What is the best procuct for getting rid of ants? I see a bunch around my kitchen window and sink, and I kill them, and minutes later there are more. They are the really small ones. I think they are in the walls. Do they live in the ground, and just travel thru the wall to the kitchen?
I do keep my kitchen very clean, so it's not like there are food crumbs laying around.
Terro has worked well for me. When you put it down the ants will have a field day feeding on it. There will be a zillion of them. After about 3 days their number will suddenly drop and they will be gone til next year.
In article , snipped-for-privacy@co.ha.md.us says... :) What is the best procuct for getting rid of ants? I see a bunch around my :) kitchen window and sink, and I kill them, and minutes later there are more. :) They are the really small ones. :) I think they are in the walls. Do they live in the ground, and just travel :) thru the wall to the kitchen? :) :) I do keep my kitchen very clean, so it's not like there are food crumbs :) laying around. :) A product called Terro seems to be a good all around bait to try first. But sometimes the ants can be choosey on what they want to feed on changing from sugars to proteins so trying several baits before they accept it may be the course. Depending on the species they can be living in the wall itself or they can be outside ants coming in, where treating the source may be a quicker resolve than the bait in the kitchen.
log on to
If you're cheap like me, half borax and half sugar will do the job.
Steve wrote:
Two things:
This will work. Repeat every couple of months.
Chlordane was a lot better and would last 30 years or so. Perfectly safe as long as it was used properly. In fact it was used as a flea powder on pets back in the late '60s. I believe it was the exterminator that got it banned so business would improve.
I've used Tero with great success. The bait is a clear heavy liquid placed on cardboard squares. After a few hours you'll see thousands of ants carrying the bait back to the colony. This works with "sugar" ants.
Yeah boric acid is a few $$ a pound at Home Depot. You can mix it with corn syrup. It is moderately toxic so don't put it where kids or pets could get to it.
In article , snipped-for-privacy@alum.mit.edu says... :) Chlordane was a lot better and would last 30 years or so. Perfectly :) safe as long as it was used properly. In fact it was used as a flea :) powder on pets back in the late '60s. I believe it was the exterminator :) that got it banned so business would improve. :) :) Chlordane was in the same group of insecticides as DDT, so when it went, so did chlordane..it's back on the bunny huggers.
I've had success with Raid's double control ant control baits.
Take a day or two depending on the amount of ants you have. If you can get many to visit the station, you should see results in a day.
hth,
tom @
If you have trouble getting them to eat your commercial bait, see what they do eat and make bait out of that. Use about 1 part boric acid and
12 parts food.
I got an article the other day from someone that said Aspartame was developed as an ant poison. Wonder if anyone has ever heard of using nutra sweet to kill ants. Seems according to the article that it interferes with their nervous systems.
If I find it I will post it.
LJ
On Mon, 24 Jul 2006 09:24:20 -0500, Steve broke out their crayolas and scribbled:
Pharaoh Ant, sugar ant, and piss ant, are some of the common names for what seem to be really small ants (1/16") that can invade the walls of a house in the southern United States and can be a PIA getting rid of them. Wipe counter spaces off with vinegar and allow to air dry to keep them off of food preparation areas. Clean and reapply vinegar after preping food or daily as required. Then set bait stations out "in line" with the trails that they use. Avon's (TM) Skin-So-Soft (TM) can be sprayed on table legs but must be reapplied weekly to be effective.
I was told by an externinator that spraying this type of ant with bug spray applications only causes them to split the colony and spreading the colony further. I don't state this as fact, only repeating what I was told by someone I felt was compedent. He recognised the critters as soon as he saw them and recomended I look them up on the "net".
Here is a couple of links that may be of interest.
We have had tiny, tiny ants here in FL this year. Terro does the job better than anything else I tried but it won't keep from year to year. Buy new Terro and when the summer is over, throw it away and buy fresh next year. The ants will be back. I got a large bottle of spray at Home Depot and sprayed outside the house....helps cut down on various insects.
The tiny ants come in the kitchen and bath. I have been careful to keep things clean and have no idea how they got in. I recaulked all the windows and the tile in the bathroom.....and when it starts raining outside they all come running in.
Combat ant killing gel. 0.95 ounce syringe...get it at home depot. works every time
I just spent the last 4 hours chasing carpenter ants. I found several cavities in the wood that had pupas ( little white maggot looking things) in them. I cleaned all them out, killed all the ant that I found. There were tons of them, until I saw not more in the area. They have pretty much decimated a section of wood about 12 feet long that used to be a 2 x 8. This is in a converted porch that the previous owner built. I plan to tear it off, but was not planning to do it until next year. I just don't want to cause them to move somewhere else. This area was damp from the roof leaking, the rest of the place is dry. Any one know how to tell if you found the nest? I have read that the only way to rid the place of carpenter ants is to physically remove the nest.
By the way I set out the nutra sweet for a week and they did not touch it, so I guess that theory is all wet.
LJ
In article , Old snipped-for-privacy@thelake.com says... :) off, but was not planning to do it until next year. I just don't want to :) cause them to move somewhere else. This area was damp from the roof leaking, :) the rest of the place is dry. Any one know how to tell if you found the :) nest? I have read that the only way to rid the place of carpenter ants is to :) physically remove the nest. :) :) If you found the larvae you found the nest, though if the maggoty things were moving by themselves they were termites, if they were being carried by other ants, they were CA in the heart of the nest. There are two carpenter ant baits that the pros use that you can find over the web or at a do it yourself type pest store. I have used the Advance Granular Carpenter Ant Bait and have had success on nests I had no idea where they were located at. I myself have not used MAXFORCE CARPENTER ANT BAIT GEL, but all that I know who have used it say it works as well as the other product.
We seem to have a different carpenter ant in Florida. (but we have lots of different ants than most of the US) I have had carpenter ants that had satellite nests all over the house with several dozen to 100 individuals and larvae in each. The mother ship was in the mulch right outside.. There were not even in a wood environment, just any convenient cool dark place. I had a nest in a plastic diskette case
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