Any advice for ants? - Page 3

SharkE · ‎08-19-2010

We don't have kids or animals . Kids, don't realize that chocolate wrapper dropped on the ground is like saying "c'mon in and sit a spell" to ants.

Soldier ants job is to scout for places to set up housekeeping and find a place for the Queen to give birth to thousands more ants.

Here in Tx. you have to monitor your yard. We find 'em close to water spigots, pooled water (which is rare LOL) I begged hubbo to call Terminex because I was scared they would get in and hit the cupboards, get into the canisters, etc. He said no, they want to slam you with contracts to sign , so, I became my own advocate and hit the internet . Boric Acid, is cheap and does the job. Thank God the place I found had the product to me in like 2 days. Great service !

In my area of Tx. all houses are built on a slab, no crawl spaces at all, all pipes are buried. or in the walls. If I had crawl space I'd have bowls of boric acid sitting out yr. round after I did the going around of the foundation as I described in the above post.

evelyner · ‎03-09-2010

You have argentina ants, I had a problem years ago, I ended up hiring a exterminating service who also uses organic stuff, which I used in the house. They also spray the outside. I could not do it alone, as a matter of fact, we had to lift my cooktop and remove the dishwasher to really get rid of them. They were even in my microwave. My friend had them in her electrical outlet, and they had to remove those to get rid of them. Ants actually look for water too. I live in California, we called a company called Greenleaf. Good luck.

excpa · ‎09-12-2015

I read somewhere that ants hate bay leaves. I leave them around and it seems to be true. No ants. Of course, you do have bay leaves.

Isobel Archer · ‎04-04-2015

Advice for ants: Run, she is going to kill you.

jubilant · ‎06-10-2010

My only advice is to be sure to know what kind of ants you are trying to get rid of. Years ago when we were first married (I was only 19)...... I asked my husband to check out our ant problem and asked him what I should get to kill them. He checked them out and told me to tell the people at the hardware I needed something to kill "pss" (think another word for pee) ants. So, when the lady at the hardware asked me what kind of ants we had, I told her they were "Pss" ants as though that was a common type of ant.

She laughed at me.....and I knew then.....I had been had!!!!!! Went home and told DH and he was ROTF. I will never live this one down.

SeaMaiden · ‎03-10-2010

I just buy those little plastic ant traps and place them under the sink... in back of cupboards and places where no pets will ge ahold of them. This is the time of year that they are most active.

Pearlee · ‎06-11-2011

My advice for ants: Dear ants, stay away from my picnic!

lolakimono · ‎03-29-2012

@Shorty2U

At school, I have this problem- no chemicals allowed. I soaked a paper towel in white vinegar around the entrance to the classroom windows and then laid out ground cinnamon. These together got rid of them. I have heard that peppermint oil also works, perhaps soaked on a cotton pad.

At home, I treat the exterior perimeter of the house and use Terro, as others have suggested. I put them in places my cats don't go, like the windowsill, inside the storm door, and under the kitchen cabinet.

You can also try this around the house (safe for pets). It needs to be the FOOD GRADE kind.

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GenXmuse · ‎05-15-2016

I sprinkle salt outside the doors and window sills. Safe and cheap!

Noel7 · ‎03-09-2010

@gardenman wrote:
@Noel7 wrote:
I just googled "Is Terro safe for pets" and the answer from several sources was NO.
The active ingredient in Terro is borax, so it's safe around pets. Terro is very, very effective at eliminating ants that are seeking sugary food. The only safety concern I've ever read about Terro and pets is dogs chewing up the plastic traps to get to the sugary stuff inside and even then it's not the sugary stuff inside that causes them trouble, but the plastic they chew through to get to it.

Bigger ants are typically the sugar eaters. Tiny little ants (at least here in NJ) are typically the ones that are seeking fats and the Terro traps aren't effective against them. Those ants are looking for a different food source and they want oils or solid fats as a food source. On a human scale we may keep our kitchens impeccably clean, but the tiniest crumb to a little ant can be a month's supply of food. A drop of oil that's largely unnoticed can be a ton of food to an oil seeking ant. If you could shrink yourslf down to the size of an ant and wander around your house, you'd find all kinds of food hiding out that's not apparent on a human scale.

I know what borax is and that it's in Terro.

I'll pay attention to warnings saying not safe for pets every time.