Help - Ants (Round Rock: house, extermination, live)

[balama]

Hello-

I'm new to Round Rock (one week), the day after moving into a 3 year old property, I notice several very, very small black ants mainly in the kitchen. The next day we are able to get the house and yard "treated". The service man says to give it up to 2 weeks to work & call him back if I still see them. He also says it may get a little worse (which it has) before it gets better. Does this sound right? The ants are very annoying. Should I try another exterminator? Also, how often should one exterminate? I'm still seeing several outside as well. I'm not liking this! Does anyone have any hints on how to get rid of them?? All input greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[Trainwreck20]

Dunno about particulars, but 'exterminating' often causes quite a bit of activity before the bugs leave or die, so I think the 'seeing more before seeing less' jibes wiith what I have heard.

[jwb123]

He's right. It may take several treatments (it did for us) and it will get worse before it gets better.

The good news is those ants are harmless (some people call them sugar ants) - not that you want them, but they won't attack you like red ants... but the bad news is that they are hard to get rid of, and they will never be gone completely - they will be gone from your home - but it will take consistant extermination (at least every quarter) to keep them out. Getting rid of them outside is pointless - just worry about the barrier to your home.

What they should be doing : spraying outside, spraying along the baseboards inside and stuffing the weepholes. They should also have, and hopefully give you a tube of, ant bait that is clear liquid they will put on the areas that appear may be a trail from inside. They will take it back to whereever they live and eat it and die. Our exterminator gave us one for free to use in between spraying - and they will also come out and spray at any time, in between scheduled visits, for free.

It has taken us 3 treatments to get rid of the little black ants from the home. AND consistant cleaning on our part. One time, some spilled orange juice brought them back in after having been gone for a bit - but cleaning the area well, and applying the ant bait near the baseboard from where it seemed like they were coming - worked for us, right away.

[Jazzedforhim]

Here in California when we had a bad ant problem, we had a mega spary of the inside and outside of the home and then they came back and sparyed every 60 days. That finally worked.

[Bluebunny]

We had a huge ant problem in our previous place here in Calif. We had an exterminator come out and spray every couple of months. We just couldn't find the source. Upon moving out, we finally found the source. There was a crack in the floor in the garage and that is where they were coming from.

In our next home in CA, we started to have a problem and we immediately found the source and rather call the exterminator, we tried Grants Ant Stakes. OMG, that did it and we never saw an ant again.

The thing with Grant Ant Stakes, we poured boiling water on the stakes before sitting them down and that seemed to help them work better.

Good luck!

[neddy]

For sugar ants cinnamon also works. they won't cross it. Looks funny.