seen outside patio door.
once had some inside kitchen when a grape was dropped overnight.
one in bath last night.
I know they are there....how to get rid of them before they all come inside

I have a residual spray ant/bug killer for outdoors, that I spray around the perimeter areas of the house in the spring and sometimes once in the summer. Especially doorway thresh holds and under certain windows in the kitchen. This has worked really well for me in the past 5 years, as we have not had the ants try to come in the kitchen as before.

Citrus peels work; so does cucumber peels.
Laid across doorways and window sills ants wont come in.
Try some baking soda too, they don't like walking into it.
None of these will hurt a pet should they lick them.

I never EVER had sugar ants in the house and then one day they were EVERYwhere!!

I bought Terro liquid ant killer (it is in an orange and blue box) and it was under $3. Anyway, you put a little piece of the box in the path, squirt some killer goop on it and they walk through it and then go home and kill the family. Unfortunately, it is not immediate and you need to find the trails.

Well, I finally figured out that they were coming in from behind a wall socket. We took off the cover and sure unough, they were walking along the edge. I squirted the thick killer stuff along the edge of the socket box (that attaches to the stud) and it was so gross... the ants loved that stuff and were lined up sideways on it, just eating their fill! I waited a while, and pretty soon all of them were gone and when they didn't come back I cleaned up the gunk and put the wall plate back on. I gave them a moment of silence for their deaths and then I did my little happy dance!

Another problem, you are supposed to keep it away from kids & pets. But it really works well. Good luck.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Just Plain Jan,

quote:

Originally posted by conrad:
I have a residual spray ant/bug killer for outdoors, that I spray around the perimeter areas of the house in the spring and sometimes once in the summer. Especially doorway thresh holds and under certain windows in the kitchen. This has worked really well for me in the past 5 years, as we have not had the ants try to come in the kitchen as before.

We do this as well, since with kids and animals wouldn't want to have these chemical in the house.

brand for residual ant spray?
thanks

What I currently have is a plastic pump spray called "Bug Stop" by Spectracide. It states it has up to 9 month effectiveness indoors. I guess I sort of believe it, as I did spray inside a void around a kitchen electrical outlet, and we never have had those little ants come in that route since.

My sugar ants definately come in thru my door slabs..I see them coming in and when it rains it POURS ants....most of the time I sprinkle paprika across the outside sill and under the ledge and it works...sometimes I need to use cayenne pepper sprinkled as some colonies seem deterred but not resistant to paprika. Yes they are orange but I would rather use these than have those nasty chems tracked into my home and onto my floors....after a bit when the ants stop coming 2 X 2 I vaccum up the remnants....I read that borax works but is not kid or pet friendly for ingestion.

I swear by Terro also. I recently found some baits in a box and took them to TX when I was visiting my daughter this past August.

When I moved in with Bob he had battled ants for the 20 years he lived there. Someone told me about Terro and it was worth a try.
He had tried organic methods as well as insecticides.

The Terro worked! The ants never came back the remainder of the time we lived there until we sold and moved here.
I've told others about it when any other product failed and it worked for them too.

It was a little gross at first when I put the liquid stuff on the cardboard and they came after it. There must have been hundreds. The whole idea is they take the bait back to the colony and feed the queen and when she dies she is no longer making new babies so the whole colony dies.

I studied up a little on ants while living in TX once I discovered I was severly allergic to fire ants.
If you don't kill the queen the colony just keeps reproducing. Eventually if the colony gets big enough they breal away and make new colonies.
The colony that is coming in your house may be under your house or under the back yard or even out under the sidewalk.
I've seen eveidence of fire ant colonies that were acorss the street and burrowed up under the street and under the sidewalks to get to another yard.
Ants are smart creatures.

Terro is the BEST.. I would even watch all the ants gather around the Terro like they were at a watering hole. Just let them "enjoy" their new "treat" and take it back to the nest. I swear it would kill the entire nest.

I never thought about describing it as they are around a watering hole but that is exactly what it is! Thanks for a giggle today.