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Ants article

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  • #22127
    Anonymous

      I agree with Martin #74 and here is why. I use to hire a bug company and they sprayed everywhere esp. outside to combat the ants. Problem became worse. I realized when they sprayed outside. Hmmm. this killed all the food for ants. so they came inside and moved under my house I believe. 2 things have helped me. I feed them cat food around the perimeter of my backyard they love it and also let these daddy long leg spiders reside in all the corners of my house. they are benign and when you look at the pile of ant bodies below their webs you will be amazed. so they kill the few scouts who meander in and I feed the large flock outside. The ants have actually built a pyramid with my face on it outside (just kidding) but I have had the best antless summer. (occasional attacks occur that are shortlived.) Hearts and minds so to speak.

      #22128
      Anonymous

        Those Chinese hot oil ointment works too! we just had ants coming out of out electric outlet. So I dab some of the ointment on a cotton swab around the outlet. And within 10 seconds, none came out anymore. Some might not like the smell but it goes away real quick. Plus you dont need to put a lot. One swab is enough.

        #22129
        Anonymous

          They are driving me NUTZ!! and to think that feeding colonies is helping the environment is even nuttier. I may consider myself an environ-mentalist…but I don’t feed ant colonies. So we tried the borax/sugar/peanutbutter mixture. It was more liquid than pasty. Perhaps we failed in making the right mixture. Irregardless, 3 cups of sugar to one cup of borax and pb simply bored them. Not a single curious ant. Not a lick, not a nod. Windex was used as the first thing to grab upon discovering a ‘train’ in the kitchen lined up to the chicken packaging in the trash. HUH? they aren’t interested in sugar….they are meat eaters?, The Windex killed them on contact and softened the paint on the cupboards. But it didn’t stop the cavalry from returning time and again. I did not have any opened food in the cupboards, so they seemed to stay away until today. I now take whatever piece of trash outside to the trash can and have turned into a neurotic vigilante, armed with Windex. They never bothered with the fruit bowl on the counter, or the containers of grains…sealed before they arrived. Cinnamon headed them off at the pass, but the thousands of armies only relocated elsewhere in the yard, and most likely under the house where it is a crawl space with screened air vents. There is a huge colony in the base of our orange tree…and they plowed through the ‘Great Wall O’ Cinnamon’ with swords drawn and royal shopping carts filled to the brim for their Queen. I might try the corn flour around the foundation? Maybe some Castille mint soap? mint plants? I dunno!! I need HELP!! I think our problem is gargantuan, and any effort is nothing more than using a tin can to bail out the Titanic. What’s left? I feel like I’m ready to arm myself in true Elmer Fudd fashion and just blast their wasskally holes to smithuweeeenes, but that wouldn’t help and I don’t own a gun anyways. Sooooooo, chemicals? I might be ready….since my kitchen counter is covered with sterilized pots n’ pans & de-greased skillets. All food is hermetically sealed, and I’m going away for a week. YIKES! What will I come home to? I would consider feeding them cat food, but the possums who make nightly visits to our orange tree would simple gorge themselves. HELP!! HELP!! HELP!!

          #22130
          Anonymous

            I have just spent the last half hour or so reading anti ant posts and having a laugh about marvellous concoctions for doing away with the annoying little blighter’s. (some good, some not). Ants are either sweet eaters (carbs) eg. flower nectar, aphid milk, scale insect milk, jam on kitchen benches etc. or meat eaters (protein) eg. insects dead or alive, dried up snails, pet food, etc. Queen ants need a bit of both. The active ingredient I use to lace their last supper is borax powder, mixed with blood and bone garden fertiliser, for the meat eaters, at a rate of 20:1 blood& bone — borax power. Mix in well with a stirrer and add a little cooking oil to help with the adhesion of the powder to the b&bone. Place the bait where the ants are preferably in a container with access for the critters and out of the way of your pets. For the sweet eaters mix 20:1 maple syrup — borax powder. Mix well with 1-tsp icing sugar add a little water to make a runny consistency and place in a flat container eg. jar lid, where the ants are, being vigilant to keep away from your pets. Now for bull ants. I live in Tasmania with nasty bull ants called “jack jumpers” that can kill men with just one sting and have done so in the past. The only effective way deal with these marauding soldiers is to locate their nest mounds, which may take a bit of time. This can be done by following a fully laden individual with food in its jaws as they usually make a B line strait to their nest. Once the nest is located be careful not to aggravate them and return to the site at dusk when the troops are back home. Pour petrol down the entrance to the nest. No ignition is necessary as the volatile vapours do the job. This kills them outright, queen and all. This seems a bit over the top but it works. By the way don’t smoke when you carry out this last exercise. Good luck

            #22131
            Anonymous

              I have had tiny brown ants invade my kitchen but only on one side of my kitchen where the food cupboard is, ,I was told by a friend of ours who works with pesticides to use Boric acid or Borax laundry detergentand mix it with powdered sugar, 1 quarter cup of sugar to 1 half cup boric acid or the detergent. I watched where the ants were comming from so I put this mixture on my cupboard by their opening to the wall that they were using and after a couple hours I had a trail of many ants comming and going carrying this mixture into my wall where they must have been nesting,after about a week I never saw another ant after that. The boric acid is also the same ingredients used in pesticdes for ants.I have had many friends also try this same remedy and they swear by it! Please do not kill any ants if you spot them,they give off a danger oder to other ants and they will move their nest elsewhere in the house which could be harder to find where they are comming from next time! Please keep this mixture out of reach from pets and children!.

              #22132
              Anonymous

                after reading these comments i went and tried the body talc idea. To discover that this is a very affective and fast action plan. I put on the front doorsteps, and on the carpet where entry points are. within minutes the ants went nuts and they were gone.

                #22133
                Anonymous

                  I find the best way us to go outside and look for a ant trail up or along an outside wall. See where they are entering and block the hole. They get very confused but move along to another spot. Do same treatment. Eventually they disappera. Mike

                  #22134
                  Anonymous

                    I’ve lived with ants for years, I’ve tried just about every remedy mentioned above. I try to keep my house as clean as possible and pay an exterminator to come in once a month. The ants are imuned to everything by now. This should be my worst problem.

                    #22135
                    Anonymous

                      Borax and suger…i was usinf 2 cup suger 2 cup borax 2gallons water. water must be hot stir until suger dissolves. soak mound around the nest just enough to wet mound. leave for 24 hours and your promblem should clear in that nest. solution must be dissolved. outdoor only because it could be sticky.

                      #20391
                      Anonymous

                        Thanks for the article on ants!  Was very helpful.

                        #22375
                        Anonymous

                          I am a tech guy, so Terro  which is essentially the same Boric Acid and sugar riecpe my grandpa sold in his hardware store 75 years ago  was about the **last** product I tried to control ants.  Instead, over the years I have used every chemical bait system known to the FDA and then some. Of course, bait is the only way to go with ants; you never want to kill them directly because that will only increase their egg production and make the problem worse.  Its total nest elimination, or else a worse problem a few weeks later. Over the years, I have found some decent modern bait systems. But this year, we were invaded by Argentine Ants.  Literally thousands of these tiny eating machines appeared.  I tried every ant bait I could find in home depot, menards and Lowes  to absolutely no effect.  Interestingly, they actually ate roach bait I had and they loved it (but no effect from that either). Finally, I bought Terro which was quite literally the last product available from the big box retailers that I had not tried: what chance did Boric Acid have where Avermectin, Dinotefuran, and N-Methyl-N'-Nitro-N-Tetrahydro-3-Furanyl-Methyl-Guanidine all failed?? I set 5 drops spread on the windowsill of the window where I saw the most ants.  In 15 minutes, thousands of ants were swarming the drops.  They fed all day and all night 24 7 (have to hand it to the Argentine Ant  they are truly amazing creatures).  I had to replenish the drops which were gone after about 5 hours!  The feeding kept up for 2 days, and then I noticed a sharp dropoff in the number of ants and a lot of dead ants.  A day after that, no ants. Moral?  Don't be fooled by thinking modern science can hold a candle to this stuff.  If you have sugar eating (Sweet) ants of any kind, get this stuff.

                          #22379
                          Anonymous

                            I am glad to have eco friendly answers to getting rid of pesky ants. I haven't used them yet but can see things that will not harm my grandchildren or cat. This is of course just as important. Thank you.

                            #22139
                            Anonymous

                              i have ants and ants and ants and nothing rids them. they like sweets. and protiens. and everything else. peppermint schnapps? they like that too. they are coming in everywhere. its like they live in my house too. im going nuts. terro worked last year but not this year. what do i do????

                              #22378
                              imported_admin
                              Participant

                                Make sure you read all the posts because there are lots of suggestions.  Off the top of my head, I would try what this poster stated:

                                Borax and suger…i was usinf 2 cup suger 2 cup borax 2gallons water. water must be hot stir until suger dissolves. soak mound around the nest just enough to wet mound. leave for 24 hours and your promblem should clear in that nest. solution must be dissolved. outdoor only because it could be sticky.

                                *******

                                If you can't find the mound, we have taken a medicine cap and filled it with the solution and watched them drink up.  Just put it in their path to find it.  If you can't find Borax we actually used Boric Acid.  I think it took a few days but never came back.

                                #22380
                                Anonymous

                                  You ever tried Charlie's Soap All-Purpose Cleaner? There's not much it won't clean, but it kills ants, too. Really. There must be something to it, if only because of their delightful “caution” on the bottle: “Do not spray directly on cockroaches, fire ants, fleas, ticks, termites, spiders, scorpions, wasps or hornets. In case of accidental exposure, rinse unlucky cratues with potable water for 15 minutes and contact your local Humane Society or qualified insect veterinarian for further instructions.”

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