This was a bit unexpected, but I just got home from visiting the parents over the weekend. One room, and one room only - absolutely crawling with ants. Gross. Looks like black carpenter ants. I killed about 12 with the classic “pick up with toilet paper, crush, flush” before giving up and heading to the hardware store. I’m a bit surprised to see that the room is my master bathroom, second floor, no obvious food sources in there.
I bought some ant bait, as well as some spray. I placed a bunch of bait in that bathroom, and in a few other places. I’m holding off on the spray, as I think it’s better to have the bait out for a while, isn’t it? I’m planning to just avoid that bathroom for the next few days.
Yuck. Anything else I should be doing? This really came out of nowhere. I did have a smaller ant problem about a year ago, but I just placed the bait all over the house and the ants disappeared within a week or so.
/no pets or small children, so if I have to chemically nuke the bastards…I can do that.
I get ants in my kitchen every spring. I put one package of those four baits down along two walls and they’re always gone in a couple of days, then back again a year later after the cold snaps. So, yeah, maybe give the baits a couple days to see if they’ve reduced in numbers by then. Especially in an area where there’s no other food source, they should empty those baits in no time and hopefully get the whole colony.
It must be a spring thing. I get them twice a year. They come in the second floor window, to the left of my kitchen sink. I spray and put Terro out, and that gets them. Then, about a month or two later, in early summer, they come back. Same treatment, and then they are gone until next year. Right now I’m waiting on the second wave. It make my skin crawl thinking about it.
I can’t recommend the Terro liquid bait enough. They make indoor and outdoor versions, and even though every year brings about a new crop at my house, they’re always dead within days of putting the bait out. Three days of ants a year is manageable. My sister had a chronic, horrible infestation every year that pretty much laughed at every chemical known to man, but when I finally convinced her to use the terro, it was gone in two days. She’s a believer!!
it does take a couple days for them to feed. let them alone (they are fun to watch, dozens of the buggers pumping up the stuff) and they will take it back to the nest to feed others. it make take a few more days for all to die. works well when i’ve used it.
I tried all sorts of ant baits and traps at my old place. But the little bastards kept coming. Even with Terro. They didn’t like the stuff and ignored it completely. Finally, I came across the perfect solution. Cinnamon. Yup, I just sprinkled ground cinnamon around the areas I knew they were come in from and no more ants. I had to ‘refresh’ it every month or so but it worked perfectly.
Another +1 for Terro liquid baits. The things are just ridiculously effective.
3 hours - baits COVERED in ants
24 hours - hundreds of ants inside, outside, on top, and filing to and from back to the colony
48 hours - 3-4 ants total. Anywhere.
72 hours - Clark Griswald: “Gone!”
I also love Terro for smaller ants, but if these are really carpenter ants, you have wet wood somewhere that needs to be fixed. Check the attic, and see whether you have a leaky roof. Or check outside for gutter problems.