!@#$%^&* ants -- how to get rid of them

[aurgathor]

I'm having some problems with ants. I first noticed them about a year ago, and I don't seem to be able to get rid of them. First, they moved into an electric outlet in my kitchen (a very convenient place, I guess) so I vacuumed them out and sprayed the outlet with "Ortho HighPower Home defense" against ants and roaches. So they moved to another outlet. I cleaned that one, too, and sprayed all other outlets in the kitchen. I also made sure that the kitchen was cleaned up. However, the ants are still there somewhere, they apparently just moved to some place I can no longer find them. (they might be underneath my home)

So, what's the best way to tackle them? I'll be doing a complete remodel of my kitchen in a couple of months, and if there were something I could spray behind and underneath the cabinets before putting them back, that could probably help tremendously.

TIA

[DAC]

terro ant killer --

worked for me! Good luck.

Dac

[No]

What kind of ants? Big black ones or small ones? Big black ones could be carpenter ants that nest in wood structures and can damage house. Little ones are attracted to food, crumbs, water, etc.

See

-b

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[Norminn]

Works for me as well. I think ants favorite food stops are sticky spills in cupboards,crumbs and spills under refrig. and crumbs around pet bowls.

Environment helps bring them indoors - either too much rain, which makes their nest less favorable, or too little rain and they look for moisture.

It doesn't take much of a spill or food crumbs to make a meal for them, greasy and sweet preferred :o)

[Steve B]

The secret to killing ants is to get their mound. There are granules that you can buy that you spread around, and they take them back to the mound.

I used to take a small amount of ground corn flakes and spray them with Malthion. Mix them up with a good bit of regular corn flakes. Crush them to make them easy for an ant to carry.

Then, Diazanon came out with granules. The last one I used had a bag with a screen in the top. You would just walk around and let the granules fall out of the screen. Mostly around foundations, walkways, piles of junk, etc. They worked just as good, and less work.

Don't expect quick results, as with spraying. It might take a week or two for them to carry enough poison to the mound to kill them all. Good thing is that the mound won't be immediately occupied by the next group of housing challenged ants, as there will be residual poison in there.

Killing ants is no problem, but you want to get the mound. If you don't get the mound and the queen, you are just farting in a stiff breeze.

Steve

[Mark Lloyd]

I had a lot of little black ants in my kitchen. A couple of weeks ago I found Terro at the local Lowe's, I put some in the kitchen (next to the North wall where they seemed to be entering), for the next few days there were a lot more ants (especially around the Terro), Now there are very few.

[Mark Lloyd]

Most of the ones I had were clustered around sticky spills, but they were all over within a few feet.

[Jeff]

Yep works like a charm. Of course don't panic when you first use Terro and a zillion ants begin to take it back to their hive. Just keep adding more. It's amazing how fact they can remove it. After a few days they suddenly disappear. I put a strip of masking tape down and put a few drops of Terro on it.

[Lar]

In article , [e-mail] says... :) The secret to killing ants is to get their mound. There are granules that :) you can buy that you spread around, and they take them back to the mound. :) :) If they are mounding ants, the ants that they sound like from his descrition don't lve in mounds but are like little nomads.

Lar

[Lar]

In article , [e-mail] says... :) So, what's the best way to tackle them? I'll be doing a complete remodel of :) my kitchen in a couple of months, and if there were something I could spray :) behind and underneath the cabinets before putting them back, that could :) probably help tremendously. :) :) Just guessing you are dealing with Odorous House Ants. They won't have a central mound that they live in so it can be a matter of chasing them about a bit. The amount of ants that you are seeing inside will be a small fraction of the actual numbers in the colony so baiting will be the easiest approach just not the quickest. As mentioned the terro bait works well with them, just be patient. You might try looking around the foundation of the house, especially in any leaf matter or mulch and more so if it is getting wet. When you find the colony there will be no mistake because they will be scattering with their larvae/eggs and pupa. They will also often be seen traveling in line out in the open on the side of the home in vast numbers while moving from one nest location to another.

Lar

[aurgathor]

The very small black ones, attracted to sugary things.

[aurgathor]

I'll go to Loews tomorrow and buy some Terro. I understand that a good poison is one that doesn't kill the ants immediately, but let them poison the queen. I had to know what people had success with.

Thanks for all who replied.

[CHI-MUM]

Terro ant killer. They take it back to their nest and it kills the whole colony.

[gfretwell]

That only works on sugar ants. There are plenty of ants that won't eat sugars. Some can get very selective about what they will eat.

If you have these nasty little bastards you really need some special effort to make them go away

[gSimmons]

I started working for company a few months ago that has a lot of experience in solving building problems with the least toxic method. It was an eye opener to me how many of the commonly used products contaminate our air.

I work on the Dear Sammi SaferBuilder column.

They use barriers like builders foil for outlets and caulk to seal up other openings. Builder's foil is similar to aluminum foil. It can be taped over openings to make things air tight.

If you can find the nest, then they've told me that they've used boiling water to get rid of ants. In their case, there were multiple queens, so they had to pour it for a few days in a row. Also the nest was adjacent to the house so they weren't putting water on their foundation.

Another time, when the nest was under the house, the used baits. They like borate (boric acid) based baits since they are generally effective and the least toxic.

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aurgathor wrote: