Got Ants?

[norminn]

Schnauzers are "ratters"...our first schnauzer killed a mouse when he was only 6 mos old. He was sitting proudly in the kitchen doorway with his prize when we came home that evening.

[HeyBub]

You can get shots and undergo an extensive desensitization regimen.

All the more reason to live with two or three.

[gfretwell]

The problem with any predator scheme is that they are genetically predisposed not to kill all of them so the prey always has the critical mass to reproduce.

We always hear about Touser the wonder cat before these conversations are over but the thing to remember is he never ran out of rats to kill. If you want "wild kingdom" in your home with mutilated rodent bodies all over, by all means get a cat. If you really want to get rid of rodents, fix your perimeter problems and trap out all that are inside. Then work on the outside to make it less habitable for rodents. First thing ... stop feeding them.

[Alex]

Wow, sounds like our dilemma with Fire Ants we had least year. We moved in= to our new house May 2010 and after a few months we'd see a fire ant here a= nd there inside, but I didn't think anything of it until we started seeing = HUNDREDS of them. They entered through the sand trap under one of our bath= tubs and from there entered the walls, worked up the vent pipe into the at= tic, then went basically all over the house dipping into almost every room = following the plumbing and wiring. It was TERRIBLE, but we've been working= with a pest control company who is keeping the yard baited plus we've spra= yed under the tub several times with Termidor (which is the BEST for ants o= f all kinds) and they're under control for now (knock on wood). It's been = about two months since I saw one, but I'm constantly watching which I'll pr= obably do at least until next winter. =20

The key as many have said is to keep the yard baited and also put down bait= or whatever you can inside as needed. We only had them in the kitchen onc= e when they came down through a column from the attic, but cutting off thei= r source into the house (under bath tub) has seemed to be the biggest thing= . I'm also in the process of talking to the builder to have that sand trap= covered in concrete, and if I ever do need to get in there, well I'll cros= s that road when I need to. Living Fire-ant Free is more important :)

But yes, as others have said, don't celebrate until you've gone at least a = few weeks to a month or more without seeing any ants. Torro is good, but t= he best thing youc an do is get the outside baited. And check out Termidor= -- that stuff is golden.

[aemeijers]

Spend hundreds of dollars and screw up my body chemistry just so I can have an expensive and smelly shit-producing predator sharing my roof? Yeah, that makes a whole bunch of sense. Any competent allergist will tell you- the best cure for allergies, when possible, is to simply avoid the trigger substance.

Standard disclaimer- I cats. Next to 18-25 year old human females, they are my favorite living thing to watch.

[ransley]

Na , its more fun hating cats

[gfretwell]

I think you are confusing boric acid with diotamaceus earth

[HeyBub]

Well, I wouldn't put it exactly that way, but, uh ... yeah.

[HeyBub]

Uh, that's what cats do.

They can dust in place you can't easily reach.

[JimT]

Sorry for the email normin. Oops. :-)

That's been my experience with ants in the house. There is something they like. Might be a lot of things but the OP should try an eliminate the source of food for the ants or they will eventually always come back. I don't know if sweet ants eat wood but even if there is wet rotting wood ants will eat that too. We had a bad ant problem in our last house and it turned out they were eating the framing of the house where water got in and rotted the framing. We'd kill them all and they would come back a few months later.

Jim

[Michael B]

You need defenestration of the causative agent.

[Michael B]

That would be carpenter ants. Likely with a tree riddled with them nearby.

[JimT]

Probably a species of carpenter ants. After some research I discovered ants don't actually eat wood. They burrow in to look for termites. I'm glad I sold that house. Supposedly the termites had been exterminated.

Jim

[croy]

I used to get ants in my California house every fall. The small, black Argentinian variety.

After taking some classes in natural resources, and learning about "R-rated" species of critters, and then reading about these specific ants, I developed a new strategy that has kept my house ant-free for six years running, now.

These ants are not like most other ants--they don't fly to breed, and the colonies can have any number of queens. When the colony or its territory gets to be too crowded, some queens will peel off and go some distance away to establish a new colony. But the new colonies are not really distinct--the stay in touch, and collectively act as a "super colony".

R-rated species tend to eat themselves out of house and home. Deer, for example, tend to increase in population, to the point of exeeding the carrying capacity of their environment, and then, the population crashes. After forage bounces back, they start the process all over again.

With these ants, small amounts of food left in a tin-can in the garbage can be a huge amount of bounty for them, causing their population to grow exponentially, and then they go looking for more nesting grounds (like the walls of your house).

My strategy with the ants was simple: they get *nothing* from me! I thoroughly cleaned the house, and most importantly, the garbage and other waste cans. Before anthing goes in a waste can, it gets thoroughly washed, dried, and inspected, just like the dishes. Absolutely nothing that could balloon the population of these ants is made available to them.

With every year that ticks by since I started this program, I become more convinced that these ants probably couldn't live in this California environment if there were no people here.

My two next-door neighbors have started doing the same, and they have gotten the same results.

In short, for sixteen years of using poison, I had ants every fall. After six years of keeping food away from them, no more ants. I do see them occasionally in the yards, but they are no longer *everywhere* in the yards. And even in the yards, they are getting rarer ever year.

Of course, if you have young children, you'll probably not be able to run a tight-enough ship to make this work, unless you only let them eat in the bathtub.

[norminn]

Both have similar effect on insects. Roaches avoid the dry powder boric acid, which makes it a good perimeter treatment, but will eat stuff (like peanut butter) mixed with b.a.

[norminn]

Those were carpenter ants eating your wood. Most pests will invade when their normal food source or shelter is threatened...during times of drought or excessive rain. I remember the drought in .. the '80's?..when bees and yellow jackets tried to get in my eyes when I was outdoors. Couldn't hold an open drink container or they'd be in it.

Just little bits of food, like crumbs on a shelf or the floor, a little sticky stuff on a jar, is an attractant to ants. In Florida, leaving a coffee cake or pie on the countertop is an invitation to every ant in the county...gotta keep it in the fridge.

[krw]

Carpenter ants live in wood and eat elsewhere. (Most) termites eat wood and live elsewhere. Carpenter ant infestations are rare in dry wood. Any water and they'll move in quickly. They need water.

[JimT]

That's what started it. There was a leak where the facade met the window sill. Leaked into the framing big time. The guy that bought the house had to do some major tear out. Fortunately, on the disclosure, I just told the truth AFAIK.

Jim

[krw]

That'll do it. That's why I'm a fanatic about any leaks, plumbing or exterior. When we sold our first house I discovered the tile under the 'fridge was loose. I thought it was a simple matter of glue and some grout. It's under the 'fridge, after all. Easy, right? Nope, carpenter ants had gotten into the joists under it. What a mess.

Disclosures are a funny thing. Both times I've sold, I saw them as a good thing. As long as I described the issues and the work done to resolve them, I was pretty well off the hook. Nothing hidden; this is what it is.