back to the colony so they all, including the queen, die.

How do you know which kind you have? If they're swarming to fruit scraps, Cocoa Puffs, and leftover sugared coffee, they like sugar. Get Terro or make your own homemade concoction. If they're swarming to greasy dirty dishes, they like fat. Get the poisonous stuff.

The cleaning things like vinegar, ammonia, etc. won't do anything to the ants (although they don't seem to like ammonia). All they do is erase the trails of scent that they use to mark the way to food and back to their home. Using them won't do much for you until you've wiped out most of the ones that you have. After that, cleaning up the trails will make it harder for the next generation (There WILL be a next generation, sooner or later) to find the same pathways, but you won't be able to clean up the trails that lead to the point of entry to your kitchen.

There are pacifist, metaphysical, woo-woo ways to deal with them, and I've actually had success with them a couple times, but I guess that only works with highly evolved and sentient ant colonies. ;-)

[Liberalynn]

17. A group of them were on the honey jar and they seemed to like my Mini wheats bowl that I left

on the counter this morning too. So I guess they do like sugar. I will have to try the Terro. My supermarket only had the Raid ones, so I guess I will have to out to Lowes and see if they have it.

[merh]

22. what do you suggest I do to get those pesky fire ants to build

their mounds in someone else's yard?

:shrug:

[hvn_nbr_2]

27. I don't really know anything about fire ants. nt

[RebelOne]

15. Get one of those plug-in things.

You plug it in the wall socket and it sends out some kinds of waves through the walls that repel insects and rodents. I have had two of them for about three years now and have not seen any insects or rodents. And I had an awful ant problem. I don't know the name of it because I am not at home. But I bought them at QVC.

[Liberalynn]

19. My cousin bought one of those to get rid of Beetles that were invading her house

and I know she said it helped with them. I can ask where she got hers. Its good to know that it can help with ants too.

Thanks. :hug:

[RebelOne]

21. I had been wondering what happened to all the ants

and then realized it must be because of that plug-in. It will take a month or so, but after that, they will just disappear. I also had a terrible roach problem, but now the only roaches I see are dead ones.

[MajorChode]

23. The 1964 invasion was pretty awesome

[Arkansas Granny]

24. I've used this product in the past and have found it to be very effective.

http://www.gardensalive.com/product.asp?pn=8695

I think the main ingredient is boric acid, but it has something else in it that really attracts the ants.

[azmouse]

25. Amdro

I love the stuff 'cause I hate ants. They bite me. So I retaliate with Amdro. It wipes out the nest.

[TK421]

26. We get lots of them in the summer...the fuckers never seem to die

don't bother with sprays, but we used Ortho ( I think that was the brand ) ant bait. They take this stuff back to their nest and in about a week they are all pretty much dead. We put at least three in our kitchen ( where they were the worst )