HELP!!! Our home has been invaded by ants!

[DarrenGMiller]

Thanks again all. Things SEEM to be quieting down with the ants. The bait traps must be working, though the ants are still ranging a little to find new food sources, there seems to be fewer of them visible. Last time I thought that though, they spread to the master bath counter. I think they are ocming in under the tub in there and moved under the flooring and walls (even though we have boric acid in the walls) to find the easy food sources, then when we stopped them there, they came back closer to their entry point in search of less risky and more plentiful food supplies. We have 2 dozen bait traps out and spray any that stray from the area of the traps with my mix of orange oil, tea tree oil, and powdered chalk. I found out that the father of one of my players is an exterminator (not locally, he lives in another state), so my player is going to ask him what he recommends for people that can't use pesticides.


Thanks again! Hopefully I am winning this round.

DM

 

[Maldur]

Do NOT turn on your AC.

Clay, you have the funny!

 

[Lhorgrim]

I think the liquid goo mentioned earlier in the thread is called Terro.

I have used the stuff (you put it on small squares of cardboard and the ants take it back to the nest) and it worked great...eventually.

As others have said, it takes any method a bit of time to deal with an ant colony.

Good luck.

 

[DarrenGMiller]

Several sources have mentioned Terro, but I can't find it anywhere.

DM

 

[DarrenGMiller]

Oh, and although their numbers seem less, today they found the dishwasher and I accidentally put too much soap in their and flooded the kitchen (seeing them there upset me).


DM

 

[Lhorgrim]

Try this link www.terro.com .

It has a store locater button, and many of the stores are major retailers. They have a lot of different products apparently, but I have only ever used the liquid drops on cardboard type.

I hope this helps.

Jay

 

[Bryon_Soulweaver]

Have you used bleach?




PS: if you have grass (the green kind, not the brown kind), I still suggest using my other idea.

 

[Nifft]

It's already been mentioned, so I'm just confirming that pepper works. Ground black pepper. It's safe for kids & pets (might itch a curious cat or dog nose, but no damage) and ants hate it.

-- N

 

[DarrenGMiller]

Try this link www.terro.com .

It has a store locater button, and many of the stores are major retailers. They have a lot of different products apparently, but I have only ever used the liquid drops on cardboard type.

I hope this helps.

Jay

Thanks! I have found some of the Terro liquid and granules and picked up some of the sealed liquid baits. When the rain stops, I will go pick up some of the granules and make the 5' wide band around the house that they suggest. Now that it is raining quite hard, they are coming in more again. We are washing the floors and walls (and doors and anything that stands wtill long enough to be washed) with vinegar/orange oil/oxy clean and water.

DM

 

[DarrenGMiller]

As an update, Terro is crack for ants. They line up at the "crack house" (Terro bait station) in droves waiting for their turn to buy (I mean take some). Then they go home and tell all of their friends about it and where to get it. After about 12 hours, there were dozens of ants literally waiting to get in and get some.

The catch is: Crack Kills!

I have not seen an ant in the house for the past 24 hours. We put out 2 Terro stations and only 1 has seen any activity. They never even looked for the other after finding the first one. We have several more left if needed.

Thanks for the suggestions, especially for suggesting Terro and putting up a link to the store locator. We just went down the list until we found some Terro and voila! No more ants (knock on wood).

DM