Help me.... Ant Invasion

[Melora]

We moved into a house that quite literally rests upon an ant hill. The dang stupid things live under the house... and have free access into our house via 100,000,000 different routes.

When we moved in we called an exterminator they were so bad. They sprayed outside and said it might get "a little" worse but then it should fix the problem. It got worse alright, and never got better. Apparantly the spray trapped them under the house so the only place they could go for food and water was inside.

After WEEKS of dealing with that we finally managed to beat them into a mild submission. But still they come in. No matter how well we clean, wipe up or throw out they find something, anything to swarm on. Cat food is their favorite and I had to put a bowl of food inside another bowl filled with water to keep them from descending upon it daily. Problem there is one of the cats likes to take pieces of food and put it on the ground before she eats it and always leaves some.

This morning they were swarming on an avocado . They have also taken up to just wandering.... as if our house was an interstate highway. We often find lines coming out of the carpet, going along the baseboards and disappearing under the carpet across the room. We have a central vacuum system so we vacuum them up and hit the entrance and exit points with poisen and that ends that party, but they simply crop up somewhere else. My moms live-in ( a sweet lady but a slob) is always leaving food in my moms room as crumbs or forgetting to close a package and we are forever vacumming up an invasion in her room.

Because my mom is bedridden we cannot have an exterminor come and spray inside the house (I wouldnt want that much poisen all over anyway). My current defence is ant stakes. When an invasion happens I try to put down a stake and hope they take enough poisen back to the nest to make a difference but it only seems to be moderately successful for a day or two.

I am ready to nuke the house just to get rid of these pesky DANG things. As I sit here writing I have smooshed 3 ants who are just wandering across my desk. Its a daily occurance to find an ant wandering on your arm, leg etc.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Any suggestions????

(Pease don't remind me that they were here first..I know that..but I'm here now and and I outrank them in the food chain... I suppose I could eat them, but personal (accidental) experience has left me with the knowledge that they taste terrible)

 

[Dan Murphy]

Originally posted by Melora
......The dang stupid things live under the house... and have free access into our house........

Charge them admission, they will quit.

Honestly? Don't know, other than the exterminators. Good luck though.

 

[Jiminy102]

I am not saying it will get rid of them but this will help..........Toro makes a great little ant poison that is in little containers so that it is pet safe and kid safer. Put it under the frdige, stove , on kitchen counters etc. They will take it back to the nest. Also sometimes the little things you plug into the wall that sends out a little pulse or something is supposed to help. I also heard that if you put Paprika down around where you think they may be coming in at it will stop them from crossing it. We did this behind our fridge and no more have come in from there!!!! Hope you find omething that helps!!!

 

[Robinrs]

Take it from one who lost MANY battles with ants and FINALLY WON!! Get yourself some Ultrasonic pest control units!!

I had an amazing infestation this past winter. They were EVERYWHERE. I went to a Do It Yourself Pest control center, learned MORE about ants than I'll ever need to know, bought $40 worth of stuff to get them out, I treated the inside and outside of my house, NO GOOD. It would work for part of the house but not the rest.

Had the exterminators in three times. No good. They kept coming back!

Then I plugged in one Ultrasonic Pest Repeller in my kitchen. Not only did it get rid of the ants, I have NO crawling insects at all in my home. Not ONE! It's worked like magic for the past 8 months!

The one I have is from Home Depot. They sell them at most hardware stores, ask about the square footage it covers. My house is 1515 square feet and I only needed one. Big Lots had three plug in units for $9.99 last week. My sister bought them because of my success with mine.

I know you'll be thrilled. I thought this was a fight I would NEVER win!

 

[Cindy B]

Wow, thanks Robin..

We came back from vacation and ants found their way into the house..


Now, we don't have a big lots near me.. .how much did you pay for it? Our house is a little bigger (2000 sf), would we need two?
Where did you plug it in? What does it look like?

See, we are getting ants in the kitchen, and in the bathroom (very weird!).. totally scrubbed both of those and also the bathroom... we even found some in the dishwasher.. YUCK!

Since we have problems in both those rooms, do we plug them in in each of the rooms?

Thanks for any help you can give me..

I know that bleach spray works...

 

[cgcw]

I will have to get one of the Ultrasonic Pest Control Units for my home. That way I'll be assured that the ants won't return. LOL

We've had a problem off and on since we had our driveway removed when we first moved in here. We must have disturbed a nest and they took up residence inside. We've been told they probably are living under the house and entering through the heating vents. We did the exterminator route but they only "control" and can't eliminate.

The worst outbreak we had were with the winged ones. DH & older DS were out of town. DS3 was a baby and I was giving him a bath in the kitchen sink. These ants were swarming all over us. It was really disgusting!

Knock on wood, it's been a while since we've seen one around here.

Good luck....I know it's frustrating.

 

[vfb2girls]

We had such a problem with ants this summer, I think it had to do with the fact that it has been so dry here. Anyway after much spraying and such my husband bought a product called Terro ant killer. You put it on little pieces of cardbaord, put it inside cabinets and such and even though it is gross to watch the ants swarm over the carboard they eat this ant killer and drag it back to thier nest and die. We have tried everything and this is what finally did it for us.

 

[Kteacher]

Are they the big black carpenter ants? If they are, you need to find the nest where the queen is. Unless you kill the queen they will keep coming back. We had a really bad problem with carpenter ants 2 years ago. I didn't want to deal with chemicals, so we tried all the above mentioned remedies and then some. We had them in the same places you mentioned. I finally broke down and called an exterminator. After a few months of exterior spraying of the foundation, which didn't solve the problem, we had to go to interior spraying. I did have to empty out my cabinets, but that was the only inconvenience. The exterminator drilled very small holes in the walls of our kitchen and bathroom , and sprayed into the holes. we have been "ant-free" for the last 1 1/2 years. good luck- I feel your pain

 

[Robinrs]

Cindy! I had to search for this one. Sorry this took so long!

The ultrasonic pest repellers are sold at most discount stores and hardware stores. Home Depot and Lowes sell them, as well as Walmart. Target does not!

Melora, I hope your problem has been solved! Let us know!

 

[Melora]

We went out and found the Terro ant syrup (suggested by a few people.. THANK YOU) and the ants SWARMED all over them. We put numerous baits all over the place and have our fingers crossed.. in the house the bait that got attacked the worst was upstairs on our bathroom counter.... After much research we figure we have "pavement ants". They do the typical scouting around baseboards and hanging out in the bathroom... we have our fingers crossed that the little buggers will all DIE!!!

 

[chichihoney]

wet a paper towel with water and a soap rinse the rag i wipe down the bas boards and they are killed they don't like the soap.