Idiot ants who don't seem to actually want anything other than to annoy us.

I have had a swarm of ants every day for the past week or so. I've bought home defense stuff to spray around the perimeter, bought ant bait stuff for the inside of the house, cut back shrubs and bushes around the house, and attacked every mound I could find directly with poison.

And I hate poison.

I caulked shut any gaps, but they keep finding a way into this vent in my dining room. Now my kids are messy, but I cleaned a lot. They don't seem to care. I even removed the vent and taped the hole shut, and they still come through somehow. They are tiny little ants, who's sole purpose, it seems, is to occupy the one side of my dining room floor.

Occasionally, they find a crumb or something, but really, they just seem to enjoy being killed by wet paper towels over and over again by the hundred.

Any ideas?

Use Terro bait. It comes in inside and outside containers. It's not really "poison", it's boric acid.

If they are fire ants, use Amdro outside.

Really tiny and black are probably sugar ants. They are looking for food and water.

I don't know how to get rid of them, sorry.

As spitfirebill pointed out, use something with boric acid.

Hey I just put Terro out for those tiny black ants! They was about a dozen of them at any given time in a square foot or two on the countertop, then they found the drop of Terro. This morning, didn't see one. Time will tell.

I saw a couple normal black ants elsewhere so I need to do the perimeter stuff too.

trucke wrote: As spitfirebill pointed out, use something with boric acid.

My in-laws are like Johnny Appleseed with boric acid. It apparently works as I rarely see bugs in their houses. Grandpa-in-law mixed up a batch of boric acid and sugar water for me to use on an infestation of little sugar ants (piss ants I call them). The ants devoured the sugar water mix and then disappeared forever. Damnedest thing ever.

You can kill them, but their scent trails remain. I've had some luck w/ bleach to clear the routes.

Weird, we have a similar issue currently with ants that just seem to mill around the inside of the house with no real goal. Food on the counter? They don't even go near it. Terro and such? No interest. They just seem to want to run around on the kitchen floor and counter and the computer desk. These are good-sized fellows too.

Those small black ants are likely more interested in grease then sugar. Those ants are the ones always trying to get into the house, and yes you should kill the scouts and wipe around where you did it to get rid of the pheromone trail they lay down.

Rumnhammer wrote: Those small black ants are likely more interested in grease then sugar. Those ants are the ones always trying to get into the house, and yes you should kill the scouts and wipe around where you did it to get rid of the pheromone trail they lay down.

I have de-ant'ed four or five times, and sprayed various stuff down to kill the trail, from floor cleaner, to vinegar, to super stuff and then water, all did nothing.

Apparently they are coming into the window now.

They have it in their little hive brain that they need to burst through the wall into my house at this one particular location, so they can wander about and hang out, no matter what the cost to blood or treasure.

I have used a raw lemon down the trail, that seemed to work well. Also I third the Terro liquid baits, those little ants seem to love it.

Those little bastards were all over the windshield of my van this weekend. Pretty tenacious guys too......some of them held on up to 50mph or so. They must have little suction cups for feet. I felt a little bad....but not really.

slowride wrote: I have used a raw lemon down the trail, that seemed to work well. Also I third the Terro liquid baits, those little ants seem to love it.

First time I used it, it failed miserably. I think it was operator error. The last two times it worked like a charm.

We get sugar ants once a year or so. The Terro type baits work. Sometimes it requires chasing them around a bit to get them all. The hardest thing is to just sit and watch them as they and walk away and resist killing them. Just have to let them bring stuff back to the rest of the colony.

I recently had a similar problem. They came in through outlets, vents, cracks, whatever the little bastards could fit through. Tried bait, electronic devices, and spraying the outside perimeter. They didn't even flinch. Every morning I came out to my sugar dispenser filled with the little scavengers.

Finally said berkeley it and nuked (bug bomb) the little E36 M3s. So far so good.

In reply to spitfirebill:

I tried just regular ant baits first, and that didn't seem to do much. When I put out the Terro baits they swarmed it... I was kind of shocked that I had that many ants because I wasn't seeing that many at one time. It was indeed very hard to resist not killing them when they came out like that.

You can make your own ant-away out of borax and sugar water. Google a recipe, or I'll give you ours. I use a couple "to go" condiment cups with small holes punched around just below the rim. Soak a cotton ball in the stuff, set it in the cup, put the cap on, and then put it on the floor upside down near the places you see them most.

It's not really toxic poison, but after 24 hours, the ants will be elsewhere. refresh the cotton balls once a week or so.

Terro works great and you can practically drink the stuff (it's just sugar and borax). If they won't touch the Terro you probably have "grease ants" as mentioned, I made some poison for them once from laundry borax and bacon grease, seemed to work OK despite the borax not being soluble in grease.

The Terro bait seems to have worked! Stay tuned and thanks!

Seems way too fast for the bait to have worked yet. Leave the bait out and wait for the second wave.

I had the annoyance of the little sugar ants for a long time. I finally found the perfect spot to leave the bait and it was swarmed for about 3 weeks, they were hauling off a tablespoon a day of the goo. They disappeared for a while and then came back for another week, then another pause and the same cycle. It took months and by the end the ants were really tiny. The house has been ant free for two years now but I have another bottle of the Terro for if/when they return.

I wish I had known about Terro. I had a huge problem with ants a few years ago. They were actually IN the house. I had them all over the kitchen, but couldn't find the nest. I did some work in the spare bedroom and removed a rotted windowsill and the wall came alive with ants. The little buggers were traveling half the distance of the place to get to the kitchen

Simple Green cleaner worked for me...

Day #2 of -0- ants.

tuna55 wrote: Day #2 of -0- ants.

The last time I used Terro it was amazing. The ants kept coming into our kitchen and the upstairs bedroom onto my wife's night stand. I put the bait stations out and for a couple of days they swarmed the station, then slowly disappeared to nothing. I also put some of the outside stations out, but have no idea if they worked. We are just now getting some ants back in the house, but the one YO grandson won't leave the stations alone.

driver109x wrote: Simple Green cleaner worked for me...

Came here to say the same thing!