We have recently had an invasion of “piss ants”. Those annoying, TINY ants that find even the smallest crumb and swarm it by the hundreds. This morning I scrubbed the kitchen, removed all stray morsels of food, sealed the dog food in baggies and put out Combat ant baits that are supposed to poison the entire colony when the workers take the stuff back to the nest. So far, I have not seen one ant near the bait.
A few years ago we had some slightly larger ants coming into the house and used the baits w/good results (but I still never saw one near the bait). What is the deal? I have checked at different times of the day and night and I have never seen even ONE ant near the bait! When are they eating it if at all?
Also, I was looking at some ant info on the web last night and read that sometimes baits encourage these little pests to break the colony into smaller subdivisions. Anyone know anything about that? All I want to do is get them out of the house. From what I read I think these are either pharoh ants or some kind w/the word “odorous” in the name. Why don’t I see them near the bait at all?
That stuff rocks. Ants were all OVER this house - I couldn’t sit on the couch and read without swatting those little bastards. Because we let it go so long it’s taking a bit longer to kill 'em off, but it sure is fun-in-a-creepy-sort-of-way watching them swarm around the bait and knowing they are carrying that sweet stuff off to their DOOM.
I’ve also been told that boric acid mixed with molasses works, too, but the Taro was cheaper and less messy. And, really, who needs a box of boric acid lying around the house?
When ants invade my house, I follow the little ant trail until I see the nook and/or cranny from which it enters through the wall. I then douse said nook/cranny with a thorough dose of insecticide. It will take care of that ant infestation, unless and until they find another way in.
The only time I used boric acid was when I had cockroaches, and then the periphery of my apartment looked like someone was setting up to do some really long lines of cocaine.
Like tracer said, the boric acid thing is for roaches, not ants. Boric acid is nice because it’s non-toxic. I was told that it sticks to their bodies and somehow this prevents them from reproducing.
I use ant bait, and it works great.
The kind I buy comes in a little metal cartridge with a hole in the center. The hardware store guy told me how to use it properly, and I’ll share it with you.
Inside the cartridge is a poisoned gelatin bait. It works best if you heat it and stir it up with a toothpick. Think about a hot pizza pie carried through a room you’re sitting in.
Smells good huh?
Do the same thing with a pizza pie right out of the refrigerator. You can’t smell it.
That’s why you need to heat this stuff and stir it. I just set them in the sun and stir them when the gelatin gets soft.
As you have pointed out, the ants take the bait to their home and eat it there. So you need to put it on one of their little ant highways. Make it “easy access”. Also; don’t kill them with sprays while they’re getting the bait. It’s tempting, but it defeats the purpose.
Good luck.
Ants have different food preferences. Some ants like grease more, and some ants like starch more. If the ants go after things like soap, it is a sure sign that they are grease ants.
My experience is that there are some ants that don’t really like those metal cartridge things and for those they won’t work. I’ve never tried the heating and stirring thing though, so give that a whirl.
Most will have between 1-5% Boric Acid. Lower concentrations sometimes work better as the levels will eventually build up to higher toxicity in the nest.
The goal is to have the workers feed the stuff to the Queen so she’ll die, without such a swift kill-off of the nest that the Queen will be “spooked” (I don’t know the scientfic, ant behavior term for that) and have her and her thus-far-inactive sister-Queens grow wings and form new nests (budding).
jawdirk is right about there being grease and starch/sugar ants. If you don’t want to make traps yourself (Boric acid is much cheaper in drugstores than in hardware stores, where it’s sold as ‘Roach-Prufe’) - I’ve had success with the Raid ant-traps which use peanut butter + Boric Acid for the grease-type, which seems to be kind I’ve seen.
Thanks for all of the info. I haven’t seen any more ants since I scrubbed everything down and put the Puppy Chow in ziploc baggies (right before putting down the baits). I will definitely keep all of your advice in mind if they start showing up again.
I remember my Dad putting down little pieces of cardboard w/what I think was being described by chique. I’d use it now but I’m too nervous w/ a 4 year old, a 2 year old and a 3 month old puppy roaming around the house. It was tough enough isolating the baits from them.
