little black ants ??

[greg_n_ga]

I suppose the mild winter has them little devils comein' alive early !! I fought them thangs last year with insect spray on a daily basis !! Anybody got any suggestions as to a remedy for 'em ?? After a sprayin, they just find another trail till the last sprayin wears off !!

[Nancy]

You don't have a bit of a water leak somewhere do you? DH says sometimes you will attract ants where you have some water. Happened to us in our bathroom once. DH stopped the water leak problem and no more ants.

[gobug]

Ants now are not at all uncommon. Especially if you have ants against the foundation of the house. Add dry pet food to the list of problems.

My suggestion after years of running a pest control business is bait for ants, not spray. If you can find Amdro, or Maxforce ant baits, they do great. Plus, pick up your pet food instead of leaving it out for the pet(s).

Ants own this planet. We just fool ourselves with paper and lawyers. Respect your landlords, just hide if you can.

Gary

[meanwhile]

We have good luck with that syrup stuff that has boric acid in it. I forget the brand but we buy it at Lowe's or Home Depot. It is a tiny bottle with squirt top. Thick clear syrup in it that is poison to ants. We just find the trail outside, put a few drops of the syrup on it and the ants come eat it and take back to hive.

It is actually really fascinating to watch them. There can be hundreds of ants all over the syrup. After they eat it up, we set out more till no more ants appear. Usually that is it.

We had ants get in an outside breaker box thing and all we did was put a few drops of the syrup stuff in there, they ate it and disappeared!

Good luck.

[Bearfootfarm]

You can buy Boric Acid powder at many drug stores.
Mix it with a little Karo Syrup or even plain sugar, and it will get rid of them

Use about a 40% Boric Acid to sugar ratio, and they will take it back to the nest and feed it to the Queen

[Fae]

I have fought the little buggers for two years now. They are Argentine ants and if you spray them it will kill the ones you see but the ones left will make a new queen and keep on going. They have numerous nest all over the place. The best way to get rid of a lot of them is with baits. I mix up one with powdered sugar and boric acid and one with peanut butter and boric acid. Sometimes they need protein and sometime sugar and will go to what they need. If I put out both they go to both so I'm not sure about that information. All I can say is good luck!

[dkhern]

i buy premethrin(sp) at coop and spray mounds in morning after it has warmed up. that gives the ants time to bring the queen near the surface for warmth. kill queen and you will kill the mound. also spray around premeter of house keep all bugs down.

[oldmania]

The only thing that works at our house is the Terro ant trap. We buy them at Lowes. We place ours on the kitchen counter near the sink. Don't move them. It is amazing to watch them marching in. Follow the instructions, you won't be disappointed. We keep a supply and use them when we start to see ants.

[Vosey]

I've had great success with my Borax I use for laundry. Out ants usually come in the windows. I sprinkle it in the sill and the ground outside.

Ant traps do work well as well, just be careful your animals don't get into them.

[greg_n_ga]

Thanks fer all the replies !! I think I will try everything ya'll have suggested !! The commercial people want a signed monthly contract !! Nancy mentioned moisture up yonder. There was a moisture problem around the eaves of the roof until I put on a new metal roof last year. The ants were here then. I saw/found them when I was workin on repairs before the reroof. But if they have established their selfs in hard to reach areas, I may be in for a challenge !!

[Tricky Grama]

Try some orange oil, diluted & spray, wipe down their trails.

[pancho]

If it is the Argentine ants, and it probably is, good luck finding anything that will get rid of them. Normal ants, even fire ants, are easy to get rid of. I had fire ants until the Argentine ants ran them out.

[Rita]

We have very tiny ants that like anything fatty or greasy. I'm sure the sugar mixtures wouldn't work for them. Any suggestions for a type of bait that kills the ants that like grease?

[SteveD(TX)]

Originally Posted by pancho

If it is the Argentine ants, and it probably is, good luck finding anything that will get rid of them. Normal ants, even fire ants, are easy to get rid of. I had fire ants until the Argentine ants ran them out.

Same here. Spraying stops them for a couple of days. Most baits seem to have little effect so far. I had a leak in my shower and they built a nest in a wall and nothing so far has worked. Also, no matter how much I treat my yard and flowerbeds, they still keep coming into the weep holes in the brick.

[Fae]

Same here Pancho. We always had a lot of fireants until the argentine ants moved in and now we hardly have any. I used to call them trailing ants because they trail everywhere.

[SteveD(TX)]

Originally Posted by Fae

Same here Pancho. We always had a lot of fireants until the argentine ants moved in and now we hardly have any. I used to call them trailing ants because they trail everywhere.

You can easily spot the fire ant mounds and eradicate them. Not so with the Argentine ants which seem to just come out of the ground everywhere during warm weather. Haven't found a nest yet.

[danielsumner]

Originally Posted by meanwhile

We have good luck with that syrup stuff that has boric acid in it. I forget the brand but we buy it at Lowe's or Home Depot. It is a tiny bottle with squirt top. Thick clear syrup in it that is poison to ants. We just find the trail outside, put a few drops of the syrup on it and the ants come eat it and take back to hive.

It is actually really fascinating to watch them. There can be hundreds of ants all over the syrup. After they eat it up, we set out more till no more ants appear. Usually that is it.

We had ants get in an outside breaker box thing and all we did was put a few drops of the syrup stuff in there, they ate it and disappeared!

Good luck.

It is called Terro, it really really works. Cheap Also

[meanwhile]

That is it! Terro! It works great. The bottle is teeny tiny though. We use an old rubbermaid plastic tub with top to save the tiny bottle in. Otherwise, it would get lost.

We just put a drop or two of it in the line of ants and they gobble that stuff up! If you have kids at your house, let them watch since I promise, hundreds of ants will come COVER that stuff up! Good luck!

[Ravenlost]

Best thing I've found was Sergeant's Nature's Guardian Natural Flea and Tick Squeeze-On for Dogs.

The local shelter gave us two cartons of the stuff. We don't use Sergeant's products on our dogs so didn't know what we'd do with two full cartons of the stuff. Then I started having a problem with ants. Discovered they were coming in around the kitchen window.

Read that cinnamon and mint were ant deterrents. I sprinkled cinnamon around the window sill and scattered mint on the kitchen counters.

Ants just found a way around it.

Was wanting something all natural to use since this was the kitchen. Remembered the all natural Sergeant's products. Read the label and discovered it had cinnamon and mint listed as ingredients. Squirted the little tubes around the window facing and I haven't had an ant come through the window since! It's been two years now!

I highly recommend Sergeant's for ant control!

[Bearfootfarm]

Any suggestions for a type of bait that kills the ants that like grease?

Boric Acid and Peanut Butter or bacon grease

That is it! Terro!

TERRO is nothing but Boric Acid / Borax mixed with corn syrup.
It's cheaper to make your own

http://www.terro.com/pressroom.php?id=32

With this in mind, TERRO’s Liquid Ant Baits contain a sucrose-based liquid with a small amount of borax as the active ingredient.