How to Get Rid of Ants (Without Calling an Exterminator)
Thursday, 10th April 2008 (by J.D.)This article is about Frugality, House and Home
I hate ants.
At our old house, Kris and I were constantly at war with the little devils. Every time we suffered another invasion, every time they managed to find the pantry, every time they discovered the cat food, every time they ruined my chocolate chip cookies, I would berate them with colorful euphemisms.
Eventually it got so bad that we had to bring in an exterminator. It seemed crazy to hire an exterminator to deal with little sugar ants, but nothing else we tried would work. So we plopped down $100 every three months to keep the ants under control. (It may not have been $100 for each visit — Kris thinks it could have been $300.) It didn’t really help. After the exterminator visited, the ant problem would subside for a couple weeks, but then we’d be right back at war with them again.
Sad but true: the ants were one of the reasons I wanted to move out of that house.
I hate ants.
We’ve been lucky at our new house. In the almost four years that we’ve lived here, we haven’t had an ant problem.
Then on Tuesday night Kris asked, “Why is there an ant highway at the bottom of the stairs?” In our secret couple-language, an “ant highway” is the long teeming swarm of ants running from their point of origin to whatever it is they’ve decided they’re hungry for. Kris followed the ants to their destination; I traced them to their source. They were traveling through four rooms to find their treasure: a sticky mess I had made on the kitchen floor. There were hundreds (thousands?) of ants feasting on hunk of goo.
I berated the little bastards with colorful euphemisms.
But I didn’t call the exterminator. Kris and I are older and wiser now. We’ve learned that we don’t have to pay $100 to get rid of the ants. Instead, we use about one dollar’s worth of a single product: Terro. I hate ants, but I love Terro.
Terro is essentially borax mixed with sugar water. You can buy a small bottle for about five bucks at your local hardware store or supermarket. 
When your home is invaded by ants, you take a business card and sprinkle it with drops of Terro. You place the business card near whatever it is the ants are devouring, and then you wait. It may take a day. It may take two. And during that time, the ants will swarm all over the area (keep adding more Terro!), but gradually they’ll carry this sticky sweet poison back to their nest, and the entire colony will perish like some freakish doomsday cult. It’s delightful.
Is it possible to spend even less to get rid of ants? The Frugal Life has a large list of tips for getting rid of ants. Kris and I have tried most of these. They didn’t work for us. Some of them (like cinnamon or cayenne pepper or soap) deterred the ants for a while, or thwarted their immediate goal, but they didn’t actually address the root problem, which is the fact that we had a nest (or two) of ants outside our house. Terro does this. And for whatever reason, we’ve never had luck spraying the little critters with Raid (or other chemicals). (Though doing so is very cathartic.)
Yes, this post reads like a product endorsement. I don’t care. Nobody paid me to write this. I’m just grateful for a product that can save me so much money. And kill the damn bastards that invade my home.
Flickr photo by sbfisher.
Addendum: I have the best readers in the world. Your comments are great. And, via Michael, here’s a short story called “Leinegen Versus the Ants”. Those of us who have been there can sympathize!
I HATE ANTS!!
We had this exact same problem! I was away on business and talking to my wife on the phone. She heard our 19month old daughter in the den yelling uck! uck! uck!
My wife ran in and found ants everywhere! Of course there was nothing I could do at the time so she had her father come over and spray RAID everywhere. along the inside basement foundation. This was a month ago, and so far no more ants! If they comeback, I’m “looking forward” to trying out the Terro!
I am sending this to my parents, who wage a huge New Mexico war against ants each year. Although, if it works I’m not sure what my dad will find to do with his time.
Thank you!
Um, JD? When I get ants, I usually find that it’s something I forgot to clean up, so I just make sure to scrub the kitchen down. Cleanliness is next to antlessness, as they say.
You want to know what freaks me out, however? I live in a really nice garden level apartment, very dry, large and plentiful window, hardwood floors. It’s beautiful. Except every other month, I find a BIG EARTHWORM writhing on my carpet. I have no idea where they come from, but man, they give me the screaming phantoids.
Getting rid of the food/sticky-stuff-on-the-floor that the ants are eating is a surprisingly effective tactic–and it’s free…
I read somewhere that if you put water in an old tin - like a tuna can - and put that under the legs of a table, the ants can’t get to the table. Of course, the ants can take over the rest of the house…
p.s. That photo is going to give me nightmares!
Rather than spend money on boric acid, try $.02 worth of corn meal! Sprinkle corn meal wherever you see ants. They take it back into the hills, everyone eats it, it swells up and kills them. No more ants. No harm to pets or children. No toxins to clean up. Just a Momma’s tip.
Try talcum powder (or even talcum deodorant for hard to get places). It keeps the ants out and is more environmentally friendly and cheaper.
My product that I swear by, not just for ants, but for any hard-shelled pest, is diatomaceous earth. Sprinkle that liberally around, sit back, and wait. Pests crawl over it, it makes cuts in their carapace, and they die of dehydration — the pest equivalent of bleeding out. Best of all, it’s not poisonous, so perfectly safe for areas where food, pets, and children need to co-exist with it.
Thanks. I’ve had to use something similar but more chemical in nature. Same basic principle. Raid is a temporary and worthless solution because it doesn’t destroy the nest. (We get them in the walls here in my apartment building.)
I put the solution near their entrance and then use my special technique to get rid of the invaders: The vacuum.
If your vacuum is the least bit powerful, the suction will kill the ants. Killed and cleaned in one swoop, no chemicals.
I’ve had luck with lavender as a spider repellent (damn things like to show up on the wall next to my bed and scare the bejesus out of me) and I’ve read that bay leaves are also effective if left on windowsills.
Lavender is also a good alternative to cedar protecting wool items from the dreaded moths. I knew there was a reason it was one of my favorite scents.
I’m not a violent person, but there is nothing that gives me more glee than watching an ant die. Or carry poison back to their home. We’ve battled them, too, and I’m totally on board with the Terro inside, and we use the diatomaceous earth on the outside (Make sure it stays dry!).
I hate ants. We had them so badly at this house, I would wake up during the night and fling off my covers and turn on all the lights, because I was dreaming that they were crawling all over me.
I hate ants.
I’m with Cairsten. Diatomaceous earth is basically ground up fossils, but so fine that it won’t harm your pets or kids. Kind of like eating dirt. I’ve sprinkled it around the baseboards of the house and nary a pest in site (works well for roaches!).
Cats are also good pest catchers…
I agree with Momma. We used grits for ants–just sprinkle it on top of the ant hill. Very effective and cheap!
what a great post! thanks for the info!!!
Thanks for the great tip! We actually get hobo spiders where we are. We have an exterminator that uses organic chemicals come and treat the inside and outside of our home to keep the arachnids out. I think it’s been keeping the ants out, too.
Terro works wonders for me. Just have to watch the beagle around it.
And keeping a clean kitchen and having well-sealed doors and windows is key to preventing the problem in the first place, but not everyone has those luxuries…
If you can find their nest, boiling water works wonders. Just boil up a pot of water and dump it on the nest. They’ll cook up in a matter of seconds and be gone. Not to mention it’s safe for the kids, the dog, the cat, the hamster. Just keep them away for a bit until it cools off.
Haha! I take it you don’t like ants JD.
Starving Artist, how in the world does an earthworm get in your house?
The worse problem that I had was a small snake in the middle of my dining room floor. That was scary.
Terro, huh? Sounds much cheaper than the Sevendust I’ve been using. Sevendust definitely does the trick, but at $5 a bag, Terro’s got it beat.
Thanks for the tip!
Momma - good suggestion. Seeing as the cornbread I make is not edible, I may as well give the cornmeal to the ants.
The Terro liquid worked for us, except for one persistent, recurring nest where we had to use the Terro ant dust. I wasn’t too happy about it, since it’s poisonous, but the liquid just didn’t do it. The ant dust solved the problem within a few hours.
I live in Texas and my house came with every pest known to man. Roaches, termites, various kinds of ants, spiders: big and hairy or small, slugs, gecos, lizards and my favorite, the snake.
The termites were treated before I moved in, no activity, they’re gone. Then one kind of ant moves into their old homes. Sugar ants appear in the kitchen. Slugs (in a drawer? WTF?) won’t go away. The pink, small gecos are fine. They give my cats entertainment. The larger lizards scare the cats. The dead baby copperhead in my kitchen….um…. not a fan of that one by any means. The adult live ones in the yard? Yea….. I don’t go in my yard at night.
But the roaches? Blech. These things can fly and I can spot them across the room without my glasses (I’m 20/200). I’ve got the chemical treatment. Keeps them at bay and they show up dead. The treatment doesn’t kill any of the other things that make my house ‘alive’.
I will try the stuff described though, on the other various things in my house.
And this post was quite funny.
If Terro is borax + sugar, can you just make your own cheaper?
my grandmother swears by terro. we haven’t had ant problems too much- but i’m a super neat freak and all food items are stored in airtight containers.
(we had various food contamination problems when i was a kid…)
My favorite and affordable product is called “Grants Kills Ants” You stick it in the ground or behind an appliance along the “Ant Highway” and they start eating the jelly contained inside the metal casing. That jelly has poison in it and they carry it back to the hive and eat it, and since ants eat their dead, it spreads quickly.
The entry hole to the jelly is too small for pets or children. but you should be careful regardless.
Made me laugh…can almost feel your frustration JD
Terro rules! I had the same problem about 10 years and nothing worked. I’ve been using it since then.
Okay, wise guys. Obviously my messiness is the source of the ants, at least in this case. (When we lived at the old house, they had a super-human (or super-antian) ability to get into anything food related.) And cleaning the mess up does make it so they’re not clustered in that spot. But they’re still always scouting for more stuff in their nefarious ant-like ways. Ugh, I hate them.
@Momma
Does the cornmeal really work? I hadn’t heard that one before. It sounds like it’s an urban myth. But if you promise me you’ve tried it, I might take a chance.
fiveberries wrote: I’m not a violent person, but there is nothing that gives me more glee than watching an ant die.
HA! I agree. I’m a pacifist by breeding, but not when it comes to ants. (My brother feels the same way about spiders.)
Gwen’s “slugs in a drawer” and Starving Artist’s “earthworm on a carpet” had me busting a gut.
Steve wrote: If Terro is borax + sugar, can you just make your own cheaper? Yes, if we had borax. But then that’s too much work. For some things, I’m willing to pay the money. $5 for a bottle of Terro that lasts us a couple years is perfectly fine by me. Call me unfrugal if you must, but it works, and I love it.
I hate ants.
Great comments so far!
How ironic…we have a really bad ant problem here too. I went outside and poisoned all the nests I could find, but these things will not subside. I’ve tried all my usual tactics and nothing. So today my Mom says that she got some new stuff for me to try. And guess what it is? Terro. I had never heard of it until today and now you write this little post on it. Last I had checked, one ant was eating it, but I’m hoping they give in to peer pressure…all the cool ants are eating it.
I feel like I should have a “Get Rich Slowly product page” where I hawk those things I feel most strongly about. Like Terro. And, well, Terro. (Have I really raved about another item before? The Kill-a-Watt electricity usage meter? Programmable thermostats? Surely there’ve been a couple of other things?)
Thanks for the tip. We get an occasional visit from tiny ants every now and then, usually for the same reason (someone, usually me, spilled something). I’ll have to give this a shot next time.
Any idea if this is pet safe? Some stuff is okay after it dries. Perhaps not with the Borax.
I like this bit from Amazon: “Attracts and kills all common household ants including argentine ants, ghost ants, cornfield ants, pavement ants, acrobat ants, white footed ants, little black ants, odorous house ants, crazy ants, big headed ants and other sweet eating ants.”
I think I’d keep the acrobat ants. No thanks on the crazy ants or ghost ants.
-John
Oh, I hear ya! Last year, we just about went NUTS trying to get rid of the ants that invaded every single freaking night without fail. Like you, we eventually found something that worked, but we found another cheap solution as well: We used that blue painters’ tape to seal off every point of entry we could find. We just didn’t want any kind of chemicals *in* the house because we had a young child who was still crawling then. Using the tape inside and the pesticides outside worked like a charm.
Does anyone have thoughts about cheap ways to kill cockroaches? Killing them slowly and painfully would be most satisfying, but really anything that will keep them from coming back is good.
@JD,
Would you include Bacon Salt on the product page? My life has been changed for the better from buying Bacon Salt on your recommendation.
Thank you! Thank you! I am totally stopping at Lowe’s on my way home.
now if someone can just tell me how to get rid of the squirrels in my attic
J.D., don’t forget Bacon Salt.
I recommend everyone who dislikes ants read the short story, “Leiningen versus the Ants.”
I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who did like ants. I am so thankful for the advice, I have a roommate who has a bad habit of leaving plates of food on our kitchen counter. He might as well be inviting the buggers in through the front door!
Ha! Terro is great! A couple summers ago I told my sister about our ant problem, and she gave me those pre-filled plastic Terro traps. It wasn’t sugar ants we had; it was these giant ants that just roamed the house. I’m used to sugar ants being attracted to stuff I leave out, but that didn’t appear to be the motivation behind these giant black ants wandering around and freaking me out. Their nest was somewhere in the walls of our house. I found a higher-traffic area, set out one of the traps, and pretty soon, the entire plastic trap was filled with these ants trampling each other into the goo. When the gel ran out, they left for home… and then … I never saw them again. Wheeeee!
By the way, J.D., you can’t forget to put bacon salt on your “GRS product page”.
Since I already use borax for cleaning and laundry, I just mix it up with some peanut butter and put it in an area my cat can’t get to. The ants will swarm on the paste for about a day, but after that, no more ants.
I also spray Poison-Free Ant and Roach spray by Victor (a cedar-based product) in those areas that my cat can get to (like near his food bowl). Not as effective as borax in the long term, but keeps the ants away for a day or two.
Hmm, I hadn’t heard of this product yet! Baby powder has worked tirelessly for me, though I’ve never had such a large crowd of ants.
We buy a big bag of generic powdered sugar and a box of Borax (found in the laundry detergent aisle). You mix equal parts (usually a tsp.) together and put into a lid (from the recycle bin of course). Then put it where the ants are. No liquid, easy peasy. No more ants.
Plus, it is cheap.
When I started reading the post, I thought “I wonder if he’s tried Terro”! I completely agree with the recommendation of Terro. The first day or so you’ll see the huge pile of ants at the Terro, streaming to and from the nest, and think “What have I done?”, but just wait, you’ll be happy.
As to the recommendation to try to make your own, I tried that before I found Terro (I didn’t know until this post that it was borax), and it didn’t work for me. For $5 for a bottle that will last for years, I’ll go with the Terro.
Terro is the bomb! I’ve used it myself and it works. I used to live on an anthill, in an apartment, so no matter how clean I was, it didn’t matter because one of the neighbors would always invite the damn little super-human ants in. My roommate really hated ants.
I just hated the mess. And I abhor RAID and other sprays…
Wow! I have never heard of Terro! I wish I had! Luckily, we haven’t had any ant problems in this house either, but I’m right there with you on the hatred of ants. Ugh.
Hee! I loved this post. My family have been waging wars against ants as long as I can remember. I now live on the 8th floor and apparently the little blighters are too lazy to walk up that high, but I dread the day I’ll have to live near the ground again. My mother has tried just about everything, but I’ll copy down all these tips in case there’s something new.
Josh (#5) wrote: “I read somewhere that if you put water in an old tin - like a tuna can - and put that under the legs of a table, the ants can’t get to the table. ”
Heh, this is second nature at my mothers place now. It works, if you don’t mind your house looking a bit odd. At mum’s the butter sits in a butter dish in a bowl of water. Biscuits cooling from the oven sit on their cooling rack over a tray of water. The dog food is in a bowl in the middle of a bigger bowl of water (the cat has 5 minutes to eat and then all her leftovers go in a jar for later). You don’t need to leave messes for them, once they’ve discovered your home they’ll chase after EVERYTHING.
Great post JD… I too am mostly a pacifist (I even feel kind of bad when my mom kills the snails in her garden, even though I understand why she has to do it), but nothing creeps me out quite like an ant-swarm >:(
My husband and I have been dealing with ants lately, and the Terro works wonders… ironically, in response to those who post about “keeping the area clean”? Our ants have completely ignored ALL of our food mess, and are going straight for water! So now we give them tasty poison to drink instead >:)
I am a big fan of the Terro pre-filled traps myself. I have had little ant-motels by Raid and Contact, and other companies, but most ants here (Phoenix, AZ) are attracted to them. Insert Terro, and I don’t have any more issues.
I on the other hand, would love to hear what people use for scorpions. We see them inside at least once a week and the little buggers hurt. We use a black light + raid outside on our cinderblock walls to kill the ones we find, but we are losing the war.
The ONLY thing that really works is to kill a ton of them all along the path where they are traveling. I just use a piece of paper and put it on top of the trail and smash them and leave their dead bodies there. They will all be gone in several days. I’ve tried everything and this works every time and it’s VERY cheap!!!!! The other ants quickly get the message and stay away.
I have ants in my bathroom!! I have no idea how or why they are there but they are so annoying. Thanks for this tip!!
$33 a month isn’t bad. That’s a little cheaper than I pay for my exterminator. They come once a quarter, and I don’t have to ever see any bugs. I consider it part of the cost of owning a house.
It seems to me that the Terro product is a bit of a rip off when you can buy a box of borax in the laundry section of your grocery store, mix it with icing sugar, and put it out for the ants. We had a very bad ant problem when we used to rent an older house and this took care of it for good.
My wife moved out of our last house for a few different reasons, but one of the main reasons for her was our recurring ant problem. So far, so good in the new house!
hey daniel, with respect to squirrels in your attic: when i was a kid, we got racoons in our attic, and the dnr told us to put a radio up there, turn it on really loud, and leave it there. we did this, took off for a day, and the racoons were gone when we came back. i don’t know if it would work for squirrels?
Started reading Leiningen vs the Ants and it triggered flashbacks of this movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047264/
Haven’t actually tried it myself, but as Momma suggested, I just read about the cornmeal trick the other day myself at http://kitsapsoundings.blogspot.com/2008/04/more-helpful-tips.html
I know I’ll sound like a freak, but that’s a lot of animal lives to take. And they really weren’t hurting you or doing anything harmful. How about instead of killing thousands of animals, we all try not to leave sticky messes in our houses?
Your spouse will probably be happier with you, too!
If your house is made of wood, carpenter ants can be much more than just a creepy nuisance. They eat wood, and you almost never see them inside your house; only outside, on the house or near the foundation. They can do as much damage as termites (though it usually takes longer). So keep an eye out for them or you might find your beams starting to crumble!
I am a clean freak… and I have ants. Sorry everyone, but even clean folks get ants. And once they’ve found you, you can’t live clean enough to keep them out. We’ve repainted rooms, we’ve emptied the entire kitchen for three months and then restocked it with air-tight containers, we’ve recaulked every window, tile, shower, etc. seam we could find, we’ve scrubbed our baseboards, we’ve tried cornmeal, we’ve tried exterminators (still on contract - they come sometimes twice a week)… we haven’t used terro yet but you can bet we will as soon as stores open in the morning.
Like another poster mentioned, ants are not even always after food - they’re after water. We’ve had exterminators coming for over a year and still can’t get rid of the ants (they’re completely stumped on why they’re so impossible here - our home is only a few years old).
The other day, I went to get my baby from her nap and her room was covered by thousands of ants (and I had never seen even one in there before). I was beside myself and in tears calling our exterminator to come immediately. I wondered - what could it be? Their answer - her humidifier. The moisture and the heat from the motor. Are you freaking kidding me? So, to those who think ants just love messy folks - nope, also poor kids with stuffy noses who need humidifiers. Really, after a year of exterminator service, I don’t care how humane my approach is. I don’t care if I have to move out for a month, put a tent on our house, and soak the place in poison. No one can find the nests, they have no idea where they’re coming from. I will do whatever it takes.
I live in Hawaii–everyone, no matter how clean, how sealed their home is, has ants. It’s a fact of life, and better than the other infestations common here (such as spiders the size of your face and footlong centipedes). My husband and I live in a newish military house here, and our tactic is: geckos. We try to keep a gecko or two inside the house–I’m actually not sure if geckos actually eat the ants, but they keep down the population somehow. And, they’re free! (Plus, I hear they can save us a lot on our car insurance, or would, if we drove).
Also, we’ve learned to just deal with the inevitability of ants as much as possible. There’ve been bad times–I once discovered a swarm coming from the light in our bedroom, which covered our ceiling in big black spots, and yesterday they ruined all the juice I had stored in our pantry–but it’s not awful, for the most part.
Plus, we live in Hawaii. Complaining about ants seems pretty petty, given the benefits to living here (and they’re not nearly as expensive a hazard as groceries…$8/gallon of milk, anyone?).
Well, making your own Terro would be a good use for using up the other half of the box of Borax you bought if you were to make your own laundry detergent as described in the Simple Dollar…
I have no alternatives to suggest.
Just want to say thanks to you and the all the other commenters’ for their suggested alernatives.
Will look for Terro first. Not sure if they have the product in our part of the world. Could be in another name.
We moved about one year ago - from a flat on the third floor with no insects whatsoever to a lovely two-story house. Which had a lot more space than our old place, great bathroom (that my wife really loves), and ants.
We don’t hate ants. We just don’t want to share our house with them. So we tried ant traps. We tried poison - albeit sparingly, given that our younger cat is quite fond of ants. They just kept on coming.
After a bit of detective work, I’ve found their (single) entry point. It was a fissure in the doorstep of the one door we never use, about 4mm diameter. We tried blocking that too - with everything from quick-dry cement to SuperGlue - only to find our small black friends either boring through the blockage or (in the SuperGlue case) digging around it.
In the end, on the advice of my mother, we placed one copper coin on top of the ant hole. One cent was the price we had to pay for ant freedom. We didn’t even glue it in place; just placed on top of the doorstep and forced the door closed on top of it. We haven’t seen an ant since - and it’s been almost a year.
It seems ants really really HATE the taste of copper.
> … you take a business card …
A perfect opportunity to put one of those credit cards to good use, I should think!
Having a small dog that sniffs/licks EVERYTHING and two small children, what I found out that works best for us is baby powder!
We used to get ants every spring/summer like clockwork until I started sprinkling baby powder everywhere and then they disappeared!
This has been a very interesting,but can you tell me if this works on Georgia fire ants? Not only are their mound huge I am very allergic to their bite.
JD, I would LOVE to see a product page from you!!!
Thanks for the tips on ants, too. We have an exterminator; it’s worth the price to me. Our house backs up to a very pretty but incredibly BUGGY meadow. We had too many kinds of bugs to mention here. We were losing the game, so we brought in the special teams — $60 every quarter, after an initial $110 treatment. Worth every cent, in my book.
Love this post, but what about outside. I live in Canada and believe that my house resides on top of the Canadian Headquarters for ants. We can’t get a good lawn, they do find their way just inside my front door, but don’t have a problem in the house, just the odd one. My problem is really outside. I get up every morning to at least 15 anthills rebuilt on my stone walkway. Any suggestions. Barb
Ooh! I read Leiningen in middle school. I forgot how good it is, and that’s coming from someone who’s terrified of bugs.
I hate that picture. We’ve used similar stuff to this for ants successfully before. I don’t have an ant problem at the moment, but my house is invaded by slugs every night (never see them, just the trails). Not sure how they get in, or how to get rid of them.
we had the same problem- you know what worked for us? We put a composter in our back yard- now the ants do not go into our house, they go to the composter! Of course this doesn’t actually *kill* the ants…
I wonder if Terro and Bacon Salt would work better for the ants in JD’s house… :p
This actually just happened to me this week. Those little jerks ruined the dinner rolls I was saving and now its time to strike back! Thank you!
We tried the cornmeal thing with no luck. We suffered with ant infestations for years at our townhouse and now at our single-family house(they followed us!), and nothing worked until we got the Terro.
I’m late to the conversation, but last year ants were parading to our dog’s food bowl in the kitchen. We sprinkled a thick line of cinnamon across the threshold where they were coming in, and they quailed before it. (You could watch them walk up to it, pace around and give up.) Easy, cheap and not harmful to the dog himself.
I recommend a flamethrower. Torch the little bastards!
I *love* Terro. I have the same hatred of ants that many here do, and it’s the one thing I’ve found that really works.
One thing that I like about Terro is that it you can get it pre-mixed inside little plastic packages that the ants crawl into. More expensive than making my own out of Borax, certainly, but it also allows me to keep the stuff safely out of range of my cats, who eat everything and tend to disperse powder-based solutions while running around (cinnamon, baby powder, etc).
I have a fear of ants, apparently borne of two experiences: one, standing in a fire ant pile when I was two or three, screaming and not moving as they crawled all over me, and two, falling out of the truck on my first day in first grade at a new school IN SHORTS into an ant bed.
I am scarred for life. At least I don’t remember the first event. Now that my apartment has ants, I’m definitely going to get me some Terro!
Wow, this post has great timing. I’m just starting to see a few ants inside my apartment and I’ve been contemplating how to launch my attack without killing the cat at the same time. I’m going to try a few tips listed here!
I seem to have attracted a large amount of ladybirds lately. Every morning I wake up and there are three or four on the window, and at night there seem to be three buzzing round the light bulb! I have tried hoovering them up (I always feel so mean when I do that!!!) but they always come back. I have taped up the windows so I am not sure exactly how they get in. Slightly cuter than ants, but still pesty!
We had a horrible ant problem in our last house. They first discovered our house because of the cat food dishes. Fortunately, I already kept the dishes in a plastic tray (I am convinced you cannot teach a cat to eat neatly - they either will or they won’t), so I filled the entire tray with 1/2″ of water and put all the dishes in that so there was a moat. Ta da! No more ants around the food. But then the little bastards found the kitchen (roommate who couldn’t keep his dishes clean) and from there it was a losing battle till winter.
One of the things that we found only worked a little but was extremely satisfying to watch was Lysol. I don’t like having it in the house normally, but one of my housemates had a can of it, and after she was cleaning up in the kitchen, out of sheer frustration she sprayed the ants with the lysol. Seriously, it’s one of the single most satisfying ant experiences — they die instantly. INSTANTLY. Where once you had a trail of ants marching towards something edible, you now have a string of ant corpses, which are easily wiped up with a paper towel.
If anyone reads down this far .. don’t just blame messiness. I swear my fam got to be neurotic about cleaning up every crumb and wiping down everything with bleach and STILL the little buggers would be there as if to welcome us in the morning. Finally, we sprinkled borax on the outside of the window and no more ants .. sounds like terro might be the perfect thing for our new problem .. random ants in an inside bathroom. We can’t figure out where the things are coming from .. ugh!
In North Carolina, fire ants are moving farther up. For the house, I spray some bug barrier stuff around the foundation, windows, and doors once every other month (You can find this by asking for a chemical that would kill everything besides humans and cats). For my yard, I use something Spectricide makes I call “Ant Treat”. I have no idea what it’s really called, but THEY seem to love it. I certainly don’t want to deprive them of that joy.
about roaches,
i used to work in a cafeteria as a dishwasher on my old college campus for a couple of years. the head dishwasher old man and i were talking one day about the roaches they have there and that it didnt matter if they sprayed, they would just come back. he told me his trick on how to get rid of roaches, in a cruel and punishing way.
you fill the cap from a gallon of milk halfway with either baking soda or baking powder (i dont remember which), then top it off with sugar. the sugar attracts the roaches, they eat through it and into the baking soda or powder. that causes a chemical reaction in their stomach and the gases can’t escape. you’ll wake up in the morning and see blown up roach parts all over within a five foot radius.
no joke, i had the old man leave them for me to see since i didnt believe him. i suggest putting down newspaper for easy cleanup.
@Kerstin, #78 - find out where the ladybugs are coming from! I once had an infestation in my windows, and it was the most disgusting and horrifying thing ever. Individually, they’re cute. By the thousands, they smell and are revolting. Ugh!
All the commentors should go spend some time in tropical Africa. We had army ant battalions that were five feet wide and hundreds of feet long. Must have been millions of ants, and they ate everything they found - snakes, scorpions, goats, etc etc. Heebeejeebees.
Timeliest. Post. Ever.
I came home yesterday to 20 ants (that I could see) crawling around the door in my kitchen. And where there’s 20 … there’ll be a lot more. (*Shudder*) Buying the Terro today.
Thanks JD!
We have lots of ant’s in our area, and I was so glad the year I discovered Terro. IT IS AMAZING!!!
Yup. I read the headline and thought Terro. In fact, if you had come up with some other solution, I would have said, “Forget that, use Terro!”
Although… Sugar ants do have their plus sides. I read a story a little while ago about a guy that spilled his favorite soft drink into his keyboard. Usually (most always), this will not break your keyboard, but it did make it sticky, so keys wouldn’t release. Pretty soon, the ant highway was running right into the keyboard, and in a day or two, it was good as new.
Yeah, need something for the fire ants. Have tried boiling water, spectricide, everything. Even got desperately stupid once and poured gasoline on several mounds. Grass never came back, nothing there but bare ground. corn meal work on them? We’ve got 6 acres, so have quite a few of the buggers.
Beth in Georgia
Eeeeekkkk!!!
ants: Grants works for the ants that will go for it, but diatomaceous earth is cheaper and so safe it’s edible. If you have a large invasion force, also put a half cup of sugar outdoors near where they are coming in, to get them out of the house first.
roaches: powdered boric acid wherever they run. Try to keep it away from cat areas.
nothing else I’ve ever tried worked for these pests, but I have not tried the cornmeal or baby powder yet.
Last summer, we had an ant problem. But having a toddler who puts everything in his mouth, I set out to find a chemical-free solution. I posted what I found here, but I ended up using a mixture of cayenne and cinnamon at the entry point, and that worked. Honestly, I battled up until we had a little rain, then they were gone. My husband (from Ireland…land o’ rain) says the rain always seems to get rid of ants. Go figure.
As clean as you are, ants will find you. And once they do, I swear there’s no kind way to get rid of them. On that note, boric acid is toxic, but only in larger quantities. You might even find it’s an ingredient in your contact lens solution.
When we had a cat, we created a mote, like Megan. In a large bowl or tray (though not so big that she couldn’t reach), we added water, then placed half a brick in the center. We placed the dish on the brick. Problem solved.
JD,
Please contact us directly at TERRO. Our toll free phone number is:
1.800.837.7644
Or email us at:
expert@terro.com
You can also check out our other products:
http://www.wrsweeney.com
http://www.deerfortress.com
Thanks,
Your Friends at TERRO
Terro has been a God-send! Especially since its hard to come by Borax in my part of the woods where its a controlled chemical
However, I’ve encountered a nest of ants (the red kind with a very painful bite) that proved too smart for it.
After a half hour from placing the Terro liquid, i found that the little buggers got a whole bunch of loose soil from the garden and built a DAM around the Terro puddle.
I’ll try that Terro ant dust you mentioned if i can find it.
Terro is great but eventually we get a new infestation every couple of weeks. I think the problem is these Argentinian ants. Their queens live in harmony with one another, so one nest can have several queens. Rumor has it there an enormous interconnected Argentinian ant colony that covers the entire Southwestern United States.
I feel like we’ve been battling this same colony for a couple of years now. Maybe everyone can Terro their ant problems at once, and we might make a dent in the population…
I agree. I’ve used Terro for years with wonderful success. Glad you found it helpful as well.
JD, thanks for writing this. The language you used… cathartic, colorful euphemisms, … made it a truly enjoyable read. I chuckled through the whole thing.
Great stuff man, great stuff.
Now what would be really great is if you can post on how to get rid of *aunts*…
Thank you for the recommendation — I just bought one and have arranged a trial run, so to speak — my family and I usually spend our entire summer waging a ruthless war with the ants which seem to never die and have infested our home and our garden. I hope this will be the “nuclear option” which finally knocks them out.
I do have one question — is it necessary to re-apply the liquid again and again?
In California - where the ants are - the termites aren’t. As long as I don’t have to deal with ant highways in the house I’ll take ants over termites any day.
I take the same approach as on eo fthe previous posters. Track down where they are coming in from and tape it off. My previous house had a lot of tape behind outlet plates and light switch plates.
@ trb
They seem to be collonising the area outside my bedroom window. And they are a very unusual mix - big, small, black with red spots, and red with black spots. I have given up for the moment and sort of hoping the wintery weather conditions we’re having in London atm will kill them off. Still, if this article is to be believed, they may be with us for some time!http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/display.var.572476.0.0.php?act=complaint&cid=1219968
I live in a neighborhood in southern CA where Argentine ants is a continuing problem. I have a 3-pronged solution to the ants and haven’t had a major invasion in several years now. It is 1) Terro traps indoors when we see more than a scout, 2) Triazicide outdoors - total yard coverage and surrounding the house (zero tolerance!) anytime I see a scout indoors or a trail outdoors near the house. 3) any food-related trash goes into a bag in the freezer until trash day and then goes outside in the bin. I was worried when we got (indoor) cats about a year ago that the ants would be a problem with their food bowls, but it hasn’t so far.
Living in Florida, ants are a problem. Terro works well. I also spray outside at the base of the house, doors and windows. Sometimes we still get them but we don’t get roaches. We removed all of the molding throughout the house, put in boric acid, replaced the molding and never had another roach, otherwise known as palmetto bug down here, again. Best thing we ever did.
Rosemary
http://her-home-blog.com
I have also used Terro before in the past. But this one came in its on thingy. So all u had to do was open it and set it out. Just don’t tip it over. Just writing about this is giving me the chill bumps! YUK I hate ants! We have lived in this house for a year. No problems what so ever with ants. Hadn’t seen the first one, until a couple of days ago. So I have to make a trip to town to get some Terro! Lets just say my son grabbed the pie from the fridge and left it on the counter. I just walked in the kitchen and ants were everywhere. I about died!
I have tried other things in the past.. None seemed to work… Until Terro!
I’ve been waging war with ants for about two weeks now. I’m fairly certain that I’ve lost a little bit of my sanity over the ordeal. Luckily, I found this article a couple days back after a google search. I bought the little Terro ant baits (4 pack for $4)at Wal-Mart yesterday. Best purchase ever!! Admittedly, it was very satisfying to watch the little b*stards eating the poison all day yesterday. Bring that bacon home to mama, you little f*@&#rs. There were thousands of them! When I awoke today there were maybe one or two stragglers (out of thousands) climbing the wall. They’ll be dead soon. I only used one bait, so for a $1 this is the best purchase I have ever made. Thanks Terro and a bigger thanks to the writers of this blog!! I recommend the pre-filled baits… so cheap, easy, and no mess.
I live in an older house that was converted into apartments, and I have a 9 week old kitten.
Recently I’ve noticed random ants in the kitchen, and I’ve taken joy in crushing them beneath my shoe. However last night I discovered a mad cluster of them in my kitchen, with no clear train of where they were coming from or where they were going. I then noticed them in my kitten’s food dish!! Which I promptly disposed of, leaving my poor kitten with the daunting task of being fed once a day now.
I’ve been wanting a solution to the problem and after last night’s display of ant force, I am in a more desperate situation.
Is Terro safe for pets? Obviously their prize is my kitten’s food dish, so if I were to put it near it i’m sure he’ll be into it. If it isn’t safe for him, have you heard of any methods that are?
I’m desperate.
Yikes I hate ants (and those ants in the photo were swarming my apartment and it wasn’t pretty). They’re like the sand, they don’t care if you kill them. More keep coming like the evil zombies they are.
The ants in my neighborhood may be small, but they’re pure evil. One ant finds it’s way into the pantry and they’ll make my life hell for the next 3 months.
From nearly two years of battling them I’ve learned a few things. Your mileage may vary depending on the breed of ants and where you live.
1) Terro does work pretty well. But if you have an endless supply of ants in a supercolony living under half the state then it’s really hard to poison enough ants to completely get rid of them. It thins their numbers a bit and gives them something else to play with besides your food, but doesn’t really get rid of them all when you live on top of the Great Northern Californian Supercolony.
2) Cleaning up is a good solution, but if you’re careless just once or one wanders into your cereal and alerts the supercolony then it’s over and you’ll have to battle them on and off for 6 months. It’s really hard to erase their scent trail once it starts and even if you scrub and scrub some of them will still manage to find it.
3) Bleach, dishsoap and water is a good ant annoyant if you clean with it. The vinegar and soap ALMOST wipes out their scent trail. If you clean where they come in fairly regularly to refresh the annoyant for them then they may turn to easier targets like your upstairs neighbor who leaves her dog food out for their feasting pleasure. Then she gets to deal with them instead of you. Oh and this same mixture is pretty good for cleaning showers and countertops, too.
4) Don’t rent apartments whose walls are full of small holes like swiss cheese. The ants will find another way in if there are other holes. If you can seal up the holes in the wall and put diatomaceous earth in the wall holes before sealing it will help somewhat–until they find another way in. Ajax also works sorta like diatomaceous earth. It seems to gouge, bleach and kill them. I don’t like baby powder because it’s light, fluffy, perfumey and becomes airborne too easily and it is something you DONT want to breathe. You really don’t want that powdering scarring your lungs.
5) Be especially watchful for ants that come in, especially around the change of seasons. My ants like to try coming in during the spring when it first gets warm and in the autumn when it’s very warm during the day but is cooling off at night. Look for scouting ants and get rid of them religiously during these seasons.
For more information on ants and ant control, check out http://bobthebugman.com
I read this article awhile ago and thought, “phew! glad I don’t have to deal with that!”
………My car was having some work done, so it was just sitting around for like 6 months, and I just got it back.
Yep, you guessed it. The ants decided to move in somewhere in my car! Been spraying some stuff but it doesnt help. Going to look for the Terro tomorrow!
I ad a serious prob wit ants in my house my gran swore aw tea tree oil and grapefruit seed extract sprayed around the edge of ur rooms and where they come in i’ve tried it and i haven’t seen any for 2 years touch wood lol . And ur home smells really nice
Now you meet someone that likes ants, but not in my house! The ant baits have worked for me and following the ant highway and plugging the hole after the baits kick in will probably prevent future infestations. I found them coming in through a crack in my hard wood floor. Amazing.
Well… upon reading this post, I’ll be sure to take my butt to the store today and buy some Terro. We just bought our home in April and now my fiance is starting to regret it. The ants are starting to “take over” our home. They were all over the kitchen until I covered all baseboards with 7Dust. Then they started to appear in our room and the kids’ rooms. They have to be coming in through the windows. I bought some ant bait traps and I don’t think they’ve even touched them! They’re tiny little sh*ts, but so annoying, and I think they bite, too! It’s craziness! I think I’ll try the Terro thing and then see what happens, but I’ve been trying a few other things, too. Oh, and we have an Eyeclops, so we captured one of the little turds last night and checked him out… so ugly! I poured a little cinnamon on him just to watch his reaction and it was hilarious! Never seen a 4-legged ant move so fast! Yeah, we took 2 of his legs off while catching him… lol! Anyhow, thanks for the tips and I’ll let ya know what works for us!
I HATE ants… get this, the little devils actually found their way into the CLOSED microwave where I stored blueberry muffins!!!!!!!!!! Is there no end them? The microwave is on a cart, not connected to any cabinet in my kitchen & they still found their way into it over ONE night. Just had to share….sigh…
About two days ago, I noticed ants in the kitchen. It was one measly piece of granola bar that got trapped under the throw rug at the entrance. Damn. Cleared out the kitchen and mopped the floor. Took out the recycling.
Cleaned again yesterday.
Today - they are EVERYWHERE. Oh. My. God.
Went online - found the advice about baby powder - I have a defense built up - I have secured the perimeter.
Tomorrow I buy Terro and nuke the little bastards.
I am completely non-violent and usually rescue bugs. I have been stomping these little monsters with glee.
So much for my new found Buddist philosophies.
I was just about to call the exterminator when I read your site. I bought the Terro traps and the ants are gone! I was totally worried about using an exterminator because I have a daughter with asthma and two indoor cats. This was easy and effective! I’d tried other traps and nothing worked. Thanks for the information!
Well, I bought the Terro and set some out in the kitchen that day. Within an hour, the little buggers were all over it. It was then that I noticed they were coming from a crack under the windowsill. Oh, I was angry. However, I left them alone and let them chow down and the next day they were gone. I haven’t seen them in the kitchen since. A day or so later, however, they invaded my daughter’s room. I laid some Terro out in there and within a day or so, they were gone, too! Thank you so much for the info and the help! I never knew that $1.99 could be so lovely! Thanks! Peace!
I hate the nasty little critters, too! Thanks for the advise on the Terro and D. Earth. Another very simple solution, get a small jar, like a baby food jar, fill it half way with honey and place it outside near each of your doorways. I always hide it in the flowerbed, under the pinestraw - that way I don’t have to see the swarm of ants. The ants go for the honey and leave your house alone. Final thought - make sure you place the remainder of the honey in the fridge. If not, the ants will find it and come indoors. I made that mistake once…
Thanks for the tips. We are suddenly finding very tiny ants by the kitchen sink. My boyfriend followed them through the kitchen into the back room closet. He sprayed 409 on them when he found them at 6 in the morning and the next day I cleaned, what I thought was everything with bleach and pine sol. It lasted for about 2 days. We went away for the weekend came back tonight and like the scary movie, “Polterguist” (sp?) “They’re Back”
Again, thanks for the tips, I’m trying Terro tomorrow.
Thanks for the tips!!!! We live in a two story house and amazingly enough these pests found their way to our bathroom, our closet and my daughters’s room on the second floor. I know they are not after sugary stuff!!! we have none of that on the second floor. My husband bought some spray that kills them instantly but wont get rid of the problem as they seem to keep comming back and stronger!!! I will be on my way to invest in Terro and baby powder. We have two girls and I dont want to harm them with the Terro so i will put the baby powder in their room and the Terro in other locations of the house. Thanks again for the tips.
This recommendation got me out walking to Walgreens to get some Terro today. Granted, I attracted the ants a bit with my unclean sink, but even with the cleanup they were swarming and trying to get in my cabinets. I sprayed Raid, but it smells wretched, gives me a headache, and doesn’t work long. So I set out some Terro in a couple spots on the counter and the floor.
I tell you, it is an ant buffet in there. It makes me feel creepy crawly seeing them. They are coming from the walls of my very old apartment building, which is very irritating. But they all seem to think the Death Kool-Aid is delicious. Mwa ha ha! Doom to the ants!
Ok, I love the tips and I actually have some borax ( for my laundry). I will try that tomorrow and if it doesn’t work I’ll go for the Terro. I’ve been battling the little devils for over a year now . However,no-one has mentioned the problem we have. Some of them come in from the roof and down the ceiling! I knew about the talc but that won’t help there and we’ve yet to actually find the spot they’re coming in. I’ve sprayed the walls with alcohol and then vinegar. (May have to repaint after all this.) Kills them but only slows them down for a while. I don’t think they’re after food either,they completely ignored a plate of leftover birthday cake that was left out over night but were crawling everywhere else in the kitchen! Here in Alabama,we’ve had pretty severe drought conditions and I think they may just be looking for water. Thanks to Hurricane Fay, we’re supposed to get up to 10″ of rain in the next few days so hopefully they will all drown!
I have to respond to Kristina’s comment - even though I am WAY late to the party. I don’t have a sticky mess in my apartment. And I didn’t when the ants got there - before I even had a chance to buy groceries in my new apartment! That hasn’t stopped them from swarming all over the place. On my couch. In my clothes. Every time I enter my place, I have to do an ant check, figure out where they are now and do my best to clean them up. They are hurting me. I do not want bugs crawling all over me, thanks.
I’ve tried Terro, and it doesn’t seem to be working. Maybe I need to replenish the liquid more often? I’ve tried all kinds of baits, and my ants are just not interested.
They’re very interested in my new bath mat, though, much to my dismay. And the gym clothes I’d hung up to dry over the shower curtain rod. Ew!
Kristina Says:
April 10th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
I know I’ll sound like a freak, but that’s a lot of animal lives to take. And they really weren’t hurting you or doing anything harmful. How about instead of killing thousands of animals, we all try not to leave sticky messes in our houses? Your spouse will probably be happier with you, too!
I’ve got ants. I’m getting Terro tomorrow. Been battling these little b@$%stards for about 5 months now. Tried everything. Been spraying bleach on countertops and floor every night, and every morning, its a chore to get to the coffee pot. They’re after the sweets, they’re after the water, they’re after the sugar…… shoot they’re after everything. Told the landlord, cuz he owns the property our mobile is on, and he just says to clean up the house, and they’ll go away. I don’t know who is more irritating… the ants or this stupid landlord.
Going to get Terro tomorrow.
Thanks for the help guys!!!
I’m indebted to you for life!!!
Wife called down to me from our bathroom tonight, I come upstairs into our master bath to find ants flooding into our shower and starting an ant hwy into our bathtub… I found their entry point - they chewed out the grout and silicone around the bottom of our shower to get in… Nothing sweet in our bathroom that they would be after, just water at the most… I sprayed them down with my wife’s laundry stain remover “spray and wash”… I’ll look into Terro tomorrow if they are still attempting to break in, thanks for the advise…
I read the comments with intrest. While Terro works very well on “sugar ants” there are similar looking small ants that feed only on proteins (catfood, dogfood, meat). To achieve success with any type of bait, you must know the species of the ant you are dealing with and the feeding habits of thay species. Often, county extension offices (US) can provide identification services or local pest control companies will provide free identification. Just give them a call or drop in at their office.
As to the use of Raid or other spray insecticides; depending on the species, you could actually be making your ant problem worse. Several of the species of small ants have multiple queens and when the colony is stressed by the use of insecticides, the queens will split the colony up so as to keep the entire colony from being killed off. That is the primary reason that sprays only seem to give temporary relief…the ants have moved away and split up. Now you may have 10 ant colonies vice the one original.
Now a comment on the use of other products as mentioned by several commenters. It is a violation of federal law to use any product in manner other that what is permitted on the label of that product. The fines run between $750 up to $10,000 and may include jail time if deemed a flagrant or repeat violation. Granted the federal government doesn’t go around looking for violators on the web, but if you should have an accidental poisoning, be sure that law enforcement will get involved. It is much easier to use properly labeled products or professionally trained personnel.
One final comment on the use of grits and cornmeal. Adult ants cannot feed on solid food. They take the solid food back to the nest, feed it to the larvae, and the adults feed on liquid either reguratated by the larvae, or obtained by other foragers (tropholaxis).
Ant Infestation Indicators
You may see an occasional ant but this does not necessarily mean you have an infestation as one ant may be a scout looking for food. However, continuous or numerous ants are signs of nesting. Sawdust: You may see small piles of finely-shredded sawdust.
Sounds: You may hear a rustling or tapping noise produced when disturbed ants excavate wood.
Source: http://www.propestcontroller.com/ca.html
Great article and comments!!! I finally looked online and found this article. We have been battling ants this month and they finally got on my nerves. I tried the cinnamon and pepper which deterred them but they would just walk around the pepper and create a new line. They are so desperate they were coming in through the front door and going into the couch for a potato chip! (OK, so I need to clean up). Another set was invading our kitchen and with 2 small kids, its such a food fest with all the crumbs they create. They even go into the bathroom finding my son’s water gun. What they want, I don’t know!
The last straw was the other day. I came home at 8pm and set my purse down on the 2nd floor. yes it had an unfinished power bar in the pocket. They found it by 8am the next morning! swarms of ants!! I was so disgusted- I had to vacuum all the ants off my purse!
I drove to Target that morning and got Terro mini traps. They come 6 to a pack. I put 3 packs downstairs and enjoyed watching the ants go to the trap. Within a day, a large line was formed and now I can see that the ants are going away slowly. I am sooo happy!
AHHHH! SAME! Everday i had been killing ants with sticky tape. They climbed kitchen, my wall, corners of the house, my computer, and yesterday I FOUND THEM ON MY BED!
This have been happening for like a few months! I HAD ENOUGH! Its damn irritating looking at them crawling all over the corners! ARRGH….
I will try your method. Thanks for sharing this article~
As the proud owner of an anthill with a house on it, it has been validating to read about so many others being held hostage by the Great Ant Colony of the West. Sigh. I too have tried Terro products which give excellent temporary relief, and diatomaceous earth, which is good in some areas. These multiple-queen coloies just can’t seem to be eradicated, and sometimes I get so frustrated I have elaborate warlike fantasies of ant destruction. But, I can offer one other useful tool in the ongoing battle to keep them out and be poison-free: petroleum jelly. I feed the cats on a tray-table size tray on the floor, with a curved-down lip, under the edge of which I smear petroleum jelly, and the ants won’t cross it. The worse problem with this is sometimes cat hair sticks to it. Also, petroleum jelly is very safe and effective to caulk where the baseboards meet the floor, to seal those tiny cracks the teensy buggers get in. Again, dust and cat fur can stick, but is also easily cleaned off. I have even, in a fit of fury, caulked a kitchen window closed with petroleum jelly. The point is, ants won’t cross it, and it makes a good barrier for a lot of access points!
I love you….I have been dealing with these horid creatures for months and they keep showing up. even as I type one is creeping across the screen of my lap top as it sits on the kitchen counter. With kids at the age where chleaning the kitchen is thier chore….keeping it totally crumb free is real not a reality. I have envisioned little ant bodies on tooth picks as a warning to thier friends….the sucker don’t care. I have tried sweet baits that kill all of them before they make it back to the nest ….thus never solving the problem. If this works I will marry you for sure!
Oh, big heavy sigh. I’ve been fighting off these ants most of my adult life. This is not the first home of mine that they have invaded. I’ve tried EVERY type of commercial product available. I’ve used cayenne pepper, trying to trace it back on their path (that’s a very tricky thing, by the way). Recently, I’ve thought I had some luck using Bounce Fabric softener sheets, but who knows, really? Perhaps they just ‘gave up’ and went away. I usually battle them for several weeks each spring - and then they finally leave…….. until the next spring -This year they are being particularly obnoxious! I really take exception to anyone who believes I am being ‘unkind’ to animals because of my battle with these bugs too! Yeah, maybe if I had the resources to live in a completely impregnable home - and had the luxury of the time it would take to never leave a crumb around the house - - - - I would stand a better chance of not being invaded by these guys - but I don’t, and I will not happily ’share’ my living space with them!!!
On goes the battle…….I’ve just bought another round of all the anti-ant prouducts available, and one of them has BORAX as a main component.
I hope you will all wish me Godspeed. lol. Kathy H
I have been dealing with ants off and on since August. They left during the winter, but have come back noticably since the weather has warmed up. Mine seem to thrive around my dish washer! I’ve tried spray(and had to lock my cats in the basement for 2 days so they wouldn’t get sick), ant traps, spices, powder, EVERYTHING! We have even put the traps in the dish washer between runnings to get to the majority of the ants, with no luck. Ironically, they have stayed away from the side of my kitchen that has my pantry!?!?!? I was looking online for exteminators, but will be trying the Terro first. I am one of those people who is terrified of them due to an incident in my childhood, so I really hope this works. If not, it will be the monthly expense of an exterminator for me.
Yikes! They’re back, or at least I know they will be inside soon. I’ve had a pest control service for the past ten years and even here in Florida I’ve never had a problem with any sort of bug. Late last summer I turned on the light in my master bathroom one evening and found little tiny black ants swarming out from behind an electric switchplate. They were crawling all over the walls. I grabbed a paper towel and crushed as many as I could. Believe me I lost a lot of sleep that night. Called my pest control the next morning and he came out and squirted something behind the outlet cover….end of problem. Two weeks later I flipped the switch on the opposite bathroom wall one morning and heard a kind of frying, sizzling sound. The light didn’t turn on so I got a flashlight and checked. Yep the wall was moving, crawling with tiny black ants. Called the pest man again and an electrician. Those little suckers had shorted out the light switch, had to have it replaced and the pest control company once again squirted something behind the switch plate and the ants were gone. About a month later I came home one evening and found my kitchen wall around yet another outlet plate cover swarming with tiny black ants….crazy ants? No spills, no sticky messes on the floors, counters, sinks or anywhere in the cupboards or pantry. These little devils seem to feed on electricity. This time we took a look around the outside of the house to try to find out where they were entering the house. I found a ton of them all over the wooden fence that butted up to the house on one end and a trail going up the stucco to just under the eaves. Pest guy sprayed with some very strong poison and then accessed the attic and sprayed up there on the west side of the vaulted ceiling. I haven’t seen an ant since then until yesterday. Now there’s a trail outside along the windowsill at the opposite end of the house and that trail leads from the windowsill up the side of the house to just under the eaves. I’m off for Lowes to buy some Terro. Wish me luck! I’ve heard that crazy ants can build nests in all kind of electronics. Disaster if they do that. They must die!
I have an ant invasion , and I perfer to buy some RAID.It work’s good I was just at the local Family Dollar and I bought the Raid product for 4.00 only.And it kills the ant’s right away so if you have an ant invasion I suggest buying Raid from you local Family Dollar , Home Depot or any other hardware or super markets you are farmiliar with.Well hope it help’s.!
I would like to thank you for posting this. Over the weekend, my apartment became an ant getaway! I could not determine where they were coming in from. I have two kittens so using a poisonous substance as Raid was not an option. After reading your blog and comments, I decided to give Terro a try. I bought the traps so the kittens would not be exposed to any chemicals. I set the trap out at night and the next morning the ants were in the trap and no where else in the apartment! I am so happy that I went with everyone’s recommendation! Day 2 and there are still a couple ants in and around the trap but again, they are no where else in the apartment! I am hoping that the ant situation has ceased and I am living ant-free. Thanks again!!!!
secret couple-language? really?
JD,
Thanks for the tip. I’m going to store tonight to buy Terro. We bought some other brand of trap because it was labeled safe around pets. But it hasn’t worked. We went from a few ants a day to 100 a day. They have decided to live in the dishwasher. (Yuck). I found little ant parts on the dishes. So now I have to wash dishes by hand until we get rid of the ants. They also crawl on the ceiling of the master bedroom on the second floor. Go figure.
you can also buy a large box of borax for $2. Saturate the source(anthill) with a hot water solution.
my motto, i hate anything with more than 4 legs, or less than two. I live by this theory…
We have ants like CRAZY, I have sprinkled cornmeal (about 30 min ago), but I am going to get the Terro anyway, You know, just to be safe
And for all of you who love watching these creepie crawlies die slowly, ME TOO!! When I see a (I shiver just thinking about it) spider, I get my aerosol hairspray and it freezes, then, I make my boyfriend squish it!
Thanks for the help, this post kept me entertained for a good 30 minutes, good luck all.