Ants!

It's that time of year again when the little creatures invade my house. As soon as the first wave of 70 degree weather hits, there they are! The last few years they've vanished on their own as quickly as they appeared, but not this year. This year I was forced to call in the big guns from Terminix. That helped immensely, but I'm still seeing them around my kitchen counters and sink. Just keeping the area spotless doesn't seem to help and obviously my hands are tied as to what I can use in that area.

Has anyone else had this problem and found anything that worked? I'd love to hear your solutions.

My parents live in Arlington Heights and suffer from the exact same problem! I am interested to see what others say as well.

Our northwest suburban house has had a brief spring visit from ants most years, too. This year, the ants came in for a couple of days during the warm spell in February but I haven't (fingers crossed) seen any recently.

Last year, I had a problem keeping them out of my cat's food and bought a pet food dish holder that had a moat you filled with soapy water. Once deprived of that source of food, they went away.

Even though your house is spotless, the ants lay down invisible "scent trails." You have to keep washing the areas where you see ants. If you disrupt the trails often enough, the ants go away.

You also should try to figure out where they're coming in and block it, but that's very hard to do.

More ideas

I found these on non-poisonous ant control:

http://www.anapsid.org/pestcontrol.html#ants

http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf446297.tip.html

http://www.thefrugallife.com/ants.html

Some preventives are surprising -- such as crushed egg shells.

I did think it was interesting to note that too much fertilizer outside can mean more ants everywhere.

Hope something works.

I see I'm not the only one with this problem! This is our first spring at this house, & the ants were quite a surprise, I've never encountered this before.

Day before yesterday, I came home from work to find the dog's dry food bowl swarmed with ants! YUCK! So I immediately pick it up, dump the food (& ants) down the disposal, shower the sink with hot water.

And then I looked down.

There, like an orderly little army, was a line of ants, marching (they were about 3" across) along the kitchen floor. But where were they coming from?? I followed the trail, all across the dining room, into the living room, across that floor, and out the front door (there must be a little crack there somewhere)!!!

Out came the bleach spray and the mop.

I have to say, imagining what it was like to be an orderly little ant, waiting patiently in line for my chance at the food fest in the kitchen, I did feel kind of like a monster in a sci-fi movie, spraying, mopping, repeating. Poor dead ants.

But it was them or me.

Liz in Norwood Park wrote:But it was them or me.

I know. There's something likable about those little ants. They're industrious, have some kind of amazing intelligence in their DNA, work well with one another, and don't seem to want to hurt (or even annoy) anybody. If they were people, they would be the kind of people we admire and approve of.

We get a mini-festation of them every spring, and put out some ant traps (the kind that puts some poison on or in the ants that they carry back to the colony), and that's that. But we kind of feel bad about it. It does come down to a "them or us" thing. If there were only a way we could coexist with the little fellas, we'd prefer it.

It's funny how we regard some insects as basically "good" and others as loathsome. Butterflies and lightning bugs are good; flies are bad. But they're all just doing their thing.

this is our first may in this apartment, and we've been visited by ants, too. but, thanks to some internet research, i've found what has been, so far (fingers crossed) the perfect solution: ground cinnamon. sprinkle it along where the ants are coming in, and they'll stop. i've also been cleaning the areas around the cat's bowls with a vinegar/water solution. this combination works great, and i don't have to worry about chemicals making me or the animals sick.

Spiders can be brought in for ant removal.
But seriously, the Mexican herb-epazote will cause the ants to leave.

riddlemay wrote:[I know. There's something likable about those little ants.

Now I'm wondering what would have happened if I had just placed the bowl out on the front porch....would they have reversed order? How long would it have taken? Would it have been a case of "the last shall be first & the first shall be last" or would they have scrambled to gain position?

I kind of wish the gross-out factor hadn't been so high & that I had tried that experiment.

riddlemay wrote:I know. There's something likable about those little ants. They're industrious, have some kind of amazing intelligence in their DNA, work well with one another, and don't seem to want to hurt (or even annoy) anybody. If they were people, they would be the kind of people we admire and approve of.

Well, they're definitely industrious, but haven't you seen any of those science films on what fierce warriors they are, and how quickly something is stung to death and dismantled if it strays near the nest?

This is true of all ants, but at the extreme end, you have the army ants, which kill and eat everything in their path -- including large game and any human who doesn't get away from them.

One ant factoid that I've always found fascinating, if a bit disconcerting, is that ants are 10 percent of the biomass of the planet (which gives you some idea just how many of them there are that you don't see).

My girlfriend and I had a big problem with ants last year. We tried everything from Raid to bleach and sprinkling pepper. We tried one poison but were afraid of more because it was in the kitchen and our cats are, well... curious.

The only thing that worked and kept working was Cinnamon.

I have no idea why it works better than anything else we tried, but it does. And it makes the kitchen smell nice.

Ground cinnamon, I suppose I should specify. Though I wonder if a stick would work for keeping them from coming back.

Some of this depends on the particular specie of ant, but if you want real control, you have to address the nest. We were really happy with an exterminator I found through the Franklin Report who is a former entymologist, who finally helped us. We had a kitchen full of carpenter ants - it took complaining to the City's Parks and Forestry department to trim all the dead wood out of the parkway trees where they were living, as well as baiting with the type of poison they take back to the nest.

We have a recurring problem with ants every spring. We learned about Terex from my husband's aunt Joan in southern Illinois. We just put a few drops on some cardboard and leave them on the kitchen counter (well away from any food) and they go for it like crazy. In a few days the ants are gone. I believe they carry it back to their homes and share it with their brethren. Borax is the main ingredient, I think. It's extremely cost-effective and a bottle usually lasts me several years.

While I'm not crazy about using poison in my kitchen, this is very easy to control and the dog isn't interested in licking it up.

Suzy

sdritz wrote:We learned about Terex from my husband's aunt Joan in southern Illinois. We just put a few drops on some cardboard and leave them on the kitchen counter (well away from any food) and they go for it like crazy. In a few days the ants are gone. I believe they carry it back to their homes and share it with their brethren. Borax is the main ingredient, I think. It's extremely cost-effective and a bottle usually lasts me several years.

What is Terex and where does one buy it? We are undergoing our second Spring in a row of ants in our kitchen and bathroom (and what exactly do they eat in the bathroom, anyway? Soap?).

I'm also interested in the cinnamon solution. Thanks for the good ideas, all.

Wow, so glad to know I'm not alone here. One thing I had been using was Windex. Supposedly they hate the smell of the ammonia and since I have Corian counters, the Windex is fine. I had also heard about using crushed bay leaves. Anyone know anything about this? I like the cinnamon. That would be real easy to do.

EvA wrote: What is Terex and where does one buy it?

Terro sounds like the same thing as Terex. You can find Terro at many places, from Jewel to Home Depot. It has worked for us in the past.

Thanks, Blunt. I think we'll try it.

EvA

My mom always kept bay leaves in the flour, and it seemed to work. For me, I put ant baits on the floor, and they seem to work just fine. For the counters, I sprinkle bay leaves around and while I haven't had any bears, vampires, ax murderers, OR ants, I just consider them an anti-ant remedy.

Hi,

If you want to avoid using chemicals when dealing with nuisance insects and animals, then you need to do an internet search incorporating either the phrase 'integrated pest management' or 'IPM.'

Attached is a very good paper on non-pesticidal approach to removing ants. Their recommendatons on sanitation, removing damp areas and caulking parallel the information I used to offer the public as a master gardner volunteer.

Regards,

I meant Terro. Sorry. We only use the liquid, not the sprays. It's easier to control, at least for me.

Suzy

Butterflies and lightning bugs are good

I feel it's my duty to point out that lightning bugs are actually flying, glowing-butt cockroaches.

This seemed to work in keeping the ants from my porch finding their way indoors: a paste of hot green chile peppers soaked in alcohol (I used ethyl alcohol; vodka will do in a pinch - you only need a little bit) for an hour or so (covered so the alcohol doesn't evaporate). With a small brush I applied the alcohol solution all around the door frame.

The capsaicin left behind after the alcohol evaporates works as a repellant not insecticide.
I just looked up cinnamon and found this page - Less toxic insecticides. Next time I'll make a paste of cloves along with the chiles.

I always heard that baking soda works, too...