Ack! ANTS!

This is our 2nd summer here in Menifee and the ANTS ARE MAKING ME GO INSANE!!!

They are everywhere - inside and out. I had great luck last year with a Borax/Sugar Water mixture, but it's not working this year. I just tried peanut butter/jelly/borax, and I swear I've made it worse.

It's like I've drawn them in and they're partying in my house big time. I'm going lose my mind! We have 2 cats, a dog, and a parrot, so I don't like the harsh sprays as the cats will get it inside, and the dog will get it outside.

H-E-L-P! lol.

Are these the stinky ants? I use mint mouthwash in a spray bottle. they hate it. They come in every year when it dries out, to forage for food in our yards. Sevin powder sometimes works. Get the cheap stuff it works just as well and doesn't seem to hurt the plants.
WIB,
SW

Funny you said that - I mushed a line of them and DH said they smelled....There is one on my screen as I type this &()(&^^%%%!!

What kind of parrot, Erin? If the ants bother its cage, let me know - my mail list just went through a whole bunch of remedies for that. We have a macaw, Amazon, and cockatiel.

I have a little red bellied parrot. We've had her for about 10 years, and she's crazy. Her name is Chicken. I do have a problem with the buggers getting into her seed. I can't put any traps around her cage because of the dog and cats, so that's always a frustration. I'd love to hear your remedies....Chicken would appreciate it too! lol.

For the parrot's cage, you could put glue traps around it so there's no path to the cage without going through one. But I've not found a "natural" remedy for the darned things. The most effective product I've found is Ortho Max. It will usually keep them out for about 3 to 4 weeks sprayed across the window sills and doors also a line of it all the way around the base of the house outside.

Erin, if she's in a cage with legs, you can put little cups (empty margarine tubs, for instance) under each one with water. Also, barriers around the room or cage, such as cayenne pepper (I don't like this one if other animals can get it), cinnamon, and corn meal (swells up and kills them when they eat it). Boric acid mixed with a sweetener (p-butter, clear syrup) and placed in their path - it's a bait they take back to the nest.

Camicide is a spray that can be used safely around birds - as directed! It contains Pyrethrin, an ingredient in some flea collars. Don't spray it near them, of course, spray and then bring them back in the room.

We had such a bad problem, we hired a service to come out and spray regularly. He sprays the least he can while controlling the ants and black widows, and only on the perimeter of the house - unless he sees a big nest. Whatever he uses, we have had no problem for four and half years. We still have beneficial insects, lizards and bees in our garden, but no ants in the house.

Everyone who posted has had varying degrees of success with these methods - guess it depends on what type of ant, etc.

Hope something here helps.

More specific instructions re boric acid paste:

Thanks so much for the great info! I'll let you know my (hopefully good!) results!

Well, since I first posted I've tried 3 batches of homemade poison, with no luck. I swear they've just turned my home into their favorite restaurant. 3 days ago I finally broke down and got some Terro Ant Bait stations, and (knock on wood) after a few days of incredible horror watching the buggers devour the stuff and even ants pouring out of my light sockets.....They seem to ***almost*** be totally gone. I know the terro is a borax/sugar syrup concoction similar to what I was making myself, but they've got the mixture down to a science! lol

Glad you found something that works, Erin! Aren't they just awful when they invade like that? Yuk!

They sure are!

I hate ants too--had a horrible experience a couple years ago with them. I had an automatic dog food dispenser that would dispense my dog's breakfast at 6 AM every morning. One weekend, I slept in probably until 7, then we went upstairs. I went in the living room to do something while my dog started eating his breakfast...then I went in the kitchen and turned the light on and saw this RIVER of ants all the way from my back door over to the dog's dish. They were literally all over his food, but he was still eating it like there was nothing wrong! It was the grossest thing ever! I cleaned up the ants that were everywhere, and then got the Terro baits to take care of any more that came in and that got them under control.

OH CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just checked my 3 bait stations where the ants had been gone except for a few stragglers....and the one in the pantry has a huge line of ants to it again! This is so frustrating!!!!

I've always had luck with the Terro, don't give up on it yet! Maybe your new trail of ants is a totally different nest, and they will all be dead soon. It sounds like you could take a video, add some spooky music and have your own horror flick!

When we had this problem, DH also found several of the big places they were getting into the house and filled them with expanding foam. It didn't stop them, but it at least made it a little harder for them to find their way in!!!

Here is a good web site with natural household based products to help with rid your home of those pesky critters.

They are so annoying!
http://www.thefrugallife.com/ants.html

This message was edited Jul 25, 2009 6:59 PM

Good tips, Bea. I've used a Chinese chalk a friend gave us and it does work. Outside, I drew a circle around the hook that held a hummingbird feeder the ants were getting to. It won't stop a horde of them, though.

Well, they'll go away for a day and then a new pack comes for several days, then it starts all over. So I guess we have tons of different nests of them or something. Ugh! Lowes, HD and Target were all out of the Terro spray, so they must be bad everywhere around here. I'm on my last bait trap, so I'll get more and let the fun continue!

The Chalk never worked for me, unless it was just a few ants, the bigger lines seemed to bulldoze right through it!

If you want to block them from a particular area, I've had good luck with cinnamon. I used it when I had a bad case of them in my kitchen, I put a Terro bait near the door but they kept trying to "explore" other areas of the kitchen, so I sprinkled a cinnamon border on the floor to confine them to the area where the bait was, and it worked really well, they wouldn't cross over the line of cinnamon. Only trouble is cinnamon is expensive, and it also stained my grout pretty nicely, but at the time it was worth it!

Less expensive cinnamon can be had from Smart & Final in giganto containers. The ants who live here don't seem to be particularly bothered by it, though. Instant coffee was recommended by some organic site; I've had mixed results with that. During the summer, mine move out of the house; it's during the rainy season that they drive me the craziest. I've read that in California, colonies of Argentine ants ("piss-ants" as Granny used to call them) have been found that are 20 miles in diameter. I don't think we humans will win the final battle....LOL!

I've taken to feeding them outside. I keep a bowl of water and a bowl of sugar about ten feet from the back door and I've had MUCH less inside the house than ever before.

LOL---we used to do that with the racoons when we lived in Big Sur. They'd bang on the windows at dinnertime if I hadn't put out kibble for them yet. If I fed them, they left our trash alone and went to the next house in line after they'd finished their snack. We called them the "furry Mafia".

Where's an ant eater when you need one ?

I think they are all road kill, JD. Possums eat ants, don't they?

Probably...they seem to eat everything else. I've seen them eat cardboard ice cream cartons.

I'm laughing so hard at this thread while I watch a NEW nest stream through my wall and into the kitchen to the Terro....I went 3 WHOLE DAYS without the little bastards, but now they're back. I swear I'm just going to keep putting out the Terro traps until I kill ever freaking ant in the neighborhood and then some! Augh!