For the last month we have had these large black ants (~1/4 inch)all over our house, esp the kitchen. Note: these are not the 20 foot long ants, they are very easy to kill & are not a problem anymore. We put down these "CVS ant control" system traps but they haven't had any effect. I lived in NYC apartments for many years & used to have roach problems that were frequently (always!!) severe. At that time I tried boric acid but it did absolutely nothing. I think they had the stuff for breakfast. With the introduction of the "COMBAT" traps in the late
70 or early 80s, the roach problem disappeared & I mean disappeared. That stuff is effective. We now live in a house, still in NYC. I've seen boric acid recommended for ants in this group. Does it work? Any other ideas?
Neither boric acid nor combat traps alone will eradicate a large cockroach infestation. Roach motels do absolutely nothing other than to indicate where roaches are travelling. It is extremely difficult in large buildings with a lot of apartments to be completely rid of roaches. It only takes one lazy tenant to keep the population going. The "professional" exterminators are only interested in maintaining their monthly contract. They'll spray and pray and stink up everyone's apartment but in no way will that ever eliminate a population. They have no monetary incentive to eliminate the population anyway.
The only way to get rid of roaches is to find out where they're nesting, usually underneath refrigerators, behind washers, and inside many appliances including clocks. It is wise to immediately throw out any infested appliance. Instead of killing the lone cockroach immediately, follow it to see where it's going to and figure out where it came from. This is where boric acid can be effective. It needs to be strategically placed in key areas. When a nest is found, leave it alone and get prepared for an assault. Start by exposing the nest and then use a vacuum cleaner to suck up all the scattering roaches and have other people help stamp out the stragglers that the vacuum cleaner can't get. Those roaches can be quick little buggers. Then thoroughly clean and sprinkle boric acid in that area to keep them from coming back. This takes time but using due diligence and thinking of your quest to eliminate them as a military operation it can be done, nest by nest until there are no more. Again, this is difficult in a building with a diverse population because everyone has to become diligent like this.
Ants are very similar. Their population is extremely organized and structured, more so than even cockroaches. I would presume that once you traced the ants back to their nests you can then destroy them somehow. I've never dealt with ants so I don't think destroying an ant nest is as easy as a roach nest. Boric acid most likely eats away at ants like cockroaches and it's relatively cheap so you can use it liberally to interrupt their supply lines. But to completely rid yourself of them you must destroy the queen! Go forth young Luke Skywalker. :-)
Thanks to everyone who replied. Mark, that was a very detailed reply. I know that Combat is very effective because it completely eliminated the roaches. Maybe there were some in other apartments that were not as clean but they didn't effect me. The ants seem to have disappeared. We are not having as much rain as before & that might be the reason. That vacuum cleaner technique sounds super but it wouldn't work with the 20 foot ants.. Thanks
Did anyone mention instant grits? I've seen this work first hand with ants on my screen porch (drawn in by the dog food bowl). Theory is they eat the grits and they swell up in their gut, causing them to die.
In article , snipped-for-privacy@nospam.net says... :) Did anyone mention instant grits? I've seen this work first hand with ants :) on my screen porch (drawn in by the dog food bowl). Theory is they eat the :) grits and they swell up in their gut, causing them to die. :) :) Except adult ants don't eat solid foods. They would be taking it back to the colony for the larvae to digest in which even if it killed the larvae rather quickly there would still be ant activity for a couple of weeks. But most report after the gritting the ants are quickly gone.
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