oh.my.ants

[kristilynnmy]

I just literally vacuumed up thousands of little ants from my kitchen floor. Then I had to steam the floors and spray vinegar all around my stove, fridge, dishwasher and radiator. Man I need to clean more. No, I'm always cleaning my kitchen but seriously guys I can't keep up! I blame my daughters "spill proof" sippy cup mostly. Thank you shitty China for your "quality" products. Lets hope the ants have gone away! Anyone else know of anything I can do other than ant poison?

[panicked]

Borax! Place a thin line of it along all your doors, windows, any other spaces that lead outdoors, and wherever you see ants.

[Deleted]

Cinnamon and bay leaves also deter ants. You could use those indoors on the kitchen counter/in cabinets.

[kristilynnmy]

Ohh thank you for the suggestion. I'm going to use both of these! I think they are gone now (?) but man does my house reek of vinegar. phewww +o(

[mrs.jacinthe]

They'll just keep coming back unless you figure out how they're getting in. They're persistent little buggers.

My understanding is that food-grade diatomataceous earth would be your best choice to lay down around the perimeter. It kills them by cutting through their outsides and is toxic to them if they eat it. However, as the "food-grade" part would suggest, it is safe for humans (and pets) to ingest. If I were going to lay down a powder and had a toddler, DE would be my choice.

[lmdbww]

We had ants in the old house too, just in the dining room around the patio door. I blamed all of the recent rain for bringing them out. lol

I just use the Ortho Home Defense spray and that seemed to work good enough to get us to our move. lol

[kaylie]

We discovered that the house we moved into two months ago had ants pretty soon after moving in. Using ant poison is usually not the best way to really eradicate them. Ant bait is a better option because they take it back to the nest and feed it to the queen and that's the best way to get rid of the colony. Sometimes just spraying them will lead to more ants, because if a lot of workers die off the queen starts laying more eggs to replace them.

I bought a jug of Advance for about $45 online. I sprinkle it outside around the perimeter of the house, and anywhere I see large groups of ants. I also cut the small dixie cups so that they're very shallow and hide cups of the bait in hard to reach places (so that the cat can't get to it). I have it in our fireplace, behind the fridge and behind the downstairs toilet.

[kaylie]

Jun 13, 2012 9:37:44 GMT -5 mrs.jacinthe said:

They'll just keep coming back unless you figure out how they're getting in. They're persistent little buggers.

My understanding is that food-grade diatomataceous earth would be your best choice to lay down around the perimeter. It kills them by cutting through their outsides and is toxic to them if they eat it. However, as the "food-grade" part would suggest, it is safe for humans (and pets) to ingest. If I were going to lay down a powder and had a toddler, DE would be my choice.

DE is a good option too, but where a mask to keep from inhaling it.

[gnomesweetgnome]

We use Terro ant baits indoors, and if the ants are really bad we'll use their powder/granules around the perimeter/near where we think they're coming in. Terro seems to be very effective!

[Deleted]

I also found on pintrest that corn meal will kill them too. I hate ants.

[emoflamingo]

We get REALLY bad ants so when we start seeing them in the spring, we call the exterminator. We tried EVERYTHING to get rid of them on our own but nothing worked.

We haven't had them yet this year, so I'm hoping we found out what was bringing them to our house and eliminated it (since we redid landscaping around the house this year). Or the new neighbors are really messy and the ants know they have better luck there.

[aweilba]

Jun 13, 2012 9:29:03 GMT -5 panicked said:

Borax! Place a thin line of it along all your doors, windows, any other spaces that lead outdoors, and wherever you see ants.

Totally made me think of Dean and Sam here. It's like trying to keep the demon ants out of your house with salt.... thanks, Supernatural.

[TBM]

Our entire city seems to be built on anthill, so changes in the weather seem to cause an onslaught in the house. Yuck. It does force me to clean out all of the cabinets and go through the pantry more often than I normally would, so I guess it isn't all bad....just a pita.

Poisons do not seem to work any better than more natural methods. Terro (boric acid in liquid form) is very effective. I put it on the counter, windowsills and other places that the dogs (or small children) can't reach. Sometimes I put borax powder in a dish on the counter and use jam as bait if it seems to be ants attracted by sugar. Food grade DE works well too, and is safer to use at floor level.

[letranger]

Peppermint oil with water I spray it at the thresholds and caulk caulk caulk.