Ants - New Haven,CT

Hi D.:

Try dropping up to two drops of Peppermint essential oils where they are located. One time for the day should work, if not, day and night.

Let me know if that works.

All the best,
N.
www.WholeCreations.com

Hi D.,
Get TORO from the Home Depot/Lowes. It works wonders!
Good luck.
L..
Helping Moms work from Home.

I use a product from melaleuca - a green company- called Pre-spot, it is actaully our laundry stain remover but also works great on ants and is naturally based.
C. G

I'm not sure if this will work for carpenter ants but for regular ants at least, wash everything with mixture of vinegar and water. That disturbs their scent-trails so they don't come back. Also, you can use diatamaceous earth - it is like finely ground sand. The ants eat it, it swells in their body, and they explode -- not a nice thought but at least it isn't bad for humans (b/c it is just like sand) and the ants are gone.

If they are carpenter ants, they are NOT coming in because your house is not clean enough...they are there because they are eating your house.....you might want to call an exterminator.....carpenter ants can cause a lot of damage!!!

My cousin owns Insect-O-Fog, out of Milford. They are a small family business that have been in business since 1962. I had the same problem with carpenter ants and spiders. I have pets and kids and didn't want all that poison around the house. I'm not sure what kind of spray they use but it's safe for kids and pets. I asked them to spray just the exterioir of our house and within days the problem was solved. Their number is ###-###-####‎.

We had these they are totally gone now but we HAD to use a professional service. (We used JP McHale). I think the carpenter ants in our case were coming in from the window where we have an A/C unit and they were eating the insulator material and then they found more material in the nearby crawl space. The service we used was very good but it did take a long time to get rid of them. We live in a wooded area so we have plenty of trees near us. The service we use uses contained methods so they will work with you to keep it as safe as possible. They are very professional and effective.

Hi D.,

I use a line of cleaning agents that are safe (don't even have child proof caps) and they repel insects. They have an essential oil that is antiseptic so they clean great but the bugs don't like it and leave. Also, ants won't cross a line of cinnamon. You can put it where they are entering the house and even the wildow sills and the door ways.

Sorry you're having trouble. It's great to be bug free. Wishing that for you!

M.

We just had a different kind of ants in our house. They have nothing to do with how clean your house is. I would call someone. they can eventually cause some damage to your home, i believe. And, for carpenter ants, i think they usually only need to spray outside.

You should get the small ant feeders that smell like food to the ants but it's really poison so when they eat it they leave the feeder but they die because they ate the poison.

I don't like sprays either. My 2 yr old is all over teh place. But I do buy those little white ant traps ( plastic and look like roach traps). Raid and Combat make them. You can put them out of the way so the little one cannot get them. I swept up a bunch of dead ants yesterday and have not seen any live ones at all over the weekend. I usually only need to use them for a month or so and then no ants for the rest of the year. I put the traps behind things and inside the window sill so she cannot reach. You could also put Boric acid outside the house along the foundation to prevent entry though that is a chemical so not sure if you want to go that route. I have heard of the chalk thing but never actually got to try it and see it work.

Do you know where they are coming in?
We had some last summer, I found where they were coming in and poured splenda in the hole. Never saw them again. Equal will work too. That's one reason I wont have those in my house to consume.

Good luck.

Carpenter ants are WORSE than termites. They can do so much damage to the wood in your house. You really need to call a licensed exterminator or you will be calling a carpenter to fix the damage.

What you need to do is spray the exterior of your house. You can go to Walmart of Home depot and get the spray bottle and chemical inexpensively or call an expert which will cost a bit more. But Carpenter ants will harm your walls - so you need to get rid of them. And you have to do it every year. Also, if you have a wood pile or rotting wood, that can be a huge source of nests.

Hi, I understand your hesitation to use any chemicals with a little one in the house but carpenter ants are different then regular ants. If you do end up needing an exterminator try the company I use https://www.mypestrx.com/Home.html They have some ecofriendly products that they use when they can. I have small children and it was safe for them.

We had this problem in our first house. We were able to determine that they were entering thru the patio door off of our kitchen. I too didn't want to spray any bug sprays, as our daughter was crawling at the time. I read on the internet that if you can find the point of entry, you should draw a chalk line and the ants wouldn't cross it. So, I happened to have some plain white chalk and drew a thick chalk line at the bottom of the door. It worked! I have no clue why, but it worked. LOL So, if you can find where they are coming in........whether it's a doorway or a window, try coloring with chalk. I hope it works for you like it did for us!! Good luck!
OH! And I did this on the outside of the door, too. I wanted to get them from both sides! LOL

Yuck!

We had red ants in our garage and they were starting to move into the house. We called a pest company that used a non-toxic powder that they sprayed into baseboards, cracks in the concrete, etc. The ants take the powder back to the nest and it ends up killing the whole nest.

Ants create a chemical trail so that other ants can follow. You might do an internet search to see what will work to clean the trail on your floors, etc.

Hi - They are obviously getting in somewhere from the outside. You will need to spray the foundation and about 3 feet from the house as a preventative. Try to see where they may be getting in. Depending on how many ants you are seeing if you have a steady stream every day, you may have to treat inside. You do not want them eating your home.

I do what my grandmother told me and it works, Borax, around the foundation outside the house, and under baseboards in areas they are found inside. Also cleaning with a bleach solution works. Wipe counters and floors down with wipes that contain bleach. Good luck.

I have also had ants, and used ant traps vs using the sprays. Ant traps have always worked, and like someone said you can hide them out of site and the ants should disappear after about a month or less and not come back.

Sprinkle Borax outside around the house or where they are entering and they and other six-legged intruders will disappear. I hope this will help.

D.,
Go out and get Borax at the grocery store or Wal-Mart and get the big box not the small one. Sprinkle it around your foundation and under your baseboards, along the walls, wherever you see the ants. I leave it under my baseboards and sweep it under the molding along the floor. The Borax not only gets rid of the ants but is wonderful for fleas, ticks, etc. We have an ant problem every year starting a few weeks ago so I first started putting the Borax throughout my house and then around the foundation. It is not toxic to pets and is very safe around children. A few years ago my son brought home is 2 cats who had fleas, with 2 of my own plus 3 dogs I ended up with a serious flea problem. Due to the fact that 3 of my children have asthma as well as myself I called my vet who told me to place it along all the walls, on the carpets, under the kids mattresses, and along the foundation, which we did and within a week we had no more ants or fleas; we did have to treat the animals as well with the once a month flea and tick stuff. Now I use the Borax for everything imaginable and swear it is like gold. For your carpets, I put it on at night and vacuumed it up in the morning only because I didn't want my girlfriend's baby to get it into her mouth and she loved to play in my living room. Let me know how you make out.
T.