Ants!

[Brandi]

Just thought I would add that I am having an ant problem at my house! They were in my bath tub last night. 3 stories up! But I can just flush them down the drain.:p

[Melalvai]

I have found that Terro works really really well for most ants, particularly little black ones (sweet ants). It's really cool to see in just minutes a thick black border of ants form up around the little drops of Terro. It only takes a couple days to eradicate a mild case of ants. It will succeed with severe cases too, although it takes a little longer.

[Aggie_Ama]

DH used to work at Lowe's and swore by Terro. He was one of the employees you ran into that knew their stuff. My parents used it on those little sugar ants with great results. ;)

[Mr. Bloom]

I ditto that. It's fantastically effective! But sometimes, you have to drip a little out of it onto their tracks to get them to find it.

In addition, find the entry point, seal it with caulk.

And, they'll follow the same trail unless you clean it with vinegar to confuse them. So put the trap near the source and then clean the surrounding area with vinegar to confuse them.

[OakLeaf]

Boric acid across their path. Find where they're coming in, and treat the entry point.

[DrBadger]

ahhh... all such good ideas, except I can pretty much guarantee that the lovely ants Brandi is dealing with are argentine ants....the bane of my existence when living in CA....you just can't kill them!

Terro doesn't work since they have multiple queens and since they are essentially only one big colony from Mexico to Canada they can go to any nest. Ahhhh... the joys of living in CA.

Good luck Brandi! If you do know where they are coming in cinnamon works well... they won't walk across it. One year we gave them a little area of the kitchen counter, surrounded it by cinnamon and peacefully co-existed.

[Di bear]

What do you do for wood ants? I have wood ants. I hate them.

[Mr. Bloom]

What do you do for wood ants? I have wood ants. I hate them.

Are they like termites? If so, that needs a pro!
We had termites once...not a pretty sight!

[Trekhawk]

Sorry to hear about your Ant problem Brandi.

I have never had too many problems with Ants so can not offer any good advice.

LOL it sounds like TE is being invaded by the insect kingdom.

Millipedes, Cockroaches, Ants what will it be next?

I shudder to think.:eek:

[Andrea]

Please let me know if you find anything pet/environmentally friendly that works! My little house is old and doesn't have a foundation (think normal house sitting on blocks like a house trailer), and I get random ants crawling around in my bathroom because it's close to the ground and has a block right under it. I can use regular big spray to keep them out, but I hate the smell & worry about my dog sniffing around in it.

[OakLeaf]

I've been very successful with boric acid. It isn't non-toxic, but it's much less toxic to mammals than some of the other insecticides, and you can keep it in corners and crevices where pets can't get to it. The "nice" thing about ants is that they follow their little trails, so you just have to cross their path with a line of boric acid, and they don't know enough to go around it. Follow their trail to their point of entry from outside, and treat that, too.

[Andrea]

I have a Jack Russell Terrier- he is magnetized to crevices! I honestly can't find where they're coming in because they aren't in a line, and there are never more than a couple wandering around on the counter top. I may end up crawling under the house and spreading boric acid on the ground under my bathroom :eek:

[Brandi]

One year before we got our new fridge the ants had found a way into the freezer! The would crawl in there and all die. It was the strangest thing we had ever seen. You would open the freezer and it looked like someone had dumped a ton of coffee grounds all over everything! You almost couldn't see the food anymore. We had to use a vaccum to get them all out. this happen at least 4 times. I started putting those little walk into and take back to the nest traps. i don't know if they work but I feel better knowing the cats won't get into it. I tape them around where the cats eat too cause they get into their kibble. so I tape them against the counter wall and under the cabnit as well.

[Di bear]

Ants leave a trail of formic acid behind. So, if you find an ant trail going where you don't want it to (ie, the freezer, ick), just take some bleach water and clean it away. :)

[Melalvai]

Please let me know if you find anything pet/environmentally friendly that works! My little house is old and doesn't have a foundation (think normal house sitting on blocks like a house trailer), and I get random ants crawling around in my bathroom because it's close to the ground and has a block right under it. I can use regular big spray to keep them out, but I hate the smell & worry about my dog sniffing around in it.
Isn't Terro just sugar water with boric acid? That's not harmless but it's not terrible. Plus you could easily position things so the dog can't get to it (but the ants can).

[Mr. Bloom]

Isn't Terro just sugar water with boric acid? That's not harmless but it's not terrible. Plus you could easily position things so the dog can't get to it (but the ants can).

I would view Terro as "spot killing" without excess. Unlike a spray (that has overspray), the ant comes to Terro and then brings back a minor residue that kills others in the nest. I think that is an environmentally sensitive method and the method of distribution through the traps mitigates the risk to pets somewhat.

Once, at my parents house, I had to keep a fresh trap in one place for about 4 months before the ants stopped coming....For all I know, I may have killed half the ants in southern indiana.

[Brandi]

Ok it is WAR now. They were all over my honey bottle yesterday! I had to put the honey in the fridge (which is not good) so today I am in search of where they are coming from! But I now know they like sugar. I wish the cats would just go after them that would make things easier!

[snapdragen]

We had an ant problem year ago when we first moved into our house. It turned out it was built on an anthill. :eek:

[OakLeaf]

LOL Snap! Reminds me of "Poltergeist!" Run away!