How do I get rid of ants?

I've seen lines of tiny black ants that don't bite crawling in trough t crack in one of my windows. I see a few of them crawling on my computers. I also see them eating bits of food. Once I left a zebra cake wrapped in plastic (It wasn't sealed though) the next day I put it in my lunch box with out thinking and I found a ton of these ants eating my lunch. This has been going on for like, 3 months. How do I get them out of my house without getting a pest control specialist?? Also will they hurt my computer?? Please Help.

Reply to
victorbron5
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Ant traps would be one of my first lines of defense. There are various spray insecticides and powders if you know where the nests are.

This time of year, insects are in full bloom. I mix a liquid insecticide in a garden sparer and go around the house spraying all joints in siding, foundation, window frames, door frames, etc. Makes a difference.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

Try liquid ant bait, from gardens alive (dot com).

Yes, they will gang up and carry your computer away, on their backs.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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I've seen lines of tiny black ants that don't bite crawling in trough t crack in one of my windows. I see a few of them crawling on my computers. I also see them eating bits of food. Once I left a zebra cake wrapped in plastic (It wasn't sealed though) the next day I put it in my lunch box with out thinking and I found a ton of these ants eating my lunch. This has been going on for like, 3 months. How do I get them out of my house without getting a pest control specialist?? Also will they hurt my computer?? Please Help.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

Try liquid ant bait, from gardens alive (dot com).

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use bottle caps from soda bottles, instead of their fancy bait holders. But, their units may work better.

Yes, they will gang up and carry your computer away, on their backs.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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I've seen lines of tiny black ants that don't bite crawling in trough t crack in one of my windows. I see a few of them crawling on my computers. I also see them eating bits of food. Once I left a zebra cake wrapped in plastic (It wasn't sealed though) the next day I put it in my lunch box with out thinking and I found a ton of these ants eating my lunch. This has been going on for like, 3 months. How do I get them out of my house without getting a pest control specialist?? Also will they hurt my computer?? Please Help.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

victorbron5 wrote in news:victorbron5.a4d7708 @diybanter.com:

  1. Stop leaving food out for them.
  2. Stop leaving food out for them.
  3. Stop leaving food out for them.
  4. Use Amdro Ant-block to kill the nest.
Reply to
Doug Miller

I've had very good results using Terro.

Reply to
AngryOldWhiteGuy

news:victorbron5.a4d7708

That's a good plan but it doesn't work. They got into an unopened bottle of molasses, a few years back. I nuked the lawn with bug killer a couple of times and sprayed around the foundation and that seems to have stopped them.

That works. The first three don't, at least in the real world.

Reply to
krw

Boric acid seems the safest and cheapest method. This is sold at drugstores or hardware stores in powder form. The usual method of use is to make a syrup with boric acid, sugar and water, and paint the syrup across known ant routes. The aim is that the ants should discover this as food, then take the syrup back to the home nest and share it. When ants eat boric acid, it blocks their interior plumbing and they die. This material does not hurt mammals e.g. infants or pets.

The main harm done by ants is Carpenter Ants' hollowing out of wood house beams (e.g. under a dripping water fixture.) But Carpenter Ants are 1 cm. long i.e. not "tiny ."

Reply to
Don Phillipson

Equal parts of Boric acid (powder available at drug stores), sugar, and water. Put some in a small plate or bottle cap where the ants are. They take it back to their colony where it kills them.

Next spring, apply a barrier around your foundation and near doors and windows to keep them out. I've had good results with ortho defender.

Reply to
Notat Home

You know what they like to eat now.

Take some of that cake and mix it up, 12 parts cake, one part boric acid and set it out for them in bottle caps It will kill the colony that likes cake. That is basically what terro and amdro are, except they are for ants that like sugar. I haven't seen a sugar eating ant here in years.

Reply to
gfretwell

More or less true; however, it depends upon the amount and should still be respected.

"However, while boric acid has become one of the chemicals of choice for many urban pest control programs, it can be toxic. EPA considers boric acid as a moderately acutely toxic due to acute effects including oral and dermal toxicity, and eye and skin irritation. EPA?s reregistration document states that a subchronic borax feeding study using dogs resulted in blood and metabolism disorders as well as effects to the testes, endocrine system, brain weight, and size ratios among various organs and glands. In chronic oncogenicity studies using mice, rats and beagle dogs, boric acid and borax were found not to be carcinogenic; however, testicular effects and decreases in body weight resulted at high dose levels. EPA has classified boric acid as a ?Group E? carcinogen, indicating that it shows ?evidence of noncarcinogenicity? for humans. In reproductive and developmental toxicity studies using rats, mice and rabbits, maternal liver and kidney effects and decreased weight gain as well as decreased fetal body weights were observed. In two studies, at the highest dose levels, no litters were produced. Prenatal mortality occurred at the highest dose levels in the rabbit study. Boric acid does not cause mutagenicity (U.S. EPA 1993).

Applicators and others in treatment areas may be exposed to boric acid and its sodium salts during or after application. However, there is no reasonable expectation that these pesticide uses may constitute a hazard or risk to people involved in, or near to, handling or application activities. Proper care and adhering to label directions and precautions should reduce exposure and any associated risk (U.S. EPA 1993). "

Reply to
dadiOH

On 7/19/2012 8:50 AM, snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote: ...

...

Nonsense...

Amdro Fire Ant Bait MSDS

I've yet to find any ant it hasn't been successful against from tiny black to the target fire ant...there may well (and probably are) some that won't take the bait but so far I've never found it.

It is relatively non-acute for single exposure--while not willy-nilly, in stubborn cases I've spread it on countertops or in cabinets temporarily in small quantities and then cleaned up afterwards...

I've frankly never had much luck w/ the boric acid--the wife thinks it's the solution but after her trying I'll wait 'til sometime when she's in town and "salt" her mixture w/ a little "real" bait and the problem will be gone and she never seems the wiser and I don't have to hear about how she doesn't want that stuff around... :)

--

Reply to
dpb

Not familiar with Ortho Defender. But, highly recommend Raid's Bug Barrier.

Here in AZ it stops/takes out every crawling/flying thing that gets on it.

Ant Infestation in entertainment room where sugary cola was spilled [actually two 2 liter bottles exploded]. lightly surrounded the area with Raid's BB and never have seen another ant.

Also, kills scorpions, BIG centipedes, and every type of spider that tries to come across the barrier. Flying critters die from contact on window ledges, too.

Reply to
Robert Macy

if you're into 'environmentally friendly stuff';simply peel a bunch of fresh oranges in that room. There's some kind of natural form of insecticide in the rind spritz, lasts for a year. We used to peel our orange crop once a year in our kitchen and NEVER had an ant in the kitchen, even the rest of the house. Although plentiful ants outside.Except the one year Med Fruit Fly caused the removal of orange fruit and there was NO crop - then you wouldn't believe the influx of ants! Raid House and Garden barely kept up against them. So many carcasses everywhere clogged the vacuum cleaner.

Reply to
Robert Macy

You will be way ahead to give the kitchen (and eating areas) a very good cleaning....just a few crumbs or a smudge of something sticky (syrup bottle, honey, jelly) in a cupboard sounds the alarm for ants to come to dinner :o) Ants and mice LOVE dog chows! Sweets and fatty food, if not in the fridge, should be in airtight containers. End of problem. Plain old Terro ant bait, mixture of boric acid and sugar syrup, is a great bait which kills ants after they take it back to the nest. It is put down, a drop here and there along their trails and soon they gather to get the bait. Same stuff is available by other brand names.

I've seen ants come after the toothpaste dribble in bathrooms. Lots of bugs come indoors during drought conditions to find water.

Reply to
Norminn

Amdro. Terro. Why do ant killers names end in a vowel?

"Say hello to my little friend. We break your leg, leg, leg, leg, leg, leg, leg."

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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Terro.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

news:victorbron5.a4d7708

Nope.

They were inside, drowned, when we broke the seal. They weren't there when the bottle was purchased.

Wrong. They'll get into any packaging. Plastic is no match for a million ants.

Reply to
krw

gregz wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.or g:

you want to use BORIC ACID,not borax. you can buy bottles of powdered boric acid,it's roach powder.

Reply to
Jim Yanik

No I don't want to. Borax works fine. I use the rest for my wash.

Greg

Reply to
gregz

Terro (boric acid based) works every time for me and ants are gone = within a day or two. There are powdered products containing boric acid = but I have never had much success with them. Terro has something = (glycerin probably) that attracts ants, where ants will just go around = the power.

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Reply to
Guv Bob

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