Ant Control?

[MLimpert]

It has gotten cold over the last week or so in the fine state of Indiana. Ever since the weather changed, I have been enjoying the presence of lots of tiny black ants all over my house, particularly in the kitchen and laundry area. I cleaned them up the best I could with the vacuum and mop, but they keep coming back. Since I am a bachelor, you can be assured that there is no food in my house that is not in the freezer.



Does anyone have any suggestions to get rid of these little pests? I bought some of the ant motels about 2 days ago but at this point the ants are laughing at my futile attempts.

 

[phloop]

Matt, I am sure your first thoughts are too torch the place because them little buggers just keep coming. I have had the same problem now for the third year straight. The last two years I tried most of the ant killers but just ended up having to spray more as the dang ants found their way back inside.



This year I did a little research on the net and after reading some of the info I thought I would try baiting the ants instead of killing them on sight. After about a week and a half the bait seems to be working as I now only see maybe 1 ant a day. But those first few days seemed like I would be over ran by the dang things.



I used an ant bait by the name of Terro, comes in an orange box. Read the directions and follow them, don't give up hope as it does take a bit of time. And the stuff has no chemicals in it for those that are worried about that angle, it has sugar waster and Borax in it. In other words, the ants eat sweat Boraxo soap.

 

[BigPapa]

I have used one of the "ant baiting stations" with good success. I don't remember what brand it was but it was a little black plastic, round deal with a few openings for the ants to get in. Knocked 'em out pretty quick.



Scott

 

[GAmes]

Plain borax works too. Sprinkle it around the foundation (or along the inside walls if you live in an apartment). Don't sprinkle it on a plant you want to keep.

 

[MLimpert]

I picked up some of the good ant stations and the population seems to be declining rapidly. Thanks for the help guys. If anyone needs a few spiders or ants, let me know. I'm sure they'll be back next summer.

 

[phloop]

Plain borax works too. Sprinkle it around the foundation (or along the inside walls if you live in an apartment). Don't sprinkle it on a plant you want to keep.

Thats a good idea before the dang things get in. After fighting the little buggers for the last few years I found that baiting them helps after they get in which is when you first notice them. Use the Terro for the baiting and after all those pesky ants seem to have gone, sprinkle the foundation and the crawl space and the attic and the yard and the neighbor... ... ..... well just sprinkle the Borax around and hopefully that will keep them dang things out for a while.

 

[Crash&Burn]

Talking insect pests... ... ...

I can't ever remember the number and size of Wolf spiders that we have had this year.

 

[EricBu12]

Ortho ant Powder works very well. They take it home and kill the colony

 

[mberry]

... just sprinkle the Borax around and hopefully that will keep them dang things out for a while.

What? The neighbors? If it were only that easy. :-laf

I used Amdro(sp?) Ant Blocker I purchased at Home Depot or Lowes. We had black ants in the house and those bigger red one's outside. I took 24 hours and they were all gone. Haven't seen another ant in the house or the yards since. We had about 10 individual nests in the back yard alone and I got worried about the kids playing back there with all of the ants running around.

 

[donnier]

Iv had good luck with ant control spikes.

I place them every so often around the edge of the house and haventhad any probs so far with any in the house.

I see them outside and spray ant spray around the edge of the grass and inside the perimeter of the garage.

 

[MLimpert]

These little guys I have love the Terro liquid. They had a real good time with it for about 36 hours, then the party suddenly stopped.