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#1 seller on amazon, I used them and got rid of my ant problem in a day.
The bait trap is harmless sugar water with small borox ingredient. Ants come and eat it, take it and share with the colony, then boom. Next day you won't see two ants there because they are wiped out.
You won't find where ants comes from, they could come from anywhere.
I went with this option. It scares me, though. I don't want anything to happen to my cat. What if he eats some of it?
I got both because I have two kinds of ants that come in in spring and once when a bad storm was brewing in winter they showed up. I got the Terro baits, opened the box, and my cat was all nose, wanting to smell them. I let her. She gave them a good sniff and never looked at them again - be warned, ants will come in droves to eat that stuff, then will slack off, then disappear. I also got plain cheap store brand baits for the other (not kitchen) ants and the cat gave them a good smell, too. She would occasionally use one for a hockey puck, but had no interest in sniffing or eating them.
I used the diatomaceous earth outside, all around the house and concentrated on the areas I saw ants, like the front porch. It's safe outside and the bit that might come in on a shoe isn't going to harm your lungs. I wouldn't use it indoors, but outside you have nothing to worry about and between the indoor and outdoor attacks, I was ant free all year long. My cat is 12 and according to the vet, her bloodwork is perfect and she's a pretty lively girl, so kill the ants and don't worry too much.
When I lived in an apartment and had waterbugs, centipedes, and big black ants I let the exterminator in every month, making him swear not to hurt my cat and he would spray his useless stuff and take off. The cat is fine and apparently whatever insect he killed that month was just replaced by a new horror the next.
I got both because I have two kinds of ants that come in in spring and once when a bad storm was brewing in winter they showed up. I got the Terro baits, opened the box, and my cat was all nose, wanting to smell them. I let her. She gave them a good sniff and never looked at them again - be warned, ants will come in droves to eat that stuff, then will slack off, then disappear. I also got plain cheap store brand baits for the other (not kitchen) ants and the cat gave them a good smell, too. She would occasionally use one for a hockey puck, but had no interest in sniffing or eating them.
I used the diatomaceous earth outside, all around the house and concentrated on the areas I saw ants, like the front porch. It's safe outside and the bit that might come in on a shoe isn't going to harm your lungs. I wouldn't use it indoors, but outside you have nothing to worry about and between the indoor and outdoor attacks, I was ant free all year long. My cat is 12 and according to the vet, her bloodwork is perfect and she's a pretty lively girl, so kill the ants and don't worry too much.
When I lived in an apartment and had waterbugs, centipedes, and big black ants I let the exterminator in every month, making him swear not to hurt my cat and he would spray his useless stuff and take off. The cat is fine and apparently whatever insect he killed that month was just replaced by a new horror the next.
Thanks! I'll do the earth stuff outside, and I can put the baits inside the screen door and in the bathroom, both spots inaccessible to my cat.
I mix a little borax (from the laundry section) with sugar and water, then put it in a small container (open bottle) on an ant trail.
It's the same ingredients as Terro, just do-it-yourself.
I had a conversation with Poison Control about what would happen if my cat ate it. He predicted lethargy. I'm not sure how you diagnose lethargy with a cat.
So I use only small quantities at a time, and put them in containers the cat can't access.
The tiny ants are probably those called, "odorous house ants". They smell like rotten coconut when squashed. My cat used to eat them, but only after I'd stepped on them. I wish he would have hunted them down live. They have infested my house every winter, for 10 years. I've probably squashed 50,000 of them, but there seems to be an unending supply. At night they crawl over my bed and face. One night I woke to find one crawling under an upper eyelid. That got my attention fast.
I've used borax poison and it was only moderately effective and certainly didn't eliminate them. I also spray them directly with 6% vinegar solution, from a plant-mister bottle. In the summer, there's a big hatch of half a million, from my flower beds. They gather in a mass on the sidewalk for a few hours before dispersing. This year, I'm getting tough, as I've had enough of them getting in my food and swarming pointlessly in my bathroom. I will wait until the newly-hatched ones gather and douse them with lots of vinegar. We'll see how they do after that.
I've also used the same tactics on carpenter ants and have taken them out by the tens of thousands. But in recent years, I've seen only a few. I recently discovered that a 4-inch section of the rubber seal on the bottom of my garage door had been torn away. There were a dozen or so big ants going through it. So I made a plug of numerous layers of thick bicycle tube material, glued together and tightly fitted it into place. I've seen several carpenter ants trying to get past it, but with no success.
My neighbor rebuilt part of an old wall, that had been damaged by water seepage. He found buckets full of carpenter ants in the wall and had to take full measures to remove all he could and poison the rest. They're always there, just waiting for someone to get careless and give them an opening to the inside.
I had the same problem last year with black carpenter ants coming inside, probably for the cat food and water. Even after one year of expensive treatments, Orkin couldn't destroy them. My front porch was literally crawling with ants. Orkin was unconcerned about finding and killing the colony.
So out of desperation I tried Terro. I bought it from Lowe's because it said the ants will take the liquid bait back to their nest where it will kill the entire colony.
It DID! It's like a miracle! Within a few days my front porch was no longer alive with activity. No more ants coming inside or running around outside. This stuff killed the nest. Come spring I'll be placing these inexpensive trays of poison outside of my home again. You can use them inside or out. The cats can't get at the liquid inside, so don't worry.
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