Community Chat

[Mom2Dogs]

@SilleeMee   There are no trees touching the house the wall/ceiling they are climbing is connected to our 3 season porch...I went out on the porch and looked really good, no ants!  

My husband put two terro in ground ant bait stakes outside by the kitchen window...which he does every year, last year I hardly had any ants!  And we have never put the stakes out this early.

I squirted all areas with vinegar/water mixture...the house stinks but the parade of ants has stopped, for now.

Thanks everyone for the replies...much appreciated.

[Skyegirl21]

I've used diatomaceous earth sprinkled all around the outside perimeter of the house and it stopped the infestation-

[happycat]

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@SharkE wrote:

Boric acid rules !

we get it online and buy it in 5 lb bags and put all around perimenter of houe foundation. they track it back to the nest and the Queen ant and that wipes 'em out.

That little dab that is sold at stores isn't enough for  nothing. got to go commando.

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Do you know, @SharkE, if boric acid will work on fire ants? 

[Still Raining]

No, no, no

please don't jinx us - I had my big battle three years ago and my nerves are shot 🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜

[Icegoddess]

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@tends2dogs wrote:

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@Eileen in Virginia wrote:

We had them a few years ago in our kitchen and main bathroom. There were so many of them! We'd never had more than a few in the past. They were coming in through the laundry room, traveling in the grout lines between the floor tiles and coming upstairs in the spaces behind the walls. They honed in on anything sweet, even a drop of mouthwash on a shelf in the medicine cabinet. We don't have small children or pets, so we put boric acid powder around potential entry points and that took care of them. If possible, locate their entry points and caulk or block them. This was one time that I was really glad I had so much Lock and Lock! Anything that might have attracted them got locked up tight. Good luck! 

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@Eileen in Virginia  We used boric acid and/or diatamateous earth sprinkled in the carpet when we had fleas in the house one year.  We had to be on top of it, but it took care of them and we didn't have to resort to chemicals.  We have also put a line of the powder around baseboards.  There are many natural ways to get rid of pests.  I refuse all inside chemical treatments.  I have a dog and a husband that has survived cancer.  Besides, I don't want to take a chance of it triggering a neurological disease.  Bug chemicals work on the nervous system of bugs.  

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@tends2dogs Boric Acid is toxic to pets.  Diatomaceous earth should be used with caution.  The food grade is better, but you still don't want your pets or even yourself breathing it in, so you don't want to sprinkle it where they can go up to it and sniff it.

There is a spray that is non-toxic that you can get at Lowes.  It's EcoLogic Ant & Roach Killer. It's made with Lemongrass oil and specifically states that it is safe around children & pets.  The other ingredients are water, white mineral oil, wintergreen oil, isopropyl alcohol, carbon dioxide, polyglycerol oleate, and Sodium Benzoate.  It does have a fragrance to it and that was really my issue with it since I had an asthmatic cat and didn't feel comfortable using it around him.  

[SharkE]

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@happycat wrote:

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@SharkE wrote:

Boric acid rules !

we get it online and buy it in 5 lb bags and put all around perimenter of houe foundation. they track it back to the nest and the Queen ant and that wipes 'em out.

That little dab that is sold at stores isn't enough for  nothing. got to go commando.

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Do you know, @SharkE, if boric acid will work on fire ants? 

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don't know why it wouldn't. I'll do a little search and confirm.

[SharkE]

• Boric acid should be reconsidered as a control for fire ants. Previous research indicated boric acid was ineffective. But that may be because the boric-acid concentrations were too high: they either repelled the worker fire ants or killed the ants before they could carry baited food into the nest. New research suggests boric acid may be an effective slow-release toxicant at low concentrations. In a lab study, scientists fed worker fire ants sugar water containing boric acid at concentrations of up to 1 percent. The ants lived to carry the bait into the colony, and after six weeks worker ants and brood were reduced 90 percent.

[Porcelain]

A line of plain table salt works as a barrier too. They hate crossing it. And sealing the areas where they get in as well as possible.

What I found worked the best, though, was to remove the primary bait that was attracting them. Which in my case was the cats' food. I got some ant proof bowls and then put the cats' bowls inside them. Ants stopped visiting.

[tends2dogs]

Thanks for the info, @Icegoddess .  I usually use food grade DTE.  I vacuum after working it down through the carpet.  There is a product called Flea Busters that I believe is Boric acid.  I will have to check that out.  It is funny that it is toxic when you can dilute it and use it in your eyes.  I know that both powders are extremely fine and "puff" up when applying, being careful not to breathe in.   

[Icegoddess]

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@Porcelain wrote:

A line of plain table salt works as a barrier too. They hate crossing it. And sealing the areas where they get in as well as possible.

What I found worked the best, though, was to remove the primary bait that was attracting them. Which in my case was the cats' food. I got some ant proof bowls and then put the cats' bowls inside them. Ants stopped visiting.

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@Porcelain tell me more about the ant-proof bowls.  What I do is I have metal bowls that I turn upside down and add water in the rim and then put their food dish on top.  The ants won't cross the moat.  Problem is, the cats sometimes drop their food into the water and it gets gross.