Gah. Being overrun with ants

Two and a half weeks ago my family and I get back from vacation to find little black ants in our pantry. They had worked their way into any open container or package (of which there weren't many, thankfully) and appeared to be most attracted to sweets.

Two weeks of spray insecticide and homemade bait traps and I though the tide had swung our way... but not so. Over the last few days they've been swarming in force all over the kitchen - on the floor and counters, on cabinets and even in the sink. My wife is freaking out and I'm angry. What do I do to get rid of these little frackers?

Bug Bombs.

i've had good luck with diluted bleach to dissuade ants, kills their scent track. they'll keep exploring to the point where it stops though so you should try some ant traps there. best is to try and find their entrance point to the house.

I get them seasonally. I also had an infestation on my front porch for some reason. I use this and it works ver quickly.

mattmacklind wrote: I get them seasonally. I also had an infestation on my front porch for some reason. I use this and it works ver quickly.

Yes. something like 12 hours and the colony is dead

I live in the woods. Ants work their way in. Bengal spray is kick azz.

And I use the bait things scattered about the kitchen. I'll try those Terro brand ones if I can find them.

Had this happen at the last house.

Give the kitchen a good deep clean, seal up any obvious entry points, place ant traps.

We cleared ours up this way in about 4-5 days.

some of this: , then some of this:

mattmacklind wrote: I get them seasonally. I also had an infestation on my front porch for some reason. I use this and it works ver quickly.

Agreed - you have to knock them on their ass outside... if you don't treat the colony they'll just keep sending more...

Fire ants here. My 2 year old got 170 stings on his right foot and 120 on his right. He screamed for two hours. We killed the ant hills with gas/WD-40 and a match. Two days later, they all re-appeared, two feet over. I used ant poison this time, and the dogs like the taste of it, which is bound to end badly. Kerosene works better because it doesn't evaporate as fast and soaks in. After seeing them go to town on my little boy and his poor feet I want 'em all dead and dead now.

just remember, don't squish them, the scent they gives off only attracts more

Thanks for the lead on the Terro baits. The exterior wall of our kitchen has a glass sliding door - the little buggers walk under/around it as if it's not there, so keeping them out is a real challenge. On top of that, I've looked all over outside though can't find the nest - I'm getting paranoid that they've nested in my walls.

One other thing to try: Boric acid (roach kill) apparently works on ants as well. I found this while searching for cockroach control (see my thread from about a week back).

Take 1 Tablespoon of Boric Acid, 1 tsp of Sugar, 4 oz water, Cotton Balls. Mix Boric Acid and Sugar in a bowl. This can be poured over a cotton wad in a small dish or bottle cap. Keep this from drying out for continued effectiveness. Place Cotton balls in path of Ants.

Doesn't matter where the colony is, the idea is that they will take little bits of the sugar-cotton as food, and take it back to the colony. They all eat it along with the boric acid that is in it, and die.

Good news is that to humans, boric about as toxic as table salt, or so says the magical interwebs. Of course, that didn't stop me from using all the other stuff, but I'd definitely try the boric acid. I found it for 1 dollar at the Dollar General, so its real cheap too.

Ah, the classic sugar ant. Attracted to either grease or sugars. Which is why almost all ant baits use peanut butter as their base. Though I've almost never seen peanut butter work well. Depending on the whims of the ants, they will be seeking either sugar or grease, but almost never both. Look at what they are on to see what they are seeking at the moment.

You can mix up your own brew with some borax (same stuff you wash with) and a bit of honey or cooking grease. It doesn't take much, one teaspoon kills a lot of ants.

When you look at the costs of the materials, ant baits are the most overpriced items I know of. Far beyond the absurdly high prices of printer inks even.

As a kind of stopgap measure, you can sit your jars of honey etc., in a shallow bowl of water. Ants don't much care for swimming.

Spray around windows and doors, cracks, etc. regularly with a residual spray like the Home Defense product. On a sunny afternoon, walk around the house and spray any trails you see around the foundation. I've got literally millions of ant colonies in my yard (been dry this year) and I have yet to have a problem indoors. They haven't gotten any further than my screen porch... yet!

Good luck killing them in your lawn. Mine's wall-to-wall anthills. Best I can hope for is to keep 'em outside!

For fire ants give up on the gasoline/kerosene/WD-40 and whatever. Use a proper fire ant killer, preferably something like Amdro. It takes a while. And if your meighbors have them (and probably do) and doesn't do anything about them, you're screwed.

The best for sugar ants (we call'em piss ants) is a bait. This is the second time in a few days I've heard of Terro. I'm going to have to try some. I've sprayed virtually everthing around the perimeter of my house for years and still get them. I even have some kind of ant that seems to like to nest in the walls. It's not carpenter ants, as they are much smaller. Bigger than piss ants though.

I've heard ants won't cross a thick line of chalk. Try that and see if it works.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090502220658AAb3VSv

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutillidae

Be thankful you don't have these guys

Best way to get rid of fireants is to Move North. After that, nuke them. Too bad they banned Chlorodane. That was some good E36 M3. See what you can get at your local Co-Op/farmer's supply and nail the mounds with that. Gasoline, etc., is not going to do it.

About 25 years ago when I lived in Texas, I saw on TV this guy took his lawn mower and attached a flexible exhaust pipe/hose to the exhaust, then on the other end basically stuck the hose in the middle of a cake pan. He'd start up the mower and put the pan over the fireant mound and gas them with the CO. When demonstrating it for the TV reporter, he had to go to his neighbor's yard because he had no fireants.

tuna55 wrote: Fire ants here. My 2 year old got 170 stings on his right foot and 120 on his right. He screamed for two hours. We killed the ant hills with gas/WD-40 and a match. Two days later, they all re-appeared, two feet over. I used ant poison this time, and the dogs like the taste of it, which is bound to end badly. Kerosene works better because it doesn't evaporate as fast and soaks in. After seeing them go to town on my little boy and his poor feet I want 'em all dead and dead now.

Ouch ouch ouch. That sucks. I have ants too- fire, red, black, you name it. I spread killer in the spring and it did nothing. I've tried Androz and other mound-killer spreads and they seem to work OK. Killing them with fire is most satisfying, but like others have said, I'm not sure how long term.

I did buy this stuf online, it was about $40/qt, that did a good job last year, it was some sort of liquid you mixed and sprayed. I'll try to find out what it was and let you know. But then again, might not be good with animals.

Dr. Hess wrote: About 25 years ago when I lived in Texas, I saw on TV this guy took his lawn mower and attached a flexible exhaust pipe/hose to the exhaust, then on the other end basically stuck the hose in the middle of a cake pan. He'd start up the mower and put the pan over the fireant mound and gas them with the CO. When demonstrating it for the TV reporter, he had to go to his neighbor's yard because he had no fireants.

Hmm good idea, you don't have to worry about pets eating any poison and it shouldn't have any negative long-term effects on the lawn.

Drewsifer wrote: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutillidae Be thankful you don't have these guys

Here in middle Georgia, we do have them. Got a few in my back yard. You have to literally cut them in half to kill them, and even then both halves keep walking. Thankfully they don't magically reassemble like zombies or shape-shifters.

The thing about ants is they aren't like other infestations.. if you have mice, there are dozens. If you have roaches, there are hundreds.. but if you have ants, you have tens of thousands.

As stated earlier, you have to find the colony. If you kill the queen, the colony will die off quickly. If you follw the ant trail back to it's source, you will find the source, and taking out the queen/colony will eradicate them.

We have them around SC too. Best thing about them is they are solitary. If they were in the swarms you see in, say, fire ant hills there would be a REAL problem.

I like the carbon monoxide fire ant treatment. Those bastards HURT.

I used to get Chinese ant chalk in San Francisco. They say it's dangerous, or illegal, or something. Not sure if you can get everywhere, but it sure works well. Like crazy well. Like "wow, that's nuts!" well.