ants everywhere!

[Happiest mommy]

Help! does anyone have a solution for the ants that have begun invading my house I have 2 DD and and a fur baby so I need to use something that is safe. These ants are out of control and I clean up every night to wake up to a trail of ants what to do? TIA

 

[adisneymama]

We are having the same problem. Someone told me to use self rising corn meal. I haven't tried it yet. It is suppose to swell inside the ant and kill them. I would like to hear if anyone else has any suggestions. I'm afraid the 3 yr old would eat more of the corn meal than the ants!

 

[daisyduck123]

We have an exterminator come every 3 months. I HATE bugs & refuse to live with any . I think our "bug guy" is worth every penny...I don't have time to be wiping down my floors & chasing those ants.

We have pets & kids too and Terminex does have products safe to use around them.

 

[DisneyMama629]

When we had ants a few years ago we used Terro. It is a gel that you put on some paper. It worked great. No ants within two days. We put it up on the counter so our dogs couldn't get to it.

 

[d1sneyf4n]

Vinegar- Wipe down your countertops, cupboards and any other places where you've spotted ants with a 50-50 mixture of white vinegar and water. Repeat throughout the day to maintain the efficacy. Or you could use a spray bottle and spray the carpet if that is where you are finding them.
Spices-Herbs/Spices

Spinkle cinnamon, mint, chili pepper, black pepper, cayenne pepper, cloves or garlic – whichever one you happen to have – in the area where you've seen ants and along your home's foundation. Bay leaves can also be placed in cabinets, drawers and containers to further deter those pesky critters.

Coucuos- sprinkle where you find them. It expands their belly and um yes they burst. Sounds really harsh.

I got all this off the web. Hope some of these help you. Good Luck!

 

[janloz]

Vinegar- Wipe down your countertops, cupboards and any other places where you've spotted ants with a 50-50 mixture of white vinegar and water. Repeat throughout the day to maintain the efficacy. Or you could use a spray bottle and spray the carpet if that is where you are finding them.
Spices-Herbs/Spices

Spinkle cinnamon, mint, chili pepper, black pepper, cayenne pepper, cloves or garlic – whichever one you happen to have – in the area where you've seen ants and along your home's foundation. Bay leaves can also be placed in cabinets, drawers and containers to further deter those pesky critters.

Coucuos- sprinkle where you find them. It expands their belly and um yes they burst. Sounds really harsh.

I got all this off the web. Hope some of these help you. Good Luck!

I second the vinegar. We had black ants in our kitchen including dishwasher and i took everything off the counters and wiped down the counters, area under dishwashers, near door, etc and haven't had any ants in 2 weeks.

 

[redlawyer]

I swear by the Terro stuff. Every spring, as soon as it rains, we get the ants. No amount of cleaning gets rid of them. But as soon as the Terro is out, within three days they are gone. We put it on the counters, behind the flour and sugar canisters so that the dog, cats and kids don't come into contact with it.

 

[momma2kiddos]

We have exterminators too but a friend of mine said one summer she washed her whole kitchen down in bleach and water (50/50 maybe?) and then drew chalk lines outside her doors, windows, and inside around the baseboards. Apparently there's something about chalk where ants won't cross the line. I seen it with my own eyes! LOL

Oh and pure strength Melaleuca oil works too.

 

[ctjsowens]

The Terro stuff is the trick! We came into our kitchen one morning and found a couple of hundred ants on the counter. Went to the hardware store and bought some and within 3 days they were gone. Never seen anything work so quickly.

 

[humboldthny]

Your best bet is to treat them outside of your house...find their trail, follow it back to the nest and treat the nest (we buy an all-purpose bug killer at Home Depot) - I've tried everything else inside the house, but we've had the best success knocking back the population by treating outside.

As much as I hated to start using the chemicals, we had too...living in the South isn't like living in the high desert where I grew up. The bugs are awful here We try to treat as sparingly as possible. We had an exterminator service for awhile, but realized we could do the same thing for a lot less money if we stayed on top of it.

Good luck! I'm sure our invasion will start soon....

 

[PinkRhombus]

I swear by the Terro stuff. Every spring, as soon as it rains, we get the ants. No amount of cleaning gets rid of them. But as soon as the Terro is out, within three days they are gone. We put it on the counters, behind the flour and sugar canisters so that the dog, cats and kids don't come into contact with it.

We had previously had the plastic rectangle things of it that you snipped a little place on and they crawled in it...worked perfectly.

Didn't see that this time but they had the regular liquid in the bottle and I liked it just as well.

We had ants the night before Easter. Home Depot was closed so I bought some similar "traps" at the grocery...made by Raid. Didn't work at all! Ants barely took a second look at it.

The Terro...they flock to that.

 

[Happiest mommy]

is Terro found at Home Depot? sounds like what I need and what regtangle things are you talking about? I might look into those too...

 

[tweedlemom]

While looking for a permanent solution, spray any stray ants with a Windex-type glass cleaner. The ammonia seems to kill them instantly and your countertops are shiny afterwards!

 

[msmayor]

The only way to really rid yourself of the ants is to find a way to attack the nest. vinegar may work temporarily, but it won't solve the problem.

As others have said, try Terro Ant Baits. You can get them at Home Depot, Lowe's...even Target or WalMart.

I set three outside Terro baits where I normally see the trails outdoors, then set indoor baits (plastic containers that the ants crawl in to and 'eat' the bait).

They bring the bait back to the nest, "tell" their friends.

As hard as it may be, DON'T disturb the ant trails once you set the baits out. You may find that you have MORE ants when the bait stations are placed, but that's a GOOD thing. The more ants that eat the buffet, the better chance you have of eradicating the nest.

Within a week or two you should see marked improvement.

 

[PinkRhombus]

As hard as it may be, DON'T disturb the ant trails once you set the baits out. You may find that you have MORE ants when the bait stations are placed, but that's a GOOD thing. The more ants that eat the buffet, the better chance you have of eradicating the nest.

Within a week or two you should see marked improvement.

They were gone the next day for us!

It's pretty interesting to watch them. With the liquid, you put several drops on these paper dots. After a bit, you have an entire circle of ants eating the stuff and more trying to climb over them or push their way in.

 

[ktlm]

Pretty much every spring the little monsters make an attempt to invade us through our patio door. We just had it happen 2 weeks ago. They would come in a crack around the patio door somewhere then climb up to our kitchen counter top. We put one of the liquid ant traps on the counter out of reach of the kids and dog and near the patio door where they were coming in. Then we just tried not to look and ignore the fact that they were invading our house to get to the trap- yuck! They were gone the next morning and we haven't seen any since.

 

[Evi]

The scouts are out!! Ok I also get ant scouts and mine happen to be carpenter ants they only come out in the spring and I've seen them march across my yard from a neighbors yard who refuses to do anything about it. So I swear by terro bates and spectracide. Just keep them away from any edibles in your garden. After using both products the ants just marched past my house and went on the next house.

best of luck

 

[Luv Bunnies]

First, figure out where they're coming in. They like to come in around our sliding glass patio door and around the garden window in our kitchen. I spray along the outside with Raid or some other bug killer. For the inside, I found some orange spray that works great and is not harmful to people or pets. I got it several years at a natural foods market. I think it was called Orange Essence. It's basically just really concentrated oil from orange peels. It's irritating if it gets in your eyes but it's not poison. I sprayed it around the window and door on the inside and also covered the trails with it on the countertops. It worked great.

After a few years of getting ants and seeing roaches in the garage, we broke down and got a contract with Orkin. They come every two months and spray around the perimeter of the house. They also look for activity like ants nests and they take care of them. We haven't had any ants since they started and we've had very few spiders or other bugs in the house. The chemical they use is not harmful to us. We're just careful not to step in it when it's wet but they usually come when we're at work and school so it's dry by the time we get home. We pay about $43 a month but it's really worth it to us.

 

[disneylove69]

Walmart sales an ECO Smart line that is not harmful to kids or animals. I have not tried the bug spray but have used the weed contro. It works great and the backyard smells like cinnamon for a few days.