we have an ant problem

okay they appeared i guess while i was on vacation and then reappeared several days ago and it's just getting worse! at first it was just some that found the trash can... got rid of the trash, used some simple green to kill the ants, no biggie... every time i go in the kitchen there's more, and they've found the cereal and yuck.

so what do i do to get rid of ants? the apartment buildings are supposed to get sprayed here once a month, but i don't remember when the last time they came was. i'm asking tomorrow and am hoping the new managers didn't stop the pest control.

 

get this junk!
http://www.biconet.com/crawlers/GIFs/terroAntStationbox.jpg
it works amazingly well...
you get an arseload of ants feeding in there then they all go far far away!
good luck!

 

you gotta watch though that they don't just move to another part of the house. I had them in my living room, kitchen, bedrooms. i'd clean out one room and never see them, andthen much later I'd find them elsewhere. find the area (s) they are coming from and put traps / whatever there

 

Wipe everything down with a sponge and vinegar. Like your countertops and garbage can and whatnot. They don't like that.

 

ahh i was thinking of vinegar, just hadn't gotten round to it. i think i'll put some in my about to be empty simple green bottle and do that tonight.. then get some traps/poison tomorrow.

thanks guys

 

Also, try sprinkling cayenne pepper near where they are and where they come into your place at. Sprinkle it in front of the door, along counters in the creases and corners, at the back of your cabinets, etc. I hear they don't like cayenne pepper much.

 

First question, are they the big black carpenter ants or the tiny red ones.

If it's the tiny red ones then they're looking for food. You may need to check every food container in your cupboards because they can be in any of them. Wash the area well.

Carpenter ants are looking for water, not food because they eat wood. They normally first get into your house by climbing up a tree or bush, so you need to trim your trees at least three feet from touching your house. If they've already made a nest in your house then you need to find where the nest is (look for saw dust) and place the poison around that. Go to the hardware store and buy some malathion, spray that around the nest, along your baseboards where you seen them walking and around your house. This stuff stinks so try to do it at a time when you can air out your house. The ants will walk through it and track it into the nest killing the rest of them inside.

 

find where they come in and seal it, or get a hypodermic needle and fill it with your choice of poison, and shoot up your walls.

 

My mom used to mix some kind of insect poison and jelly, and leave it out for the ants. They take the jelly back with them, and it kills all of the ants.

I'm not exactly sure what she used, but I'm sure you could find it on the internet. It always worked really well. Gets rid of all of them!

 

Here is a website:

http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/resources/antbait267.shtml

 

I had a problem with ants at my old place, small black ants that never bit or anything, sugar ants maybe? I never could get rid of them because their mounds were beneath the house, but I did keep them at bay with the vinegar water solution. Keep everything clean, especially where they enter from (which shouldn't be hard to figure out). I also kept my sugar and what not in the freezer away from them.
If they are sugar ants, you need to get control of it immediately, they reproduce very quickly. Another idea just out of the top of my head would be to make a sugar mixture with poison in it. We did something similar and they'll even carry it back.
Good luck

 

I lived in a total slum in SF and started having an ant problem in my room (it was like a boarding house, so I was really only concerned with my room). I lined the walls on the floor with a thick border of cinnamon, at the suggestion of my cafe manager. I NEVER had an ant problem in my room, again, but I did get a lot of funny looks from friends when they saw the cinnamon along my floorboards and windowsills. haha! I've used cinnamon a few times since, but roommates just want to bring the fancy poison in. Terro is the best one, I've found, but I prefer keeping things as natural as possible. I don't mind cinnamon. It smells good.