topic Re: Terro for ants in Community Chat

Terro for ants

Judaline — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 13:44:31 GMT

I know this works for big ants, but what about those teeny ants? I don't want to buy more if they're just going to ignore it. Do you think it'll work? It's here that I even heard of Terro and it worked great when we had big ants.

Re: Terro for ants

gidgetgh — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 13:48:48 GMT

@Judaline - yes, it works for the tiny ants. To be honest, I had it out and then talked to my pest control company that handles my termite baiting and he told me to get rid of it. He said it actually attracts the ants, then they leave and then it attracts them again and they come back.

Re: Terro for ants

gardenman — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 13:54:10 GMT

Will Terro lure ants? Yes. Terro is a poison hiding in a food source. The ants find the food and take it, and the poison, back to their nest. Other ants in the nest will go back and bring back more of the poisoned food until the whole nest is dead. That's how it's supposed to work. I've put out the traps and watched as one ant finds it and wanders off with some. More ants show up until the Terro trap is swarming with ants. Then they all disappear over a few days. It's good stuff.

Re: Terro for ants

Icegoddess — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 14:02:02 GMT

If you see a line of ants, follow the line to where they're coming in. Sometimes just a little caulk closing off their entry spot/crack is enough. I don't buy the pest control guy's advice, at least not for roaches. They just want you to buy their maintenance service and I don't want their poison in and around my house. If I put out roach bait, usually when I see one (and I get the really big ones) they're too slow to react and get away.

Re: Terro for ants

4kitties — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 14:06:36 GMT

Terro has worked great for us. I used it about Five years ago and the ants are gone!

We had a bad problem and hired a professional. His stuff did nothing!😤

Used Terro and ants are gone! Terro is safe and much more economical too!

Edit to add: We had the tiny ants so I know it worked on ours.

Re: Terro for ants

tends2dogs — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 14:07:18 GMT

I agree with everything said here except for the bug guy. The stuff works, but let it do it's thing. If you see the ants going to the bait, refrain from killing them yourself.

The stuff is sticky though, so I place it on a piece of the box it comes in. It can be a real mess if gets on something you don't want it to.

Forget the bug guy. I don't want that poison in my house either. My husband has had cancer and I have a dog I don't want exposed either.

Re: Terro for ants

Carmie — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 14:07:25 GMT

Yes, it works for all types of ants. This stuff works great.

Just be sure pets can't get to it.

Re: Terro for ants

Bhvbum — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 14:09:11 GMT

@gidgetgh wrote:
@Judaline - yes, it works for the tiny ants. To be honest, I had it out and then talked to my pest control company that handles my termite baiting and he told me to get rid of it. He said it actually attracts the ants, then they leave and then it attracts them again and they come back.

LOL. I can't decide if the pest control guy is that ignorant, or he wants to sell you a bug contract. Regardless, it's absolutely ridiculous. I have not found anything better than TERRO. I hate sprays, and the smell of them. If I see a few ants, I immediately put a drop down, and yes, they may return a couple of days, but then BOOM suddenly, they are gone for months (or next year) at a time.

p.s. the ingredient that works is Borax, the very same used for laundry.

Re: Terro for ants

Judaline — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 14:36:00 GMT

Thanx-heading to Ace now!

Re: Terro for ants

catter70 — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 14:42:09 GMT

Yes, I had used it in mid March and they crammed themselves in that little container and then they were all gone the next day and no ants until again the other day, same room, different spot. Put down bait and they went in and now are gone. Will hope this takes care of it.

Re: Terro for ants

Major Shopper — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 14:43:02 GMT

@Judaline Do yourself a favor and call the exterminator.

I tried the do-it-yourself route, and by the time I invested in all of the home remedy products, I could have had the job done cheaper!

My do-it-yourself route took 3 months without success. The problem was resolved in 30 minutes with an exterminator! I hate ants!!!

Best of luck!

Re: Terro for ants

ciao_bella — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 14:53:17 GMT

I also attest that Terro works. Almost every year in or around the month of April or May, I get a brigade of small ants into the house. Using the Terro does work, but you need to be patient when the ants start to come to feed on it. It takes 3 or 4 days of them appearing, but refrain from killing them! They take the bait back to the nest and once the queens ant (there usually are more than 1 queen with ants) is fed the poison, the rest of the nest will die.

Re: Terro for ants

tends2dogs — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 15:32:06 GMT

@ciao_bella wrote:
I also attest that Terro works. Almost every year in or around the month of April or May, I get a brigade of small ants into the house. Using the Terro does work, but you need to be patient when the ants start to come to feed on it. It takes 3 or 4 days of them appearing, but refrain from killing them! They take the bait back to the nest and once the queens ant (there usually are more than 1 queen with ants) is fed the poison, the rest of the nest will die.

I agree about refraining from killing them as I said in my post above. It was VERY hard to turn off the light and walk away, but in the end, (2 days), they were gone.

Re: Terro for ants

occasionalrain — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 16:49:28 GMT

The main ingredient is common Borax. It can make pets sick. I wouldn't use it. We just put baking soda across the kitchen door threshold and keep kitchen counters clean.

Re: Terro for ants

RedTop — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 18:56:29 GMT

We have monthly service with Dodson and rarely see anything moving here.

Re: Terro for ants

Oldfaithful — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 19:37:14 GMT

I have had luck with the ant baits....took more than a week or so but the previous poster is correct, let the ants swarm around it to get it back to where they're coming from.

Re: Terro for ants

ciao_bella — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 21:05:44 GMT

@occasionalrain wrote:
The main ingredient is common Borax. It can make pets sick. I wouldn't use it. We just put baking soda across the kitchen door threshold and keep kitchen counters clean.

Taken from the Terro Website:

Q: Are the TERRO® Spider & Insect Traps safe to use around kids and pets? A: Absolutely! The Spider & Insect Traps are non-toxic and a great way to easily capture, spiders, scorpions, ants, cockroaches, crickets and other crawling insects without the use of chemicals.

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Borax, the active ingredient in TERRO® Ant Killer and TERRO® Liquid Ant Baits, is a natural ingredient that has a very low level of toxicity for humans, but is deadly to ants. It is considered a very safe way to treat insect infestation.

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To your point, the main ingredient is Borax in Terro, but it's such a small quantity that it would take a lot of Borax ingested by a pet to become a problem, and even then it would be minor

It's the same with baking soda; using small quantities pose no problem for pets, unless they consume a large amount.

*Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), a common household product with numerous uses, can be harmful to pets if ingested in large quantities.

Re: Terro for ants

Love4cats — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 21:31:51 GMT

@Judaline wrote:
I know this works for big ants, but what about those teeny ants? I don't want to buy more if they're just going to ignore it. Do you think it'll work? It's here that I even heard of Terro and it worked great when we had big ants.

Terro is amazing for getting rid of both big ant's and the tiny one's. I use it every summer around deck's and pool area.

Re: Terro for ants

Mom2Dogs — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 23:25:51 GMT

@Judaline Terro works great for the tiny ants..at least for me it does. I get them EVERY spring in just my kitchen.

I put a drop of TERRO on a piece of cardboard in several places on my countertop and we also put the stakes in the ground outside...the wall that is my kitchen back wall. In 24+ hours they are gone. One year I had ants so bad that I had to vaccum them off the walls!

Re: Terro for ants

Trailrun23 — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 00:39:51 GMT

We spray outside around the windows and doors with Ortho Home Defense. Have used it for years. Once in the spring and once in the winter. DH used the rest in the bottle he had leftover last week when I saw a huge roach for the first time in over 10 years. I totally freaked out and have emptied every kitchen cabinet, upper and lower. Used every cleaner I can on my countertop, wash the sinks several times a day and sent three boxes of dishes and small appliances I couldn't be sure weren't touched by the huge roach to the GW. DH thinks I am overreacting but I despise those things. I just put out two dozen roach baits just to be sure. DH still shaking his head.