How can I get rid of ants in my house?
We just moved in this house and it is overrun with ants. According to the pest control people there are fire ants, carpenter ants and argentine ants. They have treated the house inside and out, twice, but I haven’t seen a difference. They keep getting into things that aren’t even food, such as our clothes, shoes, toys, etc. My daughter can’t even sleep in her own bedroom because they are so bad in there and in the spare bedroom. Can somebody please tell me how to get rid of these things and keep them out?? I will pick a best answer so you will get extra points. Thanks!
An exterminator has treated the house and outside it twice. I have used Raid and similar products inside, they only kill the ones they come in contact with and unfortunately those sprays choke me and I can’t breathe. I don’t have any carpet in the house at all so the floor gets swept daily. All food is kept sealed up really well to keep them out of it. So far they haven’t gotten into any of our food. I did a good job there.
July 1st, 2011 at 11:34 am
Give the product Torro a try… It is UNREAL and works great
http://www.livescience.com/animals/090812-ant-fungus.html
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July 1st, 2011 at 12:34 pm
To help u with that ask exterminator if he can use some kind of posion to kill them or kill any ant in your sight!!!
Maa….
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July 1st, 2011 at 1:34 pm
At home depot (or any home store) they have ant traps that are little traps that attract ants, you wont be able to tell that they are even there. And when your done you just throw them out.
Maa….
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July 1st, 2011 at 2:34 pm
Wow!! That sounds bad. Well, Maybe bug spray would work. I really have no idea, that’s just a guess. My Dad uses bug spray to keep ants out of our house, and it seems to be working fine. I hope you get those ants out of your house soon and everything goes back to normal!
Maa….
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July 1st, 2011 at 3:34 pm
the best thing to use is oil , i mean ” petroleum ” .. coz it kills ants so fast …
Maa….
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July 1st, 2011 at 4:34 pm
I had ants for one day. What I did was by a can of Raid to get rid of the ones I could find. I then bleached my kitchen until my sinuses burned. It worked for me.
personal experience
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July 1st, 2011 at 5:34 pm
First thing, don’t allow crumbs of food to lay around. Keep lids on sugar, and all food. They sell ant baits in little containers in most big grocery stores and garden stores. You just put them around and the ants take the poison back to the nests. Look around outside the house for ant hills. If you have rotting wood, that is where the carpenter ants live. Pour bleach down the holes, the chlorine fumes are heavier than air and it works pretty good. You may have to get an exterminator. They are expensive because they use lots of poison and have pumps and hoses, etc. Also, that isn’t the safest job in the world.
personal experience
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July 1st, 2011 at 6:34 pm
Years ago, l’ve watched a family on TV with the same problem as yours. They have these ants all over and also with non-food items. They hired professionals and found out it’s the ground/soil where the house sits that causes the problem. lt’s a breeding place for colonies.
l was thinking of planting trees like eucalyptus or those with strong scents to drive them off. How about dipping cotton balls in eucalyptus oil and placing it in strategic places in the house. Same effect with cayenne and red chili. l’ve done it before in my house but the situation we have is not as big as yours. You and your family may not like the smell of it too, it’s all up to to if you’ll take it into consideration.
Hope the problem gets solved right away.
personal experience
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July 1st, 2011 at 8:34 pm
Baits like Tarro will not work on Carpenter Ants or Fire Ants. It is designed for the little grease ants you find on the kitchen counters. The larger ants must have a path to outside vegetation to get food. You need to prevent them from getting to the plants around your house.
I had carpenter ants and tiny grease ants. I finally got them killed out by doing it myself. All the organic remedies I could find did not work on these persistent pest. What did work was getting Spectracide Indoor / Outdoor ant spray and spraying the entire outside of the house and out from the foundation for about a foot on the ground. And then spray under the house.
If you don’t drench when you spray, the ants just move their eggs and nest to someplace you didn’t spray. You also want to form a barrier around the house by drenching one foot of ground from the foundation and all plants touching the house.
Repeat every two weeks until you no longer have ants. Remember a new crop hatches every day, so you need to repeat every two weeks until you have them all.
You also need to do an outside survey to see if the Fire Ants and Carpenter Ants have a other nest. If they do, they new ants will move in from the outside sources. Look for old boards and buildings where they carpenter ants could live, and get rid of the boards and buildings. Powder fire ant and Argentine ant hills.
personal experience
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July 1st, 2011 at 10:34 pm
You need better pest control people to do another number on your house. Try a different company and let them know the first one failed the job. Get a written guarantee of results.
The pests you have are dangerous. ( I **HATE** fire ant bites!!) They probably have nests inside the walls, so you may need some drilling into the walls to spray there. Get some calk and seal up every fissure you can find, however small.
http://www.acmehowto.com/howto/pest/ants.php
Get boric acid to spread around outside around the perimeter of your house to prevent them from coming in. If they are already nesting in your house you need the pros to take care of them. Sprinkle it generously inside the house along the walls, and pull furnishings away from the walls until they’re gone.
Set ant baits outside your house to draw the nesters out and away from the house. Treat your whole yard for ants. Keep your pets indoors away from the toxins..
Trim back any tree branches and plants that touch your house. Ants use those as a highway to get inside.
They’re after food. A thorough scrubbing to destroy their scent trails helps, spraying, baits, and sealing up every crumb of food when you’re not eating is best. Eat in the kitchen/dining areas, not the bedrooms. Even a tiny crumb is a feast to them!
Pour BOILING water on every single nest you see in the yard. That’s a low-tech, non-poisonous way of trimming their numbers. Every day heat up a tea kettle and go a-hunting.
Chances are good the previous owners were careless slobs, which got the colonies started in the first place. You may need to scrub out the pantry, under the sinks, every inch of the floors and walls or every room that’s got a problem. Wear protective gloves, a filter mask to not breathe fumes.
Vinegar can be your new best friend!
http://www.getridofthings.com/get-rid-of-sugar-ants.htm
I used to have carpenter ants in my bath and caulking the cracks around the faucets did the trick.
And this sounds radical, but they’re better than ants–see if you can find ant predators.
http://yardener.com/YardenersPlantProblemSolver/DealingWithPestInsects/PestInsectsInTheLawn/AntsOutdoors/PreventingAntProblemsNextYear
Try a lawn and garden center to see if they stock or can order “safe’ bugs that eat the ants. They go in the yard, not your house!
Don’t kill spiders outside, they eat ants. Ditto for lizards like geckos. I have geckos all over my house and no bug problems. When the baby geckos get inside I let them run loose and I don’t ever kill them. I know they’re eating bugs! The bigger geckos outside are eating even bigger bugs.
personal experience
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July 2nd, 2011 at 12:33 am
Get a big pot of hot, boiling water and just splash ants with the burning water.
Get a spray bottle with a LOT of dish soap, add a bit of water to thin it out so you can spray effectively, and just spray where ants are.
Get a big jar and fill it like, a quarter or a half with honey, then put it somewhere. Once it’s overrun with ants, just splash dish soap water and/or boiling water at them.
Find the sources (the anthill), and pour a big pot of boiling water mixed with some salt (maybe a tablespoon).
Put corn meal all around the place- ants will eat it but can’t digest it properly and die.
Get coffee grounds and spread it around the house and outside; ants hate it. Also, get a spray bottle, put in a mixture of water and vinegar, then spray it around. Ants hate that, too.
Put talcum/baby powder/red pepper on ants and their trails, and at the openings or anywhere that can lead into the house (aka windows, doors, etc.). Also, chalk the windows and doors- ants don’t like chalk.
Get some lavender oil, put a few drops into a bucket of water, then mop away! Ants don’t like lavender oil.
Google
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