Getting rid of ants

beyoga · March 2011

Hello. We live in the country so I expect to see bugs. But we all ready have what seems to be a bunch of ants. Is there a good way to get rid of them? TIA

GracefulMeadow86 · March 2011

It really depends on the type of ants you have (different things work for differnt types), but generally, i use the Terro products (liquid ant bait is the best for what we have in our house---which is a LOT of carpenter ants, even though the box says it probably wont work for those).

Other than the Terro products, the Ortho Home Defense Spray is great. You can spray it inside of your house in the area where they come in and it deters them from coming in. Once it is dried, its not poisonous to kids/pets.

britneyg619 · March 2011

I swore for the longest time that our house was built on an ant hill! The only way we were able to get rid of them has been by having quarterly Terminix visits. I agree with PP, if you're treating the ant problem with the wrong thing you can actually attract rather than kill them. GL!

IamMrsF2U · March 2011

I *heard* on my local board, that putting baking soda down on the floor where they are coming in stops them and spiders. Also hot boiling water kills them too, as well as gets rid of the chemical trail so more ants don't come in or follow the other ant's path. This works outside, but I don't think it will be helpful if you have big black carpenter ants, and if that is what you have, call an exterminator.

GracefulMeadow86 · March 2011

I forgot to mention, if they are carpenter ants, the only way to prevent them from coming back each year is to solve the underlying problem. Carpenter ants live/feed off of decaying/rotting wood. If you have carpenter ants, they are living somewhere where there is excess moisture - they can't live without it.

If you can find where that is and remove it and replace it, then your problem will be solved for the next year. Otherwise, like my situation where we cant afford yet to replace the slider door in our house that is rotting away because of water issues, then theyre going to keep coming back, exterminator or not.

pavingtheroad · March 2011

Try putting cornstarch around the area they come in through, apparently they eat it, take it back to the nest and it blows up in their stomach because it expands

laurenpaula · March 2011

Go to home depot and buy Grants Ants. They are the best and they work!!!

drink227 · March 2011

Fresh Mint

Life&Gwen · March 2011

The liquids and traps work for the long term, but if you see whole bunches of them at one place, go for aerosol hairspray. It's not the most high tech, but we had an ant invasion one time, just out of the blue, and a week later, nothing. But for that week, there was a bottle of aqua-net hairspray in every room.

Getting rid of ants

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