Hello!
I need some major help here. We have these little black ants. It was just in my bathroom, now they are all over the house, everywhere. I have a 12 year old daugther and an almost 18 month old son. So, I don't want chemicals around. I do have the black traps in alot of the areas that my son can't get to. But they don't help any. The kitchen is clean free of food and things like that. My daughter does not have any food or anything in her room. I don't know where they are coming from really.
Is there anything I can do to get rid of these pests?
Thanks,
L.
sprinkle cornmeal around where they come in and around doorways. They eat the cornmeal but can't digest it. Within a week they should all be gone. Works on anthills as well and is safe even if kids eat it.
Call Bissaillon's Rid All, they put a sugary gel in the house and spray outside. It is safe for children and animals. I have a six year old and two dogs and they never get into it. We have to have this done every spring, there are lots of ants in the neighborhood. Runs about sixty dollars and they are gone within days.
I got TONS of responses to this. Here's the link
http://www.mamasource.com/request/5492711491624763393/161...
M.
They have started coming into my house this week. I have sprayed the exterior of the house around windows and especially the front door since it appears that is where they come in-though probably other places too. In the past, I always buy the white ant traps and they work well, though take about a week to notice. I will be buying them tonight. If the ants are everywhere, look around the outside of the house around the foundation for any ant "hills". They look like tiny holes that might have been dug up, rather than actual dirt mounds. You can put Boric Acid along the foundation. The kids should not be able to get to it so it is a bit safer than other stuff. We had large ants a few years ago and never knew where they came from. It was awful. They mostly seemed to like the bathroom. When doing some plumbing repairs to the toilet, it turned out we had an ant home under the floor. After getting rid of that thing-and killing the ants with Scrubbing Bubbles (it works!) we never had the big ones again.
we recently had an ant problem and used cinnamon to keep them from coming in. I dumped it around the back door, and it stopped them instantly. They had been reappearing within an hour of them being vacuumed up, and since I put the cinnamon down, I haven't seen any!
Hi L.,
We have the same problem. I bought Terro liquid any traps and they work really well. The ants go into the trap, take the "bait", and bring it back to the nest and the rest of the ants are supposed to die. It seems to be helping. Good luck. I know it is so frustrating!
The best ant killer around is TARO. You can find it at Menards. They come in pellet form for yards, as well as special stakes. For indoor they come is these clear rectangular boxes with a clear sticky liquid inside. I've had "infestations" and now they are almost obsolete. I swear by this product. No other ant killer can do it. I hope this helps
hi L., you may want to check on jewel they have an ant killer that is eco friendly, and I think you can use it around plants and kids. I saw it in the back aisle next to the ecofriendly claning products if you want to check it out. hope this help
my neighbor told me to sprinkle Baby Powder where the ants were. I am totally ant free after one sprinkling! I um, dumped more then sprinkled, but still it worked!!
Vinegar! Wipe your counters down with vinegar. Really don't know if the type makes a difference (white or apple cider, but also use little jar tops and pour some on them and place under appliances anywhere you can. On the chemical side, Bengal Tiger (anti-ant chemical sold at some hardware stores) is great for big black ants!
Deb C
If they started in the bathroom could you have a water leak in the wall where carpenter ants could have made a nest. This happened to us..the soap dish was not installed correctly and water was getting back there. The ants made a nest in there as they like moisture. Then they started venturing all over the house in search of food. We had to take the walls down in the shower and luckly they had not done any damage as of yet, vacuum the millions and I mean millions of ants out of there and spray killer spray and then replace the wall and retile...we were luck as I said, not much damage was done.
A myth about carpenter ants is that they are all big....but I had learned through this process that they are not... their size depends on their job in the colony...smaller ones go collect food.
Either way...I think you need to find the sourcr
Something to check out! Good Luck
Home Defense. You can get it at HomeDepot or other harware stores.
We get those every year too! I have some green housecleaning books and I tried their remedies this year and they've been working really well. First, I put some borax powder (find it in the laundry aisle)along the baseboards where the ants seem to be coming in. My books say that borax is slightly toxic but you can sweep it in very close to the boards so the kids can't really get into it. Plus it's still much better than all of those other chemicals. Then I fill a 16oz spray bottle with water and add about 50 drops of peppermint essential oil (Whole Foods has a bunch of oils). You want a strong peppermint smell, apparently ants hate it. Just spray it along the baseboards where you put the borax. The book said to do this regularly. I add a little bit of Dr. Bronner's soap to my water mixture, that way I can spray the ants directly as well and they dry right up and I can just wipe them away. I was pretty skeptical when I tried all this out this year and I was amazed at how well it worked. I still have a few, but nothing like it has been in previous years, or even earlier this spring. Hope this works for you.
Hello, I am having an ant problem myself, I noticed it last week around my water cooler. The bottom compartment is a cooler for non-perishable food items which my son puts his juices and fruit cups in there. The first time when notice the ants, I bleached everything and I thought it was fine until the following day I seen more ants around the water cooler again. Something said open the door of the cooler, my son had let juices leak in the cooler. So I cleaned the cooler out, washed the two racks, thinking now I got them. This week I see a few more ants, I like where are they coming from, so I remember when ants were bad about 5 or 6 years ago, the big black ants. A friend of mine told me about grits, he says put grit around in the house and outside. They will take the grits back to their nest and need water, it makes them explode. So I tried it and the ants are gone, I have the grits by my door which is by the fridge, plus the grits will not harm children or pets. My dog has not gone near the grits, I think I will wait until Sunday to sweep them up to make sure they feed the whole crew. Try it!!!!!!
Yes, get Terro ant bait. The toxicity is that of vinegar, its borax. Its a bait so you'll see an increase of activity for a couple of days until the nest is exposed. Just keep one or two around in case of a new crop.
Hi Happy Mother's Day
Just has the same problem this week myself. On recommendation from my mother I tried Ortho Home Defense Max. Safe to use and available at Lowes, Home Depot, etc. You spray inside and outside your house. So far so good with no more ants here. Good Luck to you.
i hate this feeling heres what worked for me. the terro traps that you leave around areas you see the ants. i also used the terro traps for outside along the foundation. it seemed to work for me. good luck. i know how frustrating that can be.
