# What could be more M&P than a question about ants.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-be-more-m-p-than-a-question-about-ants/128421
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [September 14, 2002, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-be-more-m-p-than-a-question-about-ants/128421 "2002-09-14T12:40:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2002, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-be-more-m-p-than-a-question-about-ants/128421/1 "2002-09-14T12:40:46Z")
We’ve got ants in our bathroom. So I put a dollop of that goop on a piece of cardboard. Before long, the ants were swarming it like it was a concession stand at halftime.
“Hm,” I thought. “They’ve got it completely surrounded, and there are still more coming down from the wall. I’ll put out another helping for the overflow, so they can all get infected as quickly as possible.” (Aren’t I bloodthirsty.)
So there are two pieces of cardboard, about six inches apart. There are about fifty ants at the first one, and little more than a dozen at the second. I’ve been watching them, and I can’t figure out why _they_ can’t figure out that there’s no waiting at the second one. What’s so much better about the first one?
(If you’re wondering how I can be so cavalier about it, it’s because these ants are about the size of the letters I’m looking at. When I was a kid in North Jersey, we had _ **ANTS** _. I mean, they were like “Them”. These are nothing. But tell that to Mr. Rilch. He’s not going to poop upstairs until they’re all gone. Wuss.)
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### Author:  [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2002, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-be-more-m-p-than-a-question-about-ants/128421/2 "2002-09-14T13:20:21Z")
Ants leave a trail when they walk, I think it is scent (this is MPSIMS, no googling for me). The other ants follow the ant-smell trail to food. The guys who stumbled on the second pile were just lost, and that trail is less strong than the trail to the first.
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### Author:  [@Turbo\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turbo_Dog)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2002, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-be-more-m-p-than-a-question-about-ants/128421/3 "2002-09-14T13:32:12Z")
Wipe your finger on the floor, across the trail going to the first one. It breaks the trail and they go bananas. It’s similar to an accident on the freeway. They just pile up and mill around aimlessly and you can almost hear them cursing the guys in front for making them late.
Messing with ants is oddly relaxing.
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### Author:  [@DAVEW0071](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DAVEW0071)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2002, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-be-more-m-p-than-a-question-about-ants/128421/4 "2002-09-14T19:12:02Z")
**Uncle Bill** is spot on. Social insects create a trail to lead their mates to food. Termites use a pheromone, and I assume ants do, as well.
Since the first piece of cardboard was the first one discovered, it becomes the primary food source. You didn’t mention how long you had waited to put the second one down, or how long between then and your observation (please correct this oversight in further experiments, please, we require specific, documented data), but eventually they probably would have been just as active on the second one, too.
As a Hired Killer, I am especially fond of bait, since _A)_ the target pests need to find food anyway, and _B)_ it uses their millions of years of survival instinct against them. Heh heh heh…Devious
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### Author:  [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2002, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-be-more-m-p-than-a-question-about-ants/128421/5 "2002-09-14T22:13:15Z")
About six hours between the first offering and the second. About one hour between that and my observation.
Now both of them are sparsely attended. I hope this means that the damage has been done.
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### Author:  [@DAVEW0071](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DAVEW0071)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2002, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-be-more-m-p-than-a-question-about-ants/128421/6 "2002-09-15T01:40:43Z")
Six hours is ample time for them to establish a primary food source, especially in a bathroom where, aside from perhaps toothpaste or mouthwash, there aren’t really any competitive food sources.
And, yes, six (or more) hours is enough to do a lot of damage to a colony. Remember, they’re feeding each other as they pass, and distributing it throughout the colony when they get back.
What’s the active ingredient, BTW? Orthoboric acid? What percentage?
(Gad, I am _such_ a pest control geek!)
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### Author:  [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2002, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-be-more-m-p-than-a-question-about-ants/128421/7 "2002-09-15T02:32:49Z")
**DAVEW** : Borax, 5.4%.
There are just a few of them now. But when I picked up the bottle, one of them fell off! Ambitious little bugger!
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### Author:  [@DAVEW0071](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DAVEW0071)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2002, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-could-be-more-m-p-than-a-question-about-ants/128421/8 "2002-09-15T02:56:30Z")
Ah. Figgers. Thanks. That boron is good ant-killing stuff.
And you’re lucky they’re not the big ants. Them’re carpenter ants and they’re gonna do devastation to your house. Sounds like you’re dealing with regular ol’ house/pavement/picnic/pismires. Annoying as all get-out, but not destructive to the structural timbers of the ol’ homestead.
The good thing is, if they show up again, you know just what to do. Just make sure you observe their habits first, to try to pinpoint a trail. Might as well make it easy for them to find the stuff.