After leaving us pretty much alone so far this summer, the local ants this morning mounted a full-scale home invasion. The formicid fiends attacked multiple targets from multiple ingresses seemingly simultaneously. Are they coordinating efforts now?! The dogs’ food bowl – and water bowl! – were the worst hit, but an (I admit) poorly swept kitchen floor, the scrap collector, and both bathrooms also saw brutal action. I don’t know or even want to speculate what they’re after in the bathrooms.
What’s your strategy for dealing with these chitinous hell-spawn?
Yes to boric acid or Borax powder, as @TokyoBayer recommends. You can get boric acid at any pharmacy in a pill bottle. One bottle should last you the rest of your life. Or you can pick up a box of Borax at any grocery store.
We get invasions about twice a year, and I’ll mix up a small batch of sugar and boric acid powder (about 4 to 1), and dissolve it in water. To keep things neater, I’ll use a contact lens case as little two-bowl reservoir and put it on a trail. You might be alarmed to find that the ants really swarm your bait in the first day, but that’s a good thing. They’ll take it back to the colony and wipe it out. If you’re really lucky, the queen will die, too.
Err on the side of a weaker solution, somewhat counterintuitively. If it’s too strong, it’ll kill the worker ants before they get it back to the colony.
Our kitchen experienced an ant invasion last year. I tried Terro with mixed results, as it would temporarily get rid of them only to have them return in a day or two so I concentrated on finding out how the ants were getting in. I could see them on the window apron inside, so I went outside and followed their trail from the window to the ground.
After some research, I purchased AMDRO Outdoor Home Perimeter 24 -oz Ready to use Ant killer from Lowes. 24 hours after sprinkling it on the ground, the ants were gone. Finding out how the ants are gaining entry could be the key to your battle. You could also use a Borax solution on the ground to see if that helps.
When our invasions occurred, there were too many ants to fit around a contact case. A made several puddles that were two inches in diameter and they would be completely surrounded. After a couple of days they would start to thin out.
Yeah, this is the important step. I usually didn’t have a problem because there were so many it was obvious.
Agree with all of the above. I use Terro ant bait instead of mixing it myself. They seem to come in waves. This year we also had red crazy ants nesting in the ground. The ant baits didn’t work well enough so I had to get the boiling water and flood the nest several times to get rid of them.
It is banned for domestic use here now but I used Borax and sugar solution, soaked very stale, dry bread with it and put in in small pots and dishes in the ant runs. They take the bread back to their nest and feed it to the larva, which kills them. Eventually the nest dies completely.
There are commercial and killers available too.
“Nippon And Killer Bait Stations” are one option available here.
A moat around the dogs’ food will help. You can do it by putting the bowls in a container of water, or you can buy a commercial product. Here’s what I use for my cats:
I tried the make-it-yourself approach, but the cats would push the bowls until they touched one side of the moat, giving the ants a place to cross.
You can create a non-toxic barrier using diatomaceous earth/Fuller’s earth. The microscopic diatom shells are abrasive to insect exoskeletons. There are many brands and forms. Here’s what I use:
For you Dopers putting down the Borax mix, how are you keeping your pets from eating it? My dog eats anything not nailed down and if it is, he eats the nails.
The boric acid/Borax mix isn’t strong enough or in sufficient quantity to pose a health threat to pets (unless you have pet ants). Still, we try to put it under something that is still on the ant trail to keep from stepping on or kicking it. Most of the time, though, the ants head to our garbage, which is under the kitchen sink. Pretty easy to put the bait station in a safe place there.
Cut a drinking straw into coupla-inch pieces. Stuff the Borax (I was taught to mix it with a bit of jelly) into each end with a toothpick or some such, then tape the straw pieces near their highways/away from pets.
I think that may depend on how motivated the ants are.
In Taiwan, winters don’t get cold enough to slow them down so the colonies are massive and the rainy season dumps enough water that the ants really want dry places.
I tried various methods but even if the area was cleaned or sprayed, they just start searching from the last known location.
Good to know, thanks. My boy is very food motivated and I don’t want him getting sick. If he thinks something is edible, he will try to get at it. (And he’s not even a beagle.)
Thanks, good advice! I put out some borax mix last night on a high counter where my athletic, but short dogs can’t reach it. It is effective, but you have to be patient because it attracts even more ants for a day or so.
My general strategy has been to follow ant trails back to where they’re getting in, lightly Raid that spot and then obliterate the rest of the trail with warm soapy water. It usually works, but these ants are surging and coming from seemingly everywhere at once. It’s not not working, but I think a multi-pronged attack is needed.
Peppermint is a good idea. I think I have some of the oil and I definitely have a whole hillside of fresh peppermint. It’s as aggressive as the ants are.