Ants, ants and more ants!

Every summer I get attacked by ants. One day, there will be no ants and the next BAM! ants all over the place .

I came home tonight to find Ivo's wet food filled with ants and ants eating the one piece of dry food she managed to toss out of the bowl. Ants in the kitchen, ants in the living room...I found the place in the kitchen where they were coming up and filled it with pet-safe insecticide, but still can't find where they are coming from in the living room. Ant traps are on my grocery list for this weekend (to be hidden under the furniture where Ivo can't get to them).

Does anyone else have problems with ants in the summer? And do they hate it as much as I do?

Where I live I have a horrible ant problem. The big ugly black carpenter ants. They gross me out , they got into everything at my place too, I tried lots of stuff and in the end I ended up hiring an exterminator. If you have the carpenter ants though, take a look outside, they usually like in trees like lilac and stuff like that, maybe you can put traps there.

My next-door neighbors have an anthill, right next to my driveway. These HUGE black ants travel across my patio and yard, to my other-side neighbor's, for the oranges that drop off of her tree. Around 8 pm, my patio is covered with these crawlers.

About once a month, I sprinkle ant dust on the hole and put a line of it, along the edge of the patio (outside the fence). Unless it rains, this keepss them under control.

We've never had any in the house. I have seen ant-proof pet bowls, in the Drs. Foster & Smith catalog. You might try that.

We just moved in December. We used to get them at the other house. I'm keeping my fingers crossed here..........

Classic Ant Recipe ....

3 cups water
1 cup sugar
4 tsp. boric acid powder (available at the pharmacy)
Bring water and sugar just to boil and stir in boric acid. Place mixture in small jar lids and place in ant paths. Remaining mixture can be stored in a tight, well marked container in cupboard. Keep jar lids filled and out of reach of children and pets. You can place it under mesh or another can, so ants can get in but animals can't.

Ants make me freak!

Christy, I can relate. BUGS! UGH! We had ants when we moved here, and Jerry went to Lowes, (Home Depot has it too) and bought this ant spray that can be used indoors and outdoors. Once dry, it is totally safe for animals. So, we put our babies in the bedroom, and sprayed away at all the floorboards, etc. Not one problem since, but we do it every spring. It only takes maybe an hour if that to dry, and totally ant free! I recommend it highly. Wish I had the name of it, but dont'. It comes in a spray bottle with a little pump on it. (you know, the kind of pump that has a little hose)

Here in germany not, but in australia we had a problem too.. i dont know what my mum used but they kept on coming back every summer anyway

I fully recognize and acknowledge there is a place in this world for ants..

I just wish their place wasn't anywhere near me.

In the house we get black ants (why they're called piss ants I'll never really get) and outside we have fire ant mounds. But in Africa there are ants (siafu) that can kill you by invading your lungs and suffocating you to death while you sleep (woo gotta love the National Geographic Channel!)...so yea, ants in the cereal isn't so bad after all

When I lived in London we had a lot of ants in our garden. The local deer park there also had lots of ants (and anthills). Now I live in Devon, I'm sure there are ants here too but I never see any at home. Our house is at about 900 ft above sea level - maybe that makes a difference? I don't know. But I'm not fond of ants.

Sue

Originally Posted by lakeriedog

Classic Ant Recipe ....

3 cups water
1 cup sugar
4 tsp. boric acid powder (available at the pharmacy)
Bring water and sugar just to boil and stir in boric acid. Place mixture in small jar lids and place in ant paths. Remaining mixture can be stored in a tight, well marked container in cupboard. Keep jar lids filled and out of reach of children and pets. You can place it under mesh or another can, so ants can get in but animals can't.

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A few years ago we had an ant problem, and I discovered with a little research that not all ants are "sugar ants"; some prefer protein. (Hence the cat food, I think.) So what I did was mix peanut butter with a little corn syrup and some boric acid powder and spread it on little paper plates ... left it out for a few days. I figured that way I had all my bases covered. It worked!

Thanks for all the good suggestions! Susie, if you get a chance could you get me the name of that spray?

Well, this morning I was able to find 2 places the ants were coming up through cracks between the floorboards . Those holes got stuffed with ant powder, and I put a paper towel over them to keep Ivo away (she is rather wary of things out of place, like paper towels on the floor). Tonight, I'm going to pick up some clear nail polish to fill the cracks.

Always check the sills of doors and windows too.
My hubby now has the task of dealer with all the vendors and the janitorial firm he uses states they have a good product for ants that is pet safe-must be more of a commercial product. I keep on telling him to get the name-I'll emailhim to remind him of this.

Originally Posted by Kellyyfaber

We live next to a big field and a briar patch so there's a lot of bugs outside near our house. We spray "Bug Stop" by Spectracide on the outside of our house (around windows and the bottom of the house) and in the crawl spaces and it really keeps the nasty creepy crawlies out.

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I wish it was that easy-I live in an apartment building with a coffee shop on the first floor. The landlords are reluctant to spray because of the food, and the food attracts the ants. Not exactly earth logic

Here in Oregon, we have a horrible time with the sugar ants(piss ants ).
There,are some very effective ways to rid your home of them, one of my favorite is a product called Toro, it does not harm the enviroment or our precious kitties, and it works quickly without a lot of cost. You can buy a small bottle of it and, put a few drops on a piece of cardboard and the ants will take it back into the nest to the queen thus destroying the whole colony at once.
Nyzki

Ants are a real problem for me, too! I've tried the gamut of solutions; all work for awhile, then the ants are back. Right now, I spray rubbing alcohol & it works for a few hours. The spray I used was Ortho Home Defense, and it worked well last year. I have found that to be the case with all my solutions; they work for awhile, then the ants come back. That includes using professional pest control services. Apparently, they feed the dead comrades to the queen, who lays eggs with ants that will be resistant to that particular chemical. It's so FRUSTRATING!!! All during the long cold winter, when people'd complain about the cold, the weather, etc., I'd reply, "But at least the ants are gone!" - that's how much ants bug me!! (sorry, no pun intended)

I have gone the last three years with NO ants. However, because they are digging up the trailer park to put in a new gas line, I have ants coming in the windows, out the windows, up under the doorway, coming in through cracks I didn't even know I had, climbing up the sink drains and down the garbage pail

I was so mad one day after I had spent 30 minutes crushing each and every and in the sink, one by one, that I grabbed a can of Pam and sprayed them all.

They all rolled over dead. Yep, you heard right, deader than a doorknob.

So now when I see ants, I just spray them with Pam. It can't hurt the cats and it kills them deader than dead. If you spray the floor, remember to wash it off, it gets very, very slippery.

OK...even tho I'm reading this sitting at my desk in work where we don't have an ant problem, I'm twitching and itching!

I have a real problem with sugar ants at my house. If one of the boys vomits in the living room while I'm at work, by the time I get home, there is a line from the door to the vomit. When I feed the colony, the ants congregate under the food.

Outside, I like Ortho Home Defense. I spray the foundation of the house every few months. Inside, cornstarch and lemon juice. The ants don't like lemon juice for some reason and a line of corn starch in the door frame can't be crossed. I read somewhere it clogs their breathing holes.