&%^ing Ants

[bad_idea]

I just built a 8x16 shed, finished it Saturday, took me 5 weekends. In that time tiny black ants have setup house in the framing of my shed. WTF? I have had issues w/ ants in my other shed, and my kitchen. These things are everywhere. I have owned the house for 5 years and had minor issues w/ them. This year they are terrible, and now my new shed! I need these things dead and gone. I am sure the issue is the neighbor behind me. She has a compost pile and a pear tree. What is the best way to eradicate the ants? Thanks all.

 

[Falcon67]

I use Ortho Home Defense - spray around the house and shop regularly. We had an incident about two months ago with sugar ants on the counter. Finally figured out they were coming out from behind the paneling above the sink near the light. WTF. Had to spray the perimeter of that board and the edges of the counter top, then used a hose end pre-mix bottle of Triazicide to wash that whole wall of the house, then sprayed Home Defense in the weep holes. Never saw where the buggers were coming from, but they didn't come any more after that. I also bait around the shop and fence with Amdro. It works on fire ants, red ants and apparently carpenter type ants.

 

[CJM8515]

FIRE KILL THEM WITH FIRE!!!!!

Seriously borax sprinkled all over works well. Or ant spray

 

[Farmall450]

Burn down the neighbors compost pile and tree?

 

[D rock]

Just be glad their not fire ants...

 

[LS6 Tommy]

If they're tiny, they're not destructive...

Tommy

 

[mustanginky]

Terro ant traps work wonderfully. Theyre essentially borax though.

 

[SMKS]

Terro works on most kinds of ants. I find the liquid is most attractive to the ants. As mentioned, the actiave ingredient is borax, so it's pretty safe.

But, some types of ants are resistant to borax. We have small brown ants in our area that don't seem to die from eating Terro. They'll just keep coming forever no matter how much Terro I put out.

That led me to discover Advion. It's the real deal and is normally used by exterminators. You can buy it on ebay as a gel.

 

[BillK]

+3 on the Terro By the way, I doubt that is has anything to do with your neighbor's compost pile.

 

[crf731]

You'll find everything you need here.

http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/

Identify what kind of ants they are, read the reviews, ask questions and pick what you think will work best.

 

[Falcon67]

If they're tiny, they're not destructive...

Tommy

Sugar ants and fire ants seem to love electrical.

 

[Da Bull]

50/50 mix of borax and jam. I put the mixture in water bottle caps. Put them where needed!

 

[nicksnothereman]

Can't get rid of ants permanently. Thems some heavy rascals. It would help if the crickets eat them but they don't (at least the fire ants).

So...the trick I have with ants is to provide a relatively stable food source away from where I want them to be. Pretty clever on my part (pats myself on the back). They seem to like sugary stuff or dead bugs (but not stewing dead bugs from a water trap). See what makes these guys swarm and bait to that.

As I've noted several times on here, it's a bad thing to interrupt the food chain too much in your general vicinity through the use of pesticides because the life cycles vary. Not only that but there is some form of generational knowledge that can affect the effectiveness of the pesticide in the future and the demeanor they exhibit. I wouldn't mention it if I didn't notice it myself and thought it was fairly insane but I assume they replicate quicker so adaptation (or evolution) would be easier to see among bugs in a colony setting. It's interesting to me at least to see bugs unafraid of humans...even the widows.

 

[awdblazer]

50 50 mix of baking soda and icing sugar

 

[LS6 Tommy]

Sugar ants and fire ants seem to love electrical.

Ahh. Learned something new. I've never run into that here with sugar ants & we don't have fire ants (yet).

Tommy

 

[southalabama]

Second the ortho home defense. In drought times the house gets ants. Sometimes fire ants. When it's super dry I spray around outside house. Seems to be holding.

 

[Regnar]

My vote is for Boric Acid. Work great on flea's, cockroaches, ants and just about any creepy crawly. Works so well on fleas we stopped using flea medication on the dogs (3 Labs).

 

[G McKay]

I use the Terro, also. I make metal trays out of flashing and put it anywhere I see ants in the yards. They like to go up and down trees. So I will put them at the base of any tree that I see them on. I also put them all around my garage and house.

Another thing I learned. Ants would rather walk along a garden hose then walk through the grass. So, I have a piece of garden hose about three feet long that I lay in the yard. I put several drops of Terro all along the top of the hose and ants will be all over it licking up the Terro. A bottle of it is only about $4.00 at Home Depot. Try it and your ants will hit that stuff like crazy and it will knock out a whole colony in two or three days.

 

[bad_idea]

FIRE KILL THEM WITH FIRE!!!!!

Seriously borax sprinkled all over works well. Or ant spray

Are you the guy that burned his house down trying to kill a spider?

Thanks for the recommendations guys. I think I will hit Home Depot today and try some Terro. I will attempt to restrain myself from fire bombing the lawn or the neighbor's lawn for that matter. You can see all the sh!t in her lawn from space. I'll start small and get more aggressive if I need to.

 

[bczygan]

The name says it all:

 

[Skeetobite]

My wife is always reading stuff on the "girl forums" where some of the stupidest junk get's posted. Someone said to mix up 50/50 water and dawn dish soap, spray it on the ants and problem solved.

Naturally, I told her that was stupid. She used it on a pile of ants on our deck and they were stone cold dead in seconds. I was like WTF? No poisons, no damage and no stains. Couldn't believe it-

 

[MP&C]

Ivory liquid. Does a number on beetles too, feet in the air dead.

 

[SARG]

Safest method of all ......... soapy water sprayed with a one gallon sprayer will eliminate them.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

That's what we do in the schools since we can't use just about anything else. It blocks up the pores the insects breath through.

Tommy

 

[buddyboy]

BORAX
+10

if you know what they like to eat it makes it easy.

DO NOT KILL THE ANTS they need to take the borax back to the nest. when you put the bait out you'll have 10X the ants swarming... then in a day or two their numbers drop to zero

if they like sweets then mix borax with powdered sugar or jam or honey. it needs to be like paste so use water if needed. put in jar lids or bottle caps where ever you see the ants...

protein eating ants, i use peanut butter, bacon bits

usually we get ants in the house in the spring, I make up bait and put it where ever I see the ants and try to find the point of entry into the house to place the bait there.... a few years ago i noticed the ants not touching a bait station, made a new one with a little less borax in it and the ants tore it up, so you need to keep an eye on it and adjust the borax levels.

rule of thumb for me is right around 2 parts food 1 part borax

at first it will draw more ants but they go right to the bait and haul *** back to the nest, this is what you want them to do, you'll see a steady increase in traffic the first 2-3 days then a steady decrease to zero over the next 2-3 days and you'll be ant free till next attack the following year.

 

[buddyboy]

thought I would add, the first time I tried borax I did not use enough with the food, I thought it was another BS wives tale, then I experimented with borax levels and moisture content...

I've found that keeping the bait in a paste like state works best... maybe they take up the borax better or like to 'drink' the water, regardless I keep that bait moist and it works well

I've read that the borax is abrasive and cuts their outer shell, they bring it back to the nest and before you know it the nest has enough borax in it that it is a death zone.

another theory is that the borax kills slowly and all the ants 'teach' each other where the easy food is... the number of eggs laid at that time of year is high, the number of workers searching for new food goes down because they are all busy hitting the 'honey hole' then the workers die from the borax before the eggs hatch... the number of remaining workers cannot maintain/defend the nest...

doesn't matter to me how it works, it just does, but it's fun to wonder lol

 

[Paul1956]

New house... anytime I do food prep in the kitchen if
I don't cleanup immediately I have ants.

I also have ants in the master bath but have no clue
what the food source is in there.

Put out some Terro bait stations... they start a bucket
brigade to the station which goes for a coupla days then
slowly subsides. I learn where they are coming from with
the bait stations... but plugging up the little cracks with
silicone seems fruitless as they will just find another entry.

I have the Taexx pest control tubes inside the kitchen
and bathroom walls... the guy is coming out on Saturday
to recharge and help me with the battle.

 

[jaye944]

ok I've not read everyone's reply. but THIS works

Talcum powder,

Get say a medicated one for the smell, but make sure it contains TALC and not cornstarch,

dust it like fcuk, give it 12-24 hours and there gone.

works 110%, had ants all over my living room and kitchen this fixed it
not toxic and kills the little fuckers

I just built a 8x16 shed, finished it Saturday, took me 5 weekends. In that time tiny black ants have setup house in the framing of my shed. WTF? I have had issues w/ ants in my other shed, and my kitchen. These things are everywhere. I have owned the house for 5 years and had minor issues w/ them. This year they are terrible, and now my new shed! I need these things dead and gone. I am sure the issue is the neighbor behind me. She has a compost pile and a pear tree. What is the best way to eradicate the ants? Thanks all.

 

[mrpizza]

I had real bad fire ants in my yard when I lived in Pensacola. I used that Amdro stuff, shook a little bit by each mound I could find in the yard and then spread an even layer over the rest of the yard. Bastards were gone in a week and I never saw them again the next year. Then I moved.

 

[fsae0607]

I've always made a bait with REAL maple syrup and 20 mule team borax. One tablespoon of each, well-mixed into a paste. Works well for Argentine Ants.

Been battling ants all summer at my house. Stupid drought