Strong Ants, can't get rid of.

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BobAristide

BobAristide

Faux stone panels
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I have 3 types of ants in my house, 3 sizes. The smallest ones ( barely visible, 1/16" ) love the product "Protectall" ( active ingredient Orthoboric Acid ) which they take to the queen and in a matter of days they disappear for months. Then I have medium size ants ( about 1/8" ) and a large ( 1/4" )type that are aware of me and only come out at night. I tried "Protectall" and "Terro" ( sodium teraborate ) to these 2 types but they don't eat it. I tried to find Boric acid ( part of the above 2 products ) and mix it with food or honey but no1 sells it around here. I sprayed all kids of products but those work for just a few days.
Any suggestion for removing the colonies?
 
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UPDATE.

Very odd. In the past they loved honey when I put some on a piece of paper to "train" them to eat there. Now...they won't eat anything.
Confused! :confused:
 
Bob:

Ants love strawberry jello. I watched a TV show about how bugs communicate, and ants like anything with sugar in it, but when given a choice of many sweet foods, it was the sweet jellos that were their favoriate. It's believed that jellow is both soft enough for them to eat rapidly and easy for them to regurgitate once they get back to the colony.

You might consider borrowing a trick from Mother Nature. If you look closely, about the only thing that ever grows under a pine, spruce or fir tree are the hardiest weeds that will grow in the most inhabitable of locations. Coniferous trees have a secret weapon they use against bugs and faster growing plants that would shade them from the Sun. As they grow, the lower branches and the needles on those lower branches fall off. Those needles have a chemical in them that makes them taste acidic, but that chemical dissolves into the ground around the tree, and it prevents bugs and other plants from growing or living in that ground.

I used to have a problem with sow bugs living on the north east side of my building. That side was always in the shade, and so when it rained, it would take a long time for the ground there to dry up. Sow bugs like wet conditions, so there was always sow bugs getting into the apartments on that corner of the building. About 10 years ago, I liberated some discarded Christmas trees from a place here in Winnipeg that people can discard their Christmas trees. I cut off the branches and set down a thick bed of them on that side of my building. By summer, all the needles had dried up and fallen off those branches, which I gathered up and disposed of. What was left behind was a bed of pine needles on the ground on one side of my building. I just let those needles rot in the wet ground.

And, since then, there's never been any sow bugs (or any other kind of bug so far as I can see) getting into the apartments on that side of my building.

I believe the chemicals in the pine needles make the ground undesireable to bugs and plants that would otherwise live in good fertile soil. To a pine tree, that's an advantage because the rotting pine needles at it's base ensure that the pine tree has a place to grow where it won't be shaded by faster growing plants, or have to contend with bugs that might bore into it's bark.

Your ants are just out looking for food. Most likely they live in the ground around (or under) your house. I would try putting down a bed of coniferous tree needles around (and under) your house to make them want to move to more desireable ground.
 
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one good way to minimize their impact is to eliminate all food and water sources. Clean up well and even dry out sink after using it. That's really tough with kids and pets but is effective. If there is nothing they want then they wont come around.
 
This morning I found about 200 of the mid size ones mixed to about 10 larger once, all gathered in a small corner in the shower. Right in the open. Weird. I sprayed some Tilex and for now the seem to have almost disappeared. As I said yesterday, they didn't want to eat anything. It looked like they were in some sort of a ritual and this morning they all stood still in that corner alive and well.

I'll try the Jello trick mixed with the 2 poisons I have. As far as pine needles, here in S. Florida there are no pines.
Thanks for the suggestions.
 
It's always interesting to just find a big group of them dead, for no apparent reason.

I think ants must have cults that randomly commit mass suicide when they see bright comet in the sky (aka I turn my lights on in that room)
 
TheClumsyCarpenter said:
It's always interesting to just find a big group of them dead, for no apparent reason.

I think ants must have cults that randomly commit mass suicide when they see bright comet in the sky (aka I turn my lights on in that room)
Click to expand...

I don't use the strawberry jello, I use grape Koolaid.
 
That advice of Nestor sounds good but hard to implement. Hope I can figure it out.
 
make sure you don't have carpenter ants! We discovered a huge infestation that had apparently gone untreated for too long (before us). After trying to get rid of them myself I gave up and called in a pest control who a) laid down a lot of powder and b) discovered that they were traveling up the inside of the wall and nesting in the attic.

Well ... after they were gone, I happened across a major structural problem: they had eaten away the outside beam under the house, cutting it down from an 8x8 beam to just one inch in width!

You can't let wood eating insects go untreated.
 
Old home remedies for ants. Sprinkle Comet around where you do not want them (around picnic tables or dog dishes). Sprinkle cayenne pepper for making them move on. Grits never worked for me. Not really much luck with Boric Acid either.
 
We have trails of ants going up the foundation walls and under the siding, but after that I can only wonder where they go. I have been trying Amdro granules with some luck. It's kind of satisfying seeing them carry off chunks of it. I just have a worry there is some huge nest inside my house....
 
There was an article not long ago in the weekend paper magazine thingie. Anyway- it said to find the inlet source (where are they coming in the house) & put coffee gounds or lemon juice & maybe a few other things around where they come in the house & that should deter them.
I have a carpenter ant problem right now- they are literally eating me out of house & home. I have to sweep up every few hours. we're just waiting on a few dry days in a row to spray around where we think they are getting in.
 
I read some where about corn meal working, but I tried it on an ant pile a few days ago, went back and checked on it, and apparently they are now well fed.
 
I have the small ants in my kitchen for the first time ever. I have kept Terro out for about two weeks now, but they keep coming back. The numbers seem to die down for a day or so, then they are gathered around the Terro in large numbers again. I wonder why it doesn't kill them off.
 
I used a store bought product called 100% natural insect stop. It is in a form of a gray powder. I sprayed a lot of the powder over the area they were showing. That worked. They were carrying the powder and moving slowly, and disappeared into the wall. I am sure they are still there. The powder was successful in directing them away from the sprayed area. You could try this, maybe disturbing them will make them go to the area outside of your house, where they can nest without anybody bordering them. Try it...
 
If the ants are nesting outside the house you have a better chance of stopping them. I suggest doing lots of combo's to try and finish things off. First off put a barrier up around your house (where you see them coming in). Things like cayenne pepper, boiled orange peel juice (basically any citrus), and mint plants all deter ants and are much safer than using chemicals if you have children or animals around.

Second, set up a diversion for them. You want to make it sweet, as mentioned earlier in this thread they love sweet things. Boric is a slow killer but more effective than other methods that kill the ants immediately. If it kills them immediately it may not ever reach the queen. There are a few methods for the Boric, the most common being boiling up water, sugar and the boric to make a sweet juice (you can find measurements on google I would imagine). People also mix it with honey (by heating it up) or jelly/peanut butter. I suppose you could also mix it into kool aid or jello. But you just want something really sweet. If its a liquid put it in a shallow (clean) jar lid and lay it out near their hill so they can find it and carry it back easily. Boric will not kill immediately you will have to continue to treat, but it will give you a better chance of getting to the queen.

Cornmeal does work but not in killing the ant hill. Cornmeal will essentially kill the ant who consumes it (worker) and they wont be able to regurgitate. So if you want you can throw down some cornmeal to reduce their numbers in the mean time but its pretty much not going to kill the queen this way.
 
tried all of the home remedies I could but they would come back. A product called Orange Guard by Home Pest Control from Ace Hardware has been the most effective for repelling them from inside of the house for me. Supposedly safe around people and food.
 
This works really well for me. Diatomaceous Earth I sprinkle it around the foundation of my house and do not get ants inside. If I'm in the yard and see a ant mound I sprinkle around it. This really does work. The label says Ant and Crawling insect killer. Works great have not had a ant inside fro over 2 years
 
I've always found that Raid Liquid Ant Killer is the best stuff around. Good luck!
 
Nestor_Kelebay said:
Bob:

Ants love strawberry jello. I watched a TV show about how bugs communicate, and ants like anything with sugar in it, but when given a choice of many sweet foods, it was the sweet jellos that were their favoriate. It's believed that jellow is both soft enough for them to eat rapidly and easy for them to regurgitate once they get back to the colony.

You might consider borrowing a trick from Mother Nature. If you look closely, about the only thing that ever grows under a pine, spruce or fir tree are the hardiest weeds that will grow in the most inhabitable of locations. Coniferous trees have a secret weapon they use against bugs and faster growing plants that would shade them from the Sun. As they grow, the lower branches and the needles on those lower branches fall off. Those needles have a chemical in them that makes them taste acidic, but that chemical dissolves into the ground around the tree, and it prevents bugs and other plants from growing or living in that ground.

I used to have a problem with sow bugs living on the north east side of my building. That side was always in the shade, and so when it rained, it would take a long time for the ground there to dry up. Sow bugs like wet conditions, so there was always sow bugs getting into the apartments on that corner of the building. About 10 years ago, I liberated some discarded Christmas trees from a place here in Winnipeg that people can discard their Christmas trees. I cut off the branches and set down a thick bed of them on that side of my building. By summer, all the needles had dried up and fallen off those branches, which I gathered up and disposed of. What was left behind was a bed of pine needles on the ground on one side of my building. I just let those needles rot in the wet ground.

And, since then, there's never been any sow bugs (or any other kind of bug so far as I can see) getting into the apartments on that side of my building.

I believe the chemicals in the pine needles make the ground undesireable to bugs and plants that would otherwise live in good fertile soil. To a pine tree, that's an advantage because the rotting pine needles at it's base ensure that the pine tree has a place to grow where it won't be shaded by faster growing plants, or have to contend with bugs that might bore into it's bark.

Your ants are just out looking for food. Most likely they live in the ground around (or under) your house. I would try putting down a bed of coniferous tree needles around (and under) your house to make them want to move to more desireable ground.
Click to expand...

I'm late to this by a long shot, but I didn't know about the jello, thank you. I know they hate cinnamon and I'm a bit confused on the pine needles as my backyard is full of them but they just come up the tree's I believe. I am so sick of ants! At least this year isn't as bad as last year and we got a handle on them!
 
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