Let's hear some stories about what works. They only come inside when it get hot or when the yard is flooded for one reason or another.
I picked up a gallon of Home Defense $5 special to try out. Anything else work better?
I have heard ants won't cross diatomaceous earth sprinkled around the base. Is that true? The price is low.
Also heard to use grits, that ants will eat it and it expands and kills them. I don't want to try that thinking it might attract mice, etc.
We've used several things. Ant bait sprinkles where the ants take it back to the colony and the entire colony gets poisoned. I've also used Simple green and sprayed the area they are coming in from, the places I see them, and I've sprayed their trails. It kills them on contact, and interrupts the scent trail the ants follow.
Perimeter sprays have a limited effectiveness for ants. They will exploit a hole in your perimeter and once they lay down a train, something as seemingly innocent as a limb of a bush touching the house can become a super highway.
We were having trouble with ants but have seen none since getting perimeter treated with Termidor for termite defense. I had been treating myself for years and had kept them at bay but neighbors on two sides got them and I was seeing them in decayed roots a few feet from my house.
I tried commercial perimeter ant treatments but they were ineffective. I had used to spray with Diazinone but but EPA has removed it from the consumer as they have a lot of other effective treatments for other insect pests. Some are not even commercially available anymore.
Before it was banned, I bought some chlorodane. I used it in my old house and this house when we moved here. Never saw a bug anywhere for as long as I had it. Good stuff I'll have to look into the termidor.
I knew about chlordane but it has been banned a long time. I see Termidor available on line. Terminex did my treatment for about $1,100. They drilled holes in porch, driveway and deck to inject in ground all around the house. Bayer sells a treatment you can trench around your house like you used to do for chlordane but I think they say it is only good for a few years and I don't know if it effects ants. I had used one of their sprinkle treatments, said good for a year, in area I was seeing termites before deciding to quit worrying and get commercial treatment and yearly warranty which I believe is about $250. I had a wood pile a few feet from the house that got termite infected. The wood was wet and they just got in on top and it was probably not a problem as there was not easy access to soil as it was on my patio but Terminex came out and treated anyway as part of the contract.
Best stuff there was to get rid of bugs. Too bad it was banned many years ago. Probably why they got rid of it. Why spray once and be done for 15 to 20 years when you can come back every year and spray something else.
It was banned because it actually was "too good" It lasted for decades. That was not a problem if you were careful to sequester it somewhere that it would not leach into the environment but people were just spraying it everywhere and it was showing up in the water.
Not only that, but it vaporized and moved through foundations, so people were breathing it indoors when they'd applied it outdoors. Long-lasting, vaporizing, carcinogenic, too high risk.
Like I said, it was not properly sequestered. If you applied it under the visqueen under your slab, it would stay there and keep killing termites and ants for decades. I am not sure the "vaporization" thing was that big a deal. If it was properly sequestered, that vapor would be contained too.
when it get hot or when the yard is flooded for one reason or another.
else work better?
the base. Is that true? The price is low.
kills them. I don't want to try that thinking it might attract mice, etc.
Thanks, I wonder if I put full strength simple green in one of those containers you connect to the hose and spray the yard how good that would do? I spray fruit trees with liquid dishwashing detergent that way and it does a good job with most pests.
I'll try the Home Defense and some powder since I have some already.
On the inside, Terro liquid works great for me. I squirt some near where they are coming in and they push and shove to get at it to eat. Then I replenish it and within a day or two, they are gone. I always wonder if it really does kill ants back in their nest. In fact, once I tried mixing some up boric acid in glycerin myself but the ants just ignored it.
Got to be real careful with pesticides. I researched Parkinsons disease once when a family member had it, and learned that the highest incidence was in people who grew up in rural areas on working farms. Strange because of the relative clean air & water. One theory was that it could have been exposure to pesticides. Never did see any conclusive evidence though.
Terro Classic is sugar based. If ants eat sugar, they will usually eat Terro. You could make up some concentrated simple syrup (sugar and water boiled down to a goo) with boric acid in it. Use about 12 parts sugar and one part BA. The problem with any bait is ants just stop eating whatever the "food" is in the bait after you kill enough colonies.
Baits are the only thing I have ever been successful with but my ants are getting to be such picky eaters that I can't really find anything they eat. I am leaving stuff laying around, just daring them to find something they like. Then I will have them ;-)
+1
This by far has been the most effective solution for me in past years. I use the Terro ant bait and soon after laying the traps the first notice of them in the house, I never see them again.
If it can kill a bug, rough of it will probably have some affect on pets or people. Good or bad. Warfarin kills rats, but it helps keep my wife alive. Depends on how you use it.
i use Boric acid, and mix it with Powered sugar & water to
make a paste, and put it as close as possible to where the ants are coming into the house [also simply wherever you see the ants, outdoors]
it eventually works, with some trial and error
don't like using it indoors; you want to kill them at places before they come in
hope it doesn't somehow kill other things
marc
I used about a 3 parts simple green with one part water on ants and it killed them on contact. I've also used it on aphids on my citrus trees in our green house. Spray it on and let it set a few minutes and then wash it off along with the dead aphids.
We've used the boric acid to get rid of other bugs and it does a pretty good job of it, I think.
Good idea, will try that.
Spraying the entry points and putting some kind of ant powder in the nest area seems to have done the trick for most of the problem. Still seeing some inside and can't find outside where they are coming in.
For that bunch, I ended up squirting some Terro on the counter and the little rascals fight to get to it and start eating. After a few hours there was a huge number eating. The next day there are still some. I cleaned off the old stuff and put new down and the crowd came back. After 3-4 days, no more ants showed up.
Terro is mostly glycerin (sweet) and boric acid. When the ants were around I tried mixing my own, but there must be something else in Terro because they would not go after pure glycerin or the mixture.
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