Is there anything that ants can't crawl on?

You can create a moderately effective barrier with some Windex.

However, chances are the ants will only redeploy to other sources of food and/or water.

Watch them, find a trail and put down some bait in order to destroy their nest.

Reply to
Malcolm Hoar
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That all assumes you have ants that eat sugar. I haven't seen a sugar ant around here in 20 years. The first dose of Terro (and Amdro) killed all of them but they were quickly replaced by ants that ate various proteins. Florida may be a worst case place for ants (12 month season) but I have been fighting them for 25 years. I have certainly thinned them out and made them very picky eaters but I have never really got rid of them. It is amazing how quickly they figure out how to get around a perimeter scheme. I thought I had them whipped with a regulated spray (applied by a pro). Then they were back. I found one twig from a tree leaning against the house and it was like an ant interstate highway. Ants are tough. You know that after a hurricane and you see 100,000 fire ants forming a big raft and floating on the flood water.

Reply to
gfretwell

I have never had them eating bread, that is the OP. I did teach them not to eat Krispy Creams by mixing boric acid with some doughnut material. You are right, you do need to make a paste out of the boric acid. If it was bread I would crumble up some bread, water and boric acid, then let it dry. I usually put my bait in a bottle cap. The last round was pork fat. I still have a couple caps sitting around but they are not eating pork fat anymore. Three weeks ago the dog food bowl was crawling with them because I put a little pork loin scrap in his Purina. It took 2 days to stop that crap. I am not really seeing any ants now but I know they will be back.

Reply to
gfretwell

Boric acid and sugar

Reply to
gfretwell

You might be drowning beneficial critters, like earthworms. Not that it matters :o) U of Florida has a test for mole crickets (ugly!) by pouring a couple of gallons of soapy solution on a small area of sod. The mole crickets are supposed to surface because they are drowning and struggling for air. Well, lots of other things surface, too. The things you discover doing lawn care for a condo! :o)

A few drops of Terro take care of my ants for the year and don't kill anything else....there are lots of critters that are pests only when they come indoors. I don't like killing more than I must. Ants help pollinate stuff.

Reply to
norminn

Small bottle (brand name) of sugar/boric acid solution available at lots of hardware stores. Same formulation available under other names. Works great, inexpensive,very little needed and doesn't kill off good critters.

If you have "grease ants", which apparently aren't attracted by the sugar, you can put some onto fatty food (corn muffins, cake, etc.) and the ants will take it up.

Reply to
norminn

I like your idea, but where does one find boric acid? The Orange Colored Store has no idea it exists. the Real Hardware Stores close at

  1. Is this something that can be mail-ordered?

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

you asked the wrong idiot. they have it. it's called roach powder. you have to read the label.

Reply to
charlie

Drugstores like Walgreens.

Reply to
Malcolm Hoar

Nate Nagel wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news7.newsguy.com:

Keep the bread in the fridge.

Reply to
Marina

I've found that to make it go moldy in a matter of days, hence the breadbox.

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

Hmm, don't have one real convenient to me, will have to try CVS though. (there IS one near the Orange Colored Store, but you'd have to pay me a lot of money to go back there today. It's across the street from a post office, and I forgot that today was tax day... Charlie Foxtrot doesn't even begin to describe the madness that was Lee Highway.)

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

Any drug store - it is used medicinally.

Reply to
norminn

try the detergent aisle at the grocery.

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Reply to
Steve Barker

Clean your surface countertops with vinegar. Ants hate to walk on chalk so you can draw a circle around the breadbox with a piece of chalk. But, get some Tero so they take the poison bait back to the nest.

Reply to
Phisherman

Terro is definitely the way to go. I bought those worthless squares years ago, and while they do NOTHING to kill the ants, they are a great Terro delivery system. Just a tiny drop of Terro on each opening and on the top and your ants will be gone in 24 hours. Different types of ants (tiny red ones, little black ones, big black ones, etc.) show up at different times of the year and in different places in the house (kitchen, bathroom, porch) but one little square with Terro on it does the trick. The kitchen square will be set up by May 1st, in time for the small black ones, who are the first to arrive.

Reply to
h

Your ugly face repels all living creatures. Just look at the ants. They'll run like hell.

Reply to
StepfanKing

Follow up:

I started off by buying some fresh "ant baits" from the Orange Colored Store, in the absence of any boric acid. Set breadbox on three upended rocks glasses to make it a little harder for ants to get in. Ant population noticeably decreased (and they stayed out of the breadbox) but every time I looked there were still 2-3 on the counter at any given time, looking around for something to eat. Had to hit 3-4 drug stores before I found one selling boric acid but finally got some. Mixed up some cracker crumbs, brown sugar, and boric acid into a bottle cap and set it on the counter. 2 days later ants were 100% gone and I haven't seen them back since. thanks guys, this is why I post.

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

If the ants dropped a few crumbs of boric acid, it might help keep roaches out. Or perhaps they shared :o) Our $500 roach treatment was peanut butter and probably boric acid.

Reply to
norminn

Cats kill roaches (they can see them in the dark).

But getting a cat to deal with the roaches sometimes substitutes a roach problem for a flea problem.

But cats can do things other than catch roaches. For instance, they can, er... sleep. But they do that VERY well. You'll be proud.

Of course there was Towser, who, in her career as mouser-in-chief of the Glenturret distillery (makers of "Famous Grouse" - yum), caught 28,899 mice during her 23-year employment.

Reply to
HeyBub

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