Urgent ... Unable to rid house of fire ants and not sure what to try next

[samalex]

I hadn't heard of the show "Infested", but I just checked the video about ants and it was crazy!!! Our situation isn't nearly that bad thankfully/hopefully, but seeing fire ants coming out of the ceiling and most walls in the house is alittle disconcerting, which is what we saw for a week or two.

The more I analyze it I think what we were seeing were ants coming into the house through the sand trap and moving up the inside wall and vent pipe into the attic then from there they moved along the A/C ducts and electrical wires throughout the house dropping into all sorts of locations. Once the sand trap was hosed down with termidor that seemed to hip the house-hold problem, but then they found the pipes behind the bathroom sinks.

Our bug guy had used termidor inside the wall voids plus baited outside, plus I sprayed Ortho Home Defense around the kids rooms which helped keep them at bay. So hopefully a combo of all this has nipped them. I know ants move deeper in ground during cold spells, but given Fire Ants don't hibernate and I'd assume any ants under the house didn't venture too deep given it's probably rather warm under the foundation in the middle of the house I'd think they would still be trying to come in if they were still there.

I guess we'll know for sure when spring comes and the days get warmer, but hopefully we're seeing some good signs here

Sam

[teachertype]

Are you in Texas? Sprays don't work, Amdro does. You can get it at any hardware store. Kill every hill within 50 to 100 feet of the house, eventually you'll get all the queens.

[samalex]

It's now mid-March and we went over 2 months without seeing any ants in the house... but alas this week we've found three in the master bath plus I found a nest in the back yard yesterday.

I've called our bug guy to come out and treat since we're due for the quarterly treatment anyway, but I'm going today to pick-up some Amdro to cover the yard just incase they can't get out today.

Do you guys know if Amdro bait - syringe, cartridge, or grain - attracts ants? I don't want to pull in any more than we're already seeing, but I'm curious to know if putting that stuff down under our cabinets or inside the wall voids might help.

[texdav]

N amdro is a bait that the ants take to the nest that they eat and hoefully feed the queen and mean for outdoor use only.I taske it your home was built in a area that had no ant controlbecause that is really all you can do is control them on your property. Your exterminator should treat the inside in a fire ant area really.

[samalex]

OP here with another update...

I've walked around our neighborhood and found that the few houses that are still under construction have the sand traps filled in with concrete, unlike ours, so I've asked that our contractor come in and fill-in the sand traps in our house. They use a different contractor now from when our house was built a year ago, so he said he's not sure if it was standard practice to do it then as it is now.

It won't be hard to do it in the master since the side of the tub comes off, but they'll need to go through the drywall in a closet to get to the other tub. I'll see if they can put an access panel in there though which will hopefully help if problems come up in the future.

So hopefully covering both of these sand traps with concrete will prevent or at least reduce the access points for ants, spiders, earwigs, and all the other critters we've seen poking around the house. We can only hope...

Sam

[Charles]

'Crazy ants' a threat in southern U.S. - CNN.com

[Candy Pfau]

Originally Posted by samalex

Hi,

We've been fighting fire ants in our new house (7 months old) for over three months now, and I'm not sure what to try next. The ants are under the foundation and are coming up where the pipes enter through the slab. We're under contract with a local pest control company who's treated the yard and I've not seen an ant in our yard in months, but we're seeing fire ants daily in the bathrooms.

The biggest influx was through the sand trap in our master bath, but our bug guy sprayed Termidor in and around the trap which seemed to fix it for a week or two, but now they're coming in through the pipes that feed our bathroom sinks, washing machine, and now even around our toilets. Termidor for those who don't know is a poison that the ants walk through without knowing it (unlike a bait that attracts them), then they track it back to their nest and rub on other ants. It breaks down their respiratory system in a day or so. Problem tough is it doesn't detour them, so they still come in even though they'll hopefully die at some point.

I don't want to use any baits that will attract more ants, and given we can't physically get under the house (one story on foundation slab) I'm not sure what to try next. We have two small kids so this has me so stressed out.

I can just imagine this HUGE fire ant nest growing under the house...

Thanks for any advise or even words of wisdom. I'm literally at my wits end on this.

Thanks --

Oh My Gosh. I realize this is 12 years old but new house, on a slab. Exact same problem. I already have Cooks for termite control with tubes in the ground with bait. They said they do the same thing for ants, bugs. I think the problem is Florida, sand, and fire ants and that contractors of new lots, and slab foundations need to exterminate the lot first. Because Florida is overrun with fire ants. And once they establish colonies in an area, you just can’t plop a house on top of them . I think I am setting on a huge ant pit. Ants everywhere. All kinds. Every single person in here has this ant problem. Now I am finding some in my darn toilet when I flush. And they come in at electrical units coming up through an island, at pipes where water, behind stove, anywhere the builder has lines running into house, whether electrical or plumbing, its an access point. I am sick of it. No ant exterminator can get under a foundation. Grrr. Ready to move back up North.