TIP Ants

Mark Armstrong

Mark Armstrong

Veteran Member
Sure sign of spring. I'm in the midst of my first ant invasion of the year.

They invaded my kitchen last night. Couldn't find the nest outside, so I stopped by Wal-Mart tonight and got some ant bait stations.

Got two kinds. One is Raid, which I've never had any luck with. Got the higher-priced one with two kinds of bait in it. The other bait stations are the Terro brand, and are filled with liquid bait.

I put a Terro station and a Raid station side by side. The ants are going for the Terro, not the Raid.

I'll try to update this at some point and let you know if the stuff did the job, or if I'm simply providing them with free food that won't kill them, but simply make them stronger and give them more of an attitude.
 
campswampy

campswampy

Contributing Member
Doing the same invasion here in western KY. Terro has been pretty good stuff in past years. Bait stations, granules, and drops here. The great ant war of 2015...it's ON!
Good luck!
 
agmfan3

agmfan3

Veteran Member
I used the Terro that is on spikes that goes outside, took care of the problem. Now that we are in new house, I had person come and treat, he also sprayed for wasp, no ants. Also WKY
 
Be Well

Be Well

may all be well
If you want something nontoxic that totally works, get peppermint essential oil. I put it on cotton balls and put it where ants are and I don't want them to be and under 24 hours they disappear. And it smells good and nothing else dies or gets poisoned. I don't think the ants die even, they just go away. Or the cotton balls (or anything) with peppermint oil on it can be placed where ants get in, to prevent further infestations. Probably works on some other bugs too but I only tried on ants because they were the only problem.
 
dstraito

dstraito

TB Fanatic
I had in recent years what they call raspberry ants or crazy ants.. Their trails looked random and they were nearly impossible to get rid of. They are also attracted to electricity.

If those are the ants you have you should get a professional.
 
D

Dozdoats

On TB every waking moment
Half powdered sugar and half borax in a small lid ... like the plastic caps from a milk container.
 
JohnGaltfla

JohnGaltfla

#NeverTrump
Mark Armstrong said:
Sure sign of spring. I'm in the midst of my first ant invasion of the year.

They invaded my kitchen last night. Couldn't find the nest outside, so I stopped by Wal-Mart tonight and got some ant bait stations.

Got two kinds. One is Raid, which I've never had any luck with. Got the higher-priced one with two kinds of bait in it. The other bait stations are the Terro brand, and are filled with liquid bait.

I put a Terro station and a Raid station side by side. The ants are going for the Terro, not the Raid.

I'll try to update this at some point and let you know if the stuff did the job, or if I'm simply providing them with free food that won't kill them, but simply make them stronger and give them more of an attitude.
Click to expand...

April? Must be nice. My first invasion started in Florida at, uh, BIRTH! :eek:
 
P

Publius

TB Fanatic
We had this problem a few years back and wife was buying every brand of bait station she could find and none of them worked, so I opened a few of them by cutting them open and there was nothing inside any of them, Just empty plastic.
 
JohnGaltfla

JohnGaltfla

#NeverTrump
Seriously? Ortho bug barrier outside, all windows, basements (we don't have those here), doorways, etc.

Wipe down all food storage areas with bleach cleaner.

Next, Terro ant traps AND Grants ant traps, preferably the Grants metal ones. Lastly, make sure all waste cans are sprayed with Hot Shot with Germ killer spray EVERY TIME you change out the garbage or burn it.

It's a tough war but start outside and work yourself in.
 
peacewithin

peacewithin

Leave a ❤️print wherever u go
I have had the teeny ants. I cover the areas with a good layer of baby powder. (Large cans at the Dollar Store). Smothers them instantly.

And its pet friendly. :)
 
FaithfulSkeptic

FaithfulSkeptic

Carrying the mantle of doubt
We had carpenter ants over the winter and the liquid Terro seemed to work.

If you know where they congregate outside, get yourself some Lambda Cyhalothrin, dilute according to directions, and spray down the area. Any of them that walk across it will be dead inside of a day. Lasts for up to 3 weeks or more.
 
Mark Armstrong

Mark Armstrong

Veteran Member
These ants are congregating at the Terro bait station, and lapping the stuff up like they hit the jackpot. Awfully hard to resist the urge to simply squash them, but I'm counting on them to take the stuff home to share with the rest of their family.

One reason I decided to try bait stations to get this done immediately is that we are supposed to be having heavy rain tonight and tomorrow. Trying to find where they're getting into the house, and where outside their nest is located, may not be doable for a few days.
 
ShadowMan

ShadowMan

Designated Grumpy Old Fart
Terro and Amdro are the only two Ant treatments that I've found that actually work. As much as I would love to use something natural and less toxic, I just haven't found anything else that works and I've used these two treatments over many years in very different locations in Virginia, Colorado, both Southern and Northern California. All I can say is.....they work.
 
fastback08

fastback08

Veteran Member
For our Mississippi fire ants, I use a product from Bengal. It is a white powder that I sprinkle on the mound. One or two days and they are gone.
 
mzkitty

mzkitty

I give up.
You can believe this one or not. I think it was funny.

Last year some ants got in my kitchen. I hate killing them. My son walked over to them and said, "Alright you guys, pack up your shit and get out now." They left.

Hahahahahaha

:lol:
 
Flippper

Flippper

Time Traveler
I have the ants from hell. They eat meat, wood and sugar, the county extension office could not identify them, called Washington State University who could not identify them, they called Colorado State, apparently the big guns of ant knowledge and they could not identify them. Identity was necessary so we could find something to kill them, Terro, Raid, DE, peppermint, cinnamon, borax, the evil little devils pointed and and snickered. Finally I found something that worked, Amdro granules in a plastic container with a handle, but it loses potentcy after a few months, I got mine at Home Depot for about $13.

They drag it off and feed it to their creepy demon queen and she dies. Who's pointing now? Bwhahaha...
 
Wise Owl

Wise Owl

Deceased
Flippper said:
I have the ants from hell. They eat meat, wood and sugar, the county extension office could not identify them, called Washington State University who could not identify them, they called Colorado State, apparently the big guns of ant knowledge and they could not identify them. Identity was necessary so we could find something to kill them, Terro, Raid, DE, peppermint, cinnamon, borax, the evil little devils pointed and and snickered. Finally I found something that worked, Amdro granules in a plastic container with a handle, but it loses potentcy after a few months, I got mine at Home Depot for about $13.

They drag it off and feed it to their creepy demon queen and she dies. Who's pointing now? Bwhahaha...
Click to expand...

:lol: Thanks for that story. I needed a good laugh.

We get them every year. Last year we dealt with the carpenter ants and hopefully killed that bunch off. Still have the other two kinds to deal with. I will try the Amdro if I can find it. Up here the ant hills look like a fire ant hill but they aren't. Neighbor across the way has one that is around a foot high and they just swarm in and out of it. I intend to dump a bunch of bleach on that puppy and see how they behave.........:D

I KNOW how they get in here and not much I can do to stop them that way. Landlady needs to replace our storm door which you can see outside all around the bottom and top. Gonna start bugging her soon. Tired of killing freaking ants every spring.
 
straightstreet

straightstreet

Life is better in flip flops
Oh my I found them in the kitchen trash can yesterday afternoon. They had made a trail behind the frig, under sink too...ugh! I'm also W KY where we've had buckets of rain this year and much more headed our way. DH had some kind of indoor/outdoor spray with a pump handle on it. I used it along the baseboards, behind frig, under sink and the trash can got washed out. DH spread ant granuales along foundation of house when he got home from work. We have a tall crawl space (you can walk around underneath the house instead of crawling around) so DH is going to spray underneath also. I can't stand them but better than a mouse any day!
 
brokenwings

brokenwings

Veteran Member
They're about to carry me out of my house so I'm going to try Flipper's Amdro!! I have tried the Borax and Sugar, and the Terro but they are still too many. I sprinkled DE around my sink and they left that area only to show up in all the other rooms!! So I am going to get serious! No more ants!
 
Ravekid

Ravekid

Veteran Member
Mark Armstrong said:
I put a Terro station and a Raid station side by side. The ants are going for the Terro, not the Raid.
Click to expand...

Terro works very well for smaller "sweet" ants. Carpenter ants though eat both sugar and protein based bait, but I found that when I put various baits out (I purchased four different types plus some loose stuff (protein granules), even the carpenter ants went after just the Terro.
 
Ravekid

Ravekid

Veteran Member
I also used the Ortho Home Defense bug spray. It kills the small ants instantly, but of course that doesn't kill the queen and others in the nest. It also killed the Carpenter ants, but since they were larger, it would take much longer for them to finally die. They would make it five plus feet before finally dying. It does make a barrier for the small ants that they can sense, though they will usually find another way in. The carpenter ants would walk across the dried up area and eventually die many feet from where I had sprayed. I eventually found the nest in a piece of wood over fifty feet from my house. My exterminator had checked and sprayed the crawl space and thankfully they weren't in there. He said they could be many feet away, in a living tree, some wood, etc.. Sure enough, a few months later I found them while cleaning out the tree line. Thousands of them, and I sprayed and killed as many as I could.
 
kjacks

kjacks

Senior Member
FYI- Human urine will kill any ant there is, only down sides are you can't use it indoors, and if you have close neighbours you may want to be discreet!?!?!

:rolleyes:
 
Mark Armstrong

Mark Armstrong

Veteran Member
When I went to bed six hours ago the ants (medium-size to large-size ants) were all over the Terro. Now there are no ants. Don't know if they are simply resting for the night, or if they are gone for good.
 
W

Wilbur

Senior Member
When they get past the DE and into the house, I put a few bay leaves in the areas where I see them. They do not like bay leaves and that will usually drive them back outside.
 
biere

biere

Veteran Member
Sometimes the borax and powdered sugar would work for me and sometimes it would not. When bored I would now and then add water and make a slurry that somewhat resembled the terro liquid stuff. You can make your own bait traps if the terro refills are cheaper, depends on if it is outside or not but just use your head and use some of the plastic packaging or lids everyone tends to have in their trash. For inside a milk jug lid worked fine. I got bored a couple years ago and made a decent bit up, enough for a quart canning jar or so, and put holes in the lid of the jar. I had ant mounds outside in the yard and just poured some of this stuff on one side of the mounds. It seemed to help but I did so much different stuff I don't know what any one thing worked best.

Most of the powders need redone after heavy rains if outside.

I have some ant issues in the yard but they have not really tried the house yet. I am going to treat the outside of the house and make sure it is good before messing around in the yard.

Anytime you have the ants someplace easy to get to use a method that will go back and kill the queen. Just killing them might run them into harder to get to places.

I don't know if some people want to mess with it, there are some serious chemicals the average person can get from the net but they are dangerous to humans and animals so read all directions first.

And the exterminator can generally get even better stuff, that is part of why they are licensed I reckon.

Sometimes the local co-op will have some awesome stuff, sometimes just run of the mill stuff at a higher than average price.

This is also where I should tell everyone to go play on youtube or whatever to see how to melt aluminum cans into ingots and take those ingots and pour them into an ant mound to make a neat sculpture.
 
Mark Armstrong

Mark Armstrong

Veteran Member
A day and a half later, and the ants are still gone.

Frankly, after years of disappointment with "ant traps" or "bait stations" that don't work, it's a true joy to find one that does work.
 
P

Publius

TB Fanatic
Sacajawea said:
Terro worked great on sugar ants for us. They're the teeny ones.
Click to expand...



We have an Ant problem outside and they get into the cat food, so I'm giving the Terro a try and see how it works.
This Terro is new to me and We don't have TV so we don't see the advertisements for all these new products, will report back my findings later.
 
P

Publius

TB Fanatic
Publius said:
We have an Ant problem outside and they get into the cat food, so I'm giving the Terro a try and see how it works.
This Terro is new to me and We don't have TV so we don't see the advertisements for all these new products, will report back my findings later.
Click to expand...



Well I have given this Terro stuff a fare try and it does work, now it does take some time for them to take all the liquid back to the nest where its stored like 24 hours or so.

First thing I noticed is it takes about two days and the worker/foragers stopped, with only a few to be seen looking for food. My guess is they start feeding it to the queen and the newest hatched ants and any other ants that take up on this as food.

I have at this point destroyed three separate ant colonies with this stuff and no more ants getting into the cat food.
 
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Red Baron

Red Baron

Paleo-Conservative
_______________
kjacks said:
FYI- Human urine will kill any ant there is, only down sides are you can't use it indoors, and if you have close neighbours you may want to be discreet!?!?!
:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Chuck Norris' urine stream is so powerful, it can cut a Volkswagen in half at 50 yards.
 
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