Ants? Yummy!
But if you really don’t want 'em, use poison baits. If one type doesn’t work, try another brand. A brand that is effective against one infestation will be ignored by another species/colony. Poison sprays are virtually worthless, as there are always ten times as many ants back in the nest as there are outside it.
Do you have a crawl space under your house? I lived in one where we had ants coming in from the crawl space. Had to get down UNDER the house with the ant spray to stop 'em.
Living in Texas for a number of years, I learned to go outside and hunt all the way around the house for entry points. I never used anything fancier than ordinary Raid, but if you could find where the ant trail led into the house, you could spray it well enough that the little buggers would go somewhere else.
The key is to find where they’re coming in and then get them from the outside. I was poor most of those years when I battling the nasty infestations (and it would always happen after it rained – but wouldn’t go away until I found and wiped out the entry points), so I can assure you that it’s possible to make them go away without a lot of expense.
Also check all points where pipes come in from the walls; that’s another popular place for ants to find an entry point.
Good luck! It takes persistence, but you can do it!
Thanks for the link to my Ask the Pest Control Guy thread, Cajun Man. Always nice to be remembered.
Those pesky little ants have been a big problem this year, in my neck of the woods, too (suburbs of NYC). I think the excessive rain has either caused some kind of population explosion, or else slowed down their natural predators, so the li’l guys are bustin’ out all over.
You need to treat inside and out with targeted methods. Baits are fine, but the main problem with them is that the bait stations can often sit there and be completely ignored by the ants, especially if there are competitive food sources nearby.
On a sunny day (like today), try to find trails and entry points on the exterior of the house. Then spray into the entry points. Not around…into. If you can find an aerosol with a straw-like applicator tip, that’s what you want.
Treat the cracks and crevices around door and window frames as well. Then buy a bag of granular ant bait and toss it around the foundation of the house, like it was chicken feed.
Also, don’t expect one application to solve your problem. You may have to make repeated applications and find new access points.
Ever since I learned that ants and termites are natural enemies I don’t get too upset about ants anymore. …Of course my ants are all trained and stay outside.
I agree with getting some caulk or silicone and stopping up the cracks through which they enter your house as well as areas in the house (like spaces between the kitchen cabinet and the walls) where they might breed. An exterminator clued me in to this when he was spraying my house for roaches, and it helped knock out my roach plague to almost zero. I don’t know how well boric acid powder works with ants, but it might also be worth considering. Supposedly insects “inhale” it through the airholes in their abdomens and then die when the boric powder crystals cut their insides to pieces. (At least, that’s what the exterminator said. If I don’t know what I’m talking about, correct me.)
We had ants in the kitchen sink last summer. I had a lot of fun playing “Noah’s Ark” with myself in the role as the Almighty and the faucet as the flood. Of course, nothing good ever comes from playing God…
We also tried a method of mixing sugar with baking soda in a dish to kill them. It worked fairly well, but water or Raid works better.
The ants started to come into our house when the ground became like a giant sponge outside. You couldn’t walk on the ground with out making a squishing noise for a few days. Now the ants are inside the house. We put some traps down, and the ants seem to be going away, but It has only been a few days.