How to get rid of the dag burned ANTS!

[sancraft]

These stupid little brown sugar ants (Argentine Ants) are all over my yard and now all over my house. I've been keeping them at bay all summer, but now I think I;m losing the war. I brought my purse to the computer desk to pay some bills and pull out my check book and ants are everywhere inside my purse. They are on a sealed pepermint package. So I go back to the living room and look on the bench where I keep my purse and you guessed it, ants. They are filing out from where the cable comes through the floor for cable tv. I sprayed with Ortho, which seems to killed them on contact and discourage them from using that entryway again, but then they just find another way in. Yesterday, they were covering a package of bubblegum on DD's dresser. They were coming from the attic that time. What kind of poison do I need to treat the yard and the house. I want them DEAD! They don't seem to bite very often, thank goodness, as I'm allergic to ants, but they are a threat to me. Please help.

[RoseGarden]

I don't know if it's the same ants or not, but I have had what I call sugar ants, either black or maybe brown (too small for me to tell what color they are) and they run around real fast. The only thing that works for me is a clear liquid boric acid called Terro. It's thick and sticky and the ants eat it and carry it back to their nest and die. It's about three dollars for a little bottle of it, comes in an orange package. It has these little cardboard squares you punch out on the back of the package and put a drop or two of the Terro on them and put them where you see the ants. Takes a couple of days but it really does work. A lot of places carry Terro.

[Judy in IN]

You can get Terro at the Lowe's here. It's even easier to use the clear plastic containers.

IT WORKS!

[sancraft]

Thank you. I'll go get some today.

[WayneR]

You can get some boric acid and mix up your own . The terro ingrediant label will tell you the percentage to use (approx 3%).

Corn syrup or sugar for sweet eaters.

Vegatable oil for grease eaters.

Look around the foundation for their entry paths and/or mounds. DO NOT treat in the house as that only encourages them to enter
Place the bait on small squares of plastic (milk jug) or cardboard. If necessary, gently place a few ants on the bait. They'll get a taste, then spread the word!

The old Terro had arsenic in it

[Wolf mom]

If your area is dry, use a lot of diatemaceous earth around the base of your house outside.
It sounds like they maybe nesting in/under your house though if it's that infested.

Good luck. I just hate ants!

[wy_white_wolf]

Sugar cube placed on a sheet of flypaper.

Place several of them around. Eventually the colony will colapse because of the lose of workers.

[GoddessKristie]

I had this problem in my old apt. and Terro didn't work for me. What finally did was pouring borax over their path. They kept coming for a couple days and kept walking right through it, but after about a week they were gone and never came back. I assume it was because they were carrying the poison back to the nest and they were al dying. Seems like different things work on different colonies. Good luck I hope you find something that work for you!

[jukebox]

Sancraft,

Don't feel lonesome. I am two hours south of you and we are covered up with these ants. We average 1 1/2 hours everyday trying to get rid of them and our weekly bill right now is close to $15. This has been going on for close to 2 mos. and we are still surrounded by these miserable creatures. I talked to the extension agent and his main concern was that they were not in our house, which they are not. Right now we have pulled all the vegetation away from the house and destroyed their nesting areas. We had some spots that were so bad when we pulled back the ground cover they were literally in the millions.

Our neighbor who has done nothing about any of this has them in their house so bad that they are in the dishwasher and coming out of the electrical receptacles. We told them to get rid of the vegetation that is leaning against the house and everything falls on deaf ears.

If you will look around the base of the trees you will find trails everywhere and columns of ants going up and down the trees. We have cleaned our trees to where there is nothing around them and within a few days they are back.

The extension agent also told us that you might have as good as a 95% kill rate but you will never get rid of them completely. So far we are the only ones in the area, that we live in, making an effort to exterminate them. I think this whole thing is a loosing proposition.

We use "Terro" and a garden sprayer to aggravate them. You will probably notice that the "fire ants" are not as bad. These ants do not like fire ants but are friendly with other colonies of there own.

Wore out a Lowes sprayer so I upgraded to this. (Love the air compressor fill valve.)
http://www.gemplers.com/ctnp/sprayer...ers/27987.html


Up to our "but--" in ants,
Jukebox

[sancraft]

I called and exterminator and he said that everyone is having a bad problem with them this year. Part of the reason is it's been so dry this year. There are some shrubs against the front of the house that I want to rip out any way. I look down on the ground and just see them everywhere. I've been feeding a 2-3 stray kittens in the backyard and have to put their feed bowl inside a shallow plastic container filled with water or the ants take over the food within 5 minutes of me putting it out. They definately don't like the Ortho spray. When I spray and area, they find another place. Today, I sprayed the house, top to bottom and all doorways and windows. I couldn't find the Terro in town so when DD goes back to work on Friday, she was going to try the Home Depot that's one the way. I'll tell her to just get palin boric acid. I have so DE in the barn on the land. I'll go out and get it tomorrow. Sorry you're having such a problem Juke. If any on this works for me, I'll let you know.

[jukebox]

We got in our truck to go somewhere and there were ants on us and all over the inside of the vehicle. Removed the floor covering and they had built a nest under it. (This vehicle is parked on a concrete driveway.)

Used "over'n out" around the perimeter of the house and there is very little ant activity where we put it. http://www.kill-fireants.com/over_n_out.htm

I have been using "terro" in the rectangular tubes to put on there trails. Found that removing the decal and cutting the end off works best for me. (With decal removed I can see activity and know when it is time to replace it.)

Lots of luck

[michiganfarmer]

heat is the enemy. move north