Ants everywhere

They're coming in for the winter hibernation. You need to set some bait traps out to kill the queen and seal up the holes they are coming in from.

we had that a few years ago.

called orkin.

they put down a ton of killer then came back once a month for a year

never had the infestation again.

still get a few stranglers now and then but nothing before

we had the same bad one year, then worse, then worse, than had to call someone. then never again.

i tried with over the counter stuff but was losing ground.

so i nuked them.

i hate them, btw. for their freedom.....

Adopt an anteater.

DamnWeather wrote:

My house is infested. Is anyone else having this problem. It seems to be getting worse each year. I had no ants before.

Make mixture of borax and sugar water. Put some in areas where you see the ants. They will take it back and kill the queen. I have done this with great success.

Ants is a real problem in the house. I suggest you to read useful remedies on https://getridpests.com/ants/ants-traps-how-to-combat-the-insects-safely-and-effectively.html . In case you have faced the ants’ problem recently, try natural methods that are friendly to the environment. If you find the nest and destroy it, all working ants will die out within a week.

100% ignorant idiot posters. Ants forage where there is food and water. Quit being slobs and they will go somewhere else. Wipe down surfaces with solvents to destroy their scent trails to deter them faster.

You can't "kill the queen" with brown house ants because they have no single queen. They have a number of potentially fertile females and if you kill an active one, another one will turn fertile and take her place.

Exterminators make things even worse because the nests are rarely inside your house. All that happens is their natural predators are killed off, and they won't come back until their food supply does, namely the ants, which they will do easily.

We had the little brown pharoah ants invade our house a few years ago. Spraying did not work but we eventually laid out a dozen bait traps that specifically list that ant type. That solved the problem. Now we lay the traps out right away when we see an ant.

You need some Terro. For inside tiny little ants, the stuff is amazing. For about 24 hrs after you put it out you'll be pretty sure every ant in your area is coming to eat - so put it on a windowsill, on the floor by the door, close to where you think they're coming from.

Then they'll trickle off and die.

One trick - if you can stand it - don't wipe down the counter until they're gone. They follow the path of their friends - so if htey sniff all their friends going to the terro they will go straight there too and not look all over your counter and such as much, so at least you concentrate 'em.

We live in the south so have a pest contract b/c palmetto bugs and stuff are just a fact of life, but no reason to pay a service fee for ants usually.

Years ago the house I was in got infested with these big black ants. They weren't in anything; they were just walking across a certain section of the wall by the ceiling. We called an exterminator and he said they were a species of ant that live in massive colonies in tree canopies. The colonies can span multiple blocks.

Anyway, the issue was that there were a few branches that were part of the ants' highway that were touching the house so the house became part of the highway. The solution was to cut back all the branches around the house. The ants were gone the next day.

how come if you leave some fruit out for a day, ants all of a sudden appear? I get that they are attracted to it but how did they even realize it was there? are they they just waiting in the cracks of my house, ready to pounce, or something?

I think it's obvious to say that they have hidden cameras and are always watching. The moment you leave something out they're interested in from their camera room, they start their journey to the food location. Duuuuh.

Sorry, I thought this thread was a metaphor describing Trump supporters. Carry on.

hit the Ace or Home Depot wrote:

You need some Terro. For inside tiny little ants, the stuff is amazing. For about 24 hrs after you put it out you\'ll be pretty sure every ant in your area is coming to eat - so put it on a windowsill, on the floor by the door, close to where you think they\'re coming from.

Then they\'ll trickle off and die.

Terro is a commercial form of borax and sugar water that Flagpole mentioned and easier than making your own. It\'s very effective.

We have fire ants. Not in the house, but you stumble across their nests anywhere there's foliage or grass. Those little rascals are nasty. Nothing I enjoy more than stomping on their hill and watching them freak out.

Big problems with these little guys. Very difficult to stop. I have tried the borax/honey solution and bait etc. They just keep coming. It's like trying to fight time

Digital world wrote:

I think it's obvious to say that they have hidden cameras and are always watching. The moment you leave something out they're interested in from their camera room, they start their journey to the food location. Duuuuh.

Why do I have to Badsplain everything?

There are always a few ants wandering around solo looking for food. When they find it, they turn around and retrace their trail, leaving a smell that says they found food. Other ants then know it's a hot trail and they follow, and when they return the trail is even hotter and a swarm ensues.

Because they usually have established colonies outside, exterminating them is useless. Killing them is useless. There are always more and the foragers will get in again. There are two things you can do:

1) be a clean freak and make sure the foragers never find anything, in which case it will look to you like there's no ants because you rarely or never see them.

2) make it difficult for the foragers to get in/out. The only practical way to do this is to not kill off their natural predators. Never spread poisons around your house, exterminator or homemade.

In practice you don't usually have to be a clean freak, just be cleaner than the other directions. Ants flow to the best, most easily obtained food source, and if they do well enough outside (or a neighbor's apartment) then they will leave you alone.

Right now on the anternet their is a post titled: "Humans everywhere".

Terro works really well for inside.

I remodeled a house that had an ant mound right by the front sidewalk. I dumped some Amdro granules all around where the ants were. It was fun to watch them immediately grab those granules which was about half as big as they were and take them down the holes in the mound. A couple days later there were no ants. Seven to ten days later I saw a few ants (probably newborns) and reapplied a little Amdro. No ants for about 6 weeks now.