And please don’t tell me to tell them that this organic whatever is woo. Whatever your opinion-landlords don’t ask those kinds of questions routinely, and pregnancy is protected.
So what to do. We’ve tried the usual organic remedies-cinnamon, bay leaves, vinegar, citrus and nothing. So I want to use my tried and true never has failed me yet Terro (found out about that here!) spray and traps. They’re hesitant about the chemicals but still complaining. Old building, no lease, we have for years (7 yr. tenancy) pretty much shared varmint killing responsibilities.
It’s her first, she’s miscarried once so naturally she’s cautious.
BUT, that said, they have open food around, a lot of open food. Like their cereals and grains. I can only preach that that stuff needs to be in jars and things.
Latest infestation is bad. We’re on the other side of the duplex, and Terro loving me has no ants. I can spray the hell out of the outside, but am at a loss as to what to do inside. I seem to be in a corner on this.
Tell them to eat the ants. They’re generally tasty, high in protein, and easy to catch and kill.
I’m only kidding a little bit here. If they’re crunchy-granola-enough folks, they might get on board with this. Then you can cut back on the Terro as they graze your ants away too.
Convincing them that a little cleanliness is important for the baby’s health will do wonder for your vermin problem.
If they don’t cut off the food supply by properly storing their edibles the outbreak will never end. Honestly, you’ll just have to keep repeating that until they get it.
While landlords are generally responsible for controlling pests, there are always going to be some provisions there about tenants who create the problem for themselves (such as with open food containers).
Furthermore, I can’t imagine a law that would allow the tenants to dictate your pest control methods, especially if those methods are questionable in effectiveness.
I think the tenant needs to take reasonable precautions to store food properly. Then they need to clean their counter tops (hot water and soap should be fine) and mop all hard floor surfaces.
After THAT, you should apply pesticide for the ants. Because if you try to kill the ants while there’s an open and easily available food source, you might as well try to hold back the sea.
I agree with dracoi that nothing in the landlord agreement says that you have to follow their *preferred *method of pest removal, especially if it could lead to a larger problem for your property. “Organic” pest control just doesn’t work as well as conventional, so you use more of a less-effective product. Also, as a landlord, you have a vested interest in telling them to store their food properly so this isn’t an ongoing problem. Ants today, roaches tomorrow, then mice in the winter. Can you imagine trying to humanely and organically remove mice with a new baby in their house?
Pretty sure the landlord will not be happy about this feature (quoted from Wikipedia): “They use their large, curved foreclaws to tear open ant and termite mounds”
I’ve met way too many crunchy-granola people who seem to use it as some excuse to be pigs to be very tolerant of the “food all over” if I were a landlord. Have a serious talk. As in I will not help you until all the food is in proper bug preventing containers. The mention upthread was correct, ants now, roaches, pantry moths and mice later. Just. Gah. Tell them to stop being slobs.
The only compromise I can see working, between them storing foods correctly and then you helping with pest control, is what works for me. Since I have cats I don’t like using pesticide sprays either, and instead use the little baits by Raid that you set around the baseboards and outside doors.
Different from the Terro products I’m looking up, it’s a solid so there’s no chance of spilling or anything where it might come in contact with hands if those are concerns for the tenants. They’re also 0.01% pesticide and very effective, and say child proof on the package. And one pack of 4 baits is about $6 at the grocery store, so way cheaper than those Terro borax baits. Each time I’ve used these, it’s been in the spring and then they worked for two years, so I’ve only had to put them out every other year. http://www.raidkillsbugs.com/en-us/products/raid-ant-baits/tabs/ingredients