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Keeping ants out of your house-

Blackjack

One Too Many
Messages
1,198
Location
Crystal Lake, Il
Mix 1/2 cup sugar with 1/2 cup 20 mule team borax in a jar of water. Dip cottonballs in the solution and put them around where you see ants. By day two you won't be seeing them anymore-
 
Messages
10,343
Location
vancouver, canada
My mother had a seasonal ant problem, showing up in mass columns each year. Raid makes a liquid ant killer/repellant that you just drizzle a tiny bit across the migration path of the ants. It truly stops them dead. It comes in a small (palm sized) plastic bottle with a red label.
 

philosophygirl78

A-List Customer
Messages
445
Location
Aventura, Florida
In Miami, we use cuban cologne to ward them off like this one:
23fec0c658b2335577638ee593b212ac.jpg


We also use Listerine to fend off mosquitos. And Yes, it is Very Effective.
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
32,962
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
You need to get rid of the queen to get rid of the colony, so it's a good idea, whatever poison you use, to find the main anthill and apply a liberal quantity to it. I've had some luck pouring a kettle of boiling water directly into the hill.
 
Around here, ants are like Michael Jordan (or Kobe or LeBron or whomever your guy is)...you can't stop them, you can only hope to contain them. I get his gel stuff from the exterminator. I'm not sure what's in it, but it works pretty well for a while. But you will get ants. Thems just the facts of life on Gulf Coast.
 

MisterCairo

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,005
Location
Gads Hill, Ontario
We had flying ants in the kitchen the other day, to add to the parade o' ants we usually have.

I'm taking notes on the suggestions above.

My wife had never heard of flying ants before. She thought I was making it up.

Until I showed them to her, on the sheers...
 
Last edited:

Lean'n'mean

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,077
Location
Cloud-cuckoo-land
Flying ants are the reproducing members of an ant colony. The bigguns are the queens & the smaller ones the males who die after mating. They emerge a few times a year, usually in hot humid evenings, mate in the air & then the fertilized females will form new colonies elsewhere.
 

MisterCairo

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,005
Location
Gads Hill, Ontario
Flying ants are the reproducing members of an ant colony. The bigguns are the queens & the smaller ones the males who die after mating. They emerge a few times a year, usually in hot humid evenings, mate in the air & then the fertilized females will form new colonies elsewhere.

I'll spare my wife the gory details! And we're looking forward to the new colonies...
 

Dirk Wainscotting

A-List Customer
Messages
354
Location
Irgendwo
I have six ants nests in the garden currently and they're a bloody nuisance. There are constant piles of displaced sand from between the bricks. I'm expecting one day to put a deckchair on there and collapse into a big hole when I sit on it.
 

Chicago Jimmy

Familiar Face
Messages
69
Location
Chicago
We had flying ants a few times. If you have a vacuum cleaner with the wand, just turn it on..they go right for it and get sucked in. i assume it's the noise their attracted to.
 
We had flying ants a few times. If you have a vacuum cleaner with the wand, just turn it on..they go right for it and get sucked in. i assume it's the noise their attracted to.

Ants are also attracted to electricity. Every so often I have to replace the contactor switch on the A/C unit or the well pump pressure switch because ants have crawled up there and shorted it out.
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
32,962
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
Ants are also attracted to electricity. Every so often I have to replace the contactor switch on the A/C unit or the well pump pressure switch because ants have crawled up there and shorted it out.

Carpenter ants actually depend on the earth's magnetic field to navigate. Electrical wiring gives off enough residual magnetic energy to confuse their direction-finding system.
 

Miss Moonlight

A-List Customer
Messages
440
Location
San Diego
Boric acid powder. It's what my mom's mom used when they were growing up. We put it under floorboards and in nooks and crannies. Ants tend to walk up, and not quite touching it, go the other way. It makes a barrier good enough that I got rid of ants that way in more than one home.

It also happens to end roach infestations, and they take it back to the nest and it destroys the eggs. Silverfish it doesn't work so well on, but it seems to have helped a little here.

Boric acid powder is often sold in bottles with a little squirt cap and is sometimes called Roach Killer.
 

Doctor Damage

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,263
Location
Ontario
My mother had a seasonal ant problem, showing up in mass columns each year. Raid makes a liquid ant killer/repellant that you just drizzle a tiny bit across the migration path of the ants. It truly stops them dead. It comes in a small (palm sized) plastic bottle with a red label.
That RAID liquid ant killer you mention was excellent, a few drops of the amber fluid and 24 hours later not a single ant anywhere. When we went to buy more last year the hardware store said RAID doesn't sell it anymore since it wasn't environmentally friendly or somesuch. Frustrating, since the "replacement" stuff seems to be mostly a placebo in terms of (in)effectiveness.

I hate to revive old threads like this but it's an interesting discussion for me since last spring and this spring we've suddenly got a medium-sized (3/8") black ant problem. Basically, in the kitchen only. Last year I caulked some gaps in the cabinetry closed, this year I did more, but they're still finding a way in. They probably have a nest in the wall or something. Last year they went away after a week. We're day 3 this year, but I always worry they might make it permanent!
 

Doctor Damage

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,263
Location
Ontario
Well, on day 4 the number of ants dropped precipitously and on day 5 we didn't see any. That was surprisingly fast compared to last year. Anyways, good riddance!!
 

Cuvier

One of the Regulars
Messages
169
Location
Texas
I use Spectracide Home defense spray on my house. It's indoor/outdoor but it works on crawling insects. Lasts for months.
I spray around the baseboards and exterior of my house and I don't have any problems for the next few months. At least inside.
I do have a fire ant problem. Those things are vicious and HURT! I have use Amdro fire ant killer on them. Only stuff I've found that works.
 

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