Ants. How do you deal with it? (glass, leaks, price)

[TwinbrookNine]

You're talking about two different kinds of ants. You don't say where you are (makes little difference).


The little ants are easily eradicated with stuff like Cyper WP (look it up on Amazon). They are very susceptible to that stuff (so are spiders, btw). Whatever you use, make sure you treat the perimeter (including the wall between the units) very well - out 3 feet on the exterior. Soak it. Those ants will disappear.


The large ants, especially if dark brown or black are carpenter ants. Very different. They infest structures (not pantries) and can easily be eradicated by sprinkling boric acid powder along areas where you see them crawling. Boric acid is poisonous to them (and cockroaches too) and they do not recognize it as a poison, so they walk through it. In some instances, carpenter ants can destroy structures by burrowing into wooden studs and joists, but that takes years to happen. Some structures just seem to harbor them. You may be in one. But just one (or maybe a second) 3 month treatment can eradicate them permanently.

[BarberryPl]

Borax mixed with peanut butter. It's cheap and works every time.

[Labonte18]

Originally Posted by Rynldsbr

Fire ants, on the other hand, are the actual spawn of Satan. They are reddish in color, appear to have little tiny horns, and bite like a microscopic venomous pit bull. Since moving to TX have been brutally and viciously attacked twice, with the most recent resulting in approximately 50 wildly irritating and unbelievably itchy welts all over my ankles and legs. At one point I contemplated carving out chunks of flesh with a grapefruit spoon for relief. I did discover, on a hunch, a good remedy (temporary) for the itching/pain: Vicks VapoRub. The menthol and camphor relieves the irritation and also help dry out the little pustule they leave behind.

Campho-Phenique is quite good, likely for the same reason you mention the Vicks.

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by Labonte18

I don't find it difficult to kill fire ants, but destroying the mound is horribly difficult.

I saw a neat thing on Facebook where they poured molten aluminum into the mound, allowed it to cool then dug it up and washed it off. It made really amazing castings. Very artistic - beautiful. Some people might have a problem that it represents the fiery death of hundreds of fire ants, but I that just makes me like the sculpture more.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGJ2jMZ-gaI

[PreservationPioneer]

I had good results using Spectracide perimeter spray (you can buy it anywhere). I had a lot of carpenter ants around the perimeter of my house, and they are gone now.

[joeyk4]

So I put a raid ant trap in the closet yesterday and haven't seen any carpenter ants yet since getting home but I saw several tiny tiny ants on the kitchen counters and I have an ant trap there also and wipe down the counters whenever there is food. I'm in the burbs of Chicago....it's extremely hot and humid today so maybe that also brings them in? We have the AC running. I notice tons of nats outside also....can any of this be from the house attached to ours? I don't know how clean they are but judging from the outside....when we decided to by the house it was Feb and only were here at night so I never noticed the shape or the neighbors house until after we locked in to the deal. I know the firewall between houses are supposed to protect you.

[Robino1]

Got a new one that I've never encountered...until yesterday. Those very tiny sugar/ghost ants inhabited my vehicle. Seriously? They were ALL over the place! I started spraying and they were moving their eggs! They set up a nest in the frame somewhere in my Jeep!

I think I got them. Might have discolored some of the metal trim around the window....just a tad. But they were All over the place. Roof of jeep, between the plastic and the metal frame on the outside, in the console UGH!

I. Hate. Ants. I do get the tiny ones from time to time in the house....never have I seen a colony set up camp in a vehicle before

After spraying the whole thing, I let it sit outside of the garage. Hubby was worried about the paint job (leased) so I threw a few buckets of water over it. He kept thinking about it so he put Terro bait in each section. This morning I checked and the smell from the spray inside ... ugh. Opened the windows to let it air out. I didn't see any today.

Crossing fingers that they are gone.

[jimj]

Been fighting ants for the last couple of months, those little $^$%# sugar ants. Put out 3 Terro traps yesterday afternoon and POOF, they're pretty much gone today!

[pgrdr]

Originally Posted by joeyk4

It's so weird. When we first get home from work we don't see any ants....then as we start moving around (like going through mail, figuring out what we want for dinner etc....) the ants start coming out. I saw 3 just now, all in the same area near our coat closet and near our area rug in the living room (our place is small so it's all pretty much the same area)my. I put an ant trap in the closet just now. I wonder why these ants showed up last week the same say we got a swarm of tiny ants in our pantry? Is it related? Also can dog pee bring ants? We have a problem with our little dog marking....I bought an industrial cleaner for that so our house doesn't start to smell but I don't know if that or the cleaner can cause a problem.

Have you tried Rug Doctor Urine Spray? If not, that stuff is great. You spray it, lay a damp white cloth over it, let it dry, and it's gone. It is made of strong natural enzymes that eat the organic substances in food, blood, and urine as it is damp, which is why you must lay a damp cloth over it. I use Rug Doctor Urine Spray for all kind of stains, not just dog urine.

Everything I'd tried for dog urine before left odors I didn't like, but this doesn't and it so easy to use.

[pgrdr]

Originally Posted by joeyk4

We just bought a home. It's a duplex attached to one other home. I had and exterminator spray the first week we moved in for prevenative measures. I was told you really only need it twice a year....so for the first 6 weeks I saw only 1 spider....nothing else...but now only 2 months after spraying I an finding ants everyday. Very tiny ones all over the pantry so I cleaned it, made sure everything was sealed, and put in a few ant traps....but I'm finding about 5 large ants a day. A few in the bathroom but mostly in the living room....I killed about 7 large ones since I got home from work a few hours ago. I put a couple ant traps under the couch (can't leave them where the dogs will get them)....What is causing this? We are clean....and had the place sprayed 2 months ago. Having them come again at the end of the week....I don't think it's coming from the house attached to ours because what I'm told is there a a fire wall in all homes....I just am paranoid and now wonder if the ant problem is why many people lived here before us and didn't stay long? (I was told this by a neighbor after we moved in....the realtor acted as if the same man lived her for a long time but he probably rented it out). I don't know. It's really bothersome since this is a nice home....nicely kept for the most part and in a good neighborhood. It's a ranch house and I know on the first floor it's more common.

We had tiny little ants swarming in our kitchen last summer. I think the heat and drought had them searching for water in addition to the usual search for food. I tried using cinnamon but it didn't work. It just stained my window sill. Once summer was over they left on their own. We also battle spiders year round, but it's worse in summer and fall.

When summer weather kicked in again, the ants returned. This time I did the following:

Added caulk where there were gaps under the kitchen window sill, along the sink, and where the counters meet the walls. Ants come through the tiniest cracks in walls, tile grouting, windows, and outlets so they must all be sealed.

Plugged all empty electrical outlets with baby-proofers.

Set near their favorite entry point a piece of paper covered with cornmeal and left it for them to eat. They loved it so much I felt a little guilty watching them get all excited over it as they were hauling it back to their nest. They can't digest it so it ends up killing them. After a couple of weeks, they disappeared, and weeks later, we've not had a single ant return, so it must have killed their entire colony.

The baby-proofers in the outlets have cut down on the number of spiders that make it into the house, too. For the few that do, we set those sticky traps that are non-toxic on the floor in unobtrusive corners and they go right for it, get stuck, and die there. I can sleep without feeling freaked out now because spiders like the sticky stuff on those traps more than they like me.