Diatomaceous earth really is amazing at killing and stopping ants. Put it around the perimeter of your house. Once ants realize that they die when they cross it, they will stop trying to cross. Plus, it's inexpensive, non-toxic, and super easy to apply.
note, non-toxic doesn’t mean not dangerous. you certainly do not want to be inhaling any of that dust, the microscopic barb shapes can be problematic in your lungs and other soft tissues.
Second the guy below...create a full perimeter around your house, and repour after rains. I normally start it in the early spring and then right before winter hits. Then aggressively kill and track the trails of any that get into the house.
Terro liquid ant traps. Cheap, nontoxic and insanely effective. Ants are attracted to and take it back to the nest. Takes about 3 days. We literally had hundreds of ants. Then we didn’t.
For me it worked too but had to do 2 things. First is to not kill the ants during those until a days. They need to eat the poison and bring them back. Second, I had to pour out the liquid onto something else because my ants wouldn’t go inside the container.
These worked well for me, but my ant issue was relatively minor. In theory, they should work the same for a larger infestation. Good luck, my young friend.
Get a picture of these ants and edit this post. Make sure there is something of known size near it, like a coin or ruler. I don't think I could suggest anything more than clearing out all food and deep cleaning to help destroy their chemical trails.
I'm hoping that they are just ants and not something eating the joists of the house. Someone should be able to let you know if they are the type that's doing damage or not.
Good luck, but a quick Google search for diy ant repellent. Vinegar, cinnamon, and peppermint might be worth a try. I guess baking soda and sugar is supposed to kill them. Worth a shot as these should be available around the house or your closest store.
If you can’t get pest control products then let’s try a different exercise.
Ants are most active when the sun comes up and at sunset. Get a flash light and track them at sunset to find the nest.
You have to kill the queen who stays in the nest.
If you can find the nest you can try dumping boiling water into the nest.
Oh no we did do that, for 4 years now. And i also have no idea where they are coming through. The part that pissed me off is that we have enough money to go to expensive vacations like maldives and tenerife. But they don't plan to buy a new house, that is so bs
I agree, better to just nuke the whole area.
/u/Saned1408 literally every house I've lived in has had ants. Continuously put down bait, maybe treat the yard if they're REALLY bad. They show up for a few days and are dead/gone within 2 days of when I use the bait.
They may come back, but rinse and repeat.
The important thing is to bait them. You have to kill the Queen. No more Queen, no more ants.
If you only kill the ants you see, the Queen will just make more ants. So you need to use a bait - something they like to eat mixed with a poison that works slowly over a few days - which the worker ants take and feed to the Queen and she dies 2-3 days later. If the poison kills them too fast then they won’t take it to the Queen.
If the ants are not eating food, they are eating *something*. I don’t know about your area but some places have “carpenter ants” that eat wood. It’s really expensive to repair the damage from carpenter ants.
The ground around your property is host to a very large colony. The only thing you can do is prevent them from coming inside, you will not be able to eliminate the source of them.
Ants hate cinnamon too. I believe it can kill them, but mostly they just hate it and avoid it. If you can find where they get in and put cinnamon across that space, that should help deter them.
Identify the type of ants you are dealing with, they will either like sugar or protein. Although borax is effective, it's better to buy 99% boric acid and mix with a sugar water solution or peanut butter. The optimal amount of boric acid to mix is dependent on the type of ant; but, until you figure that out, 0.25-1.0 percent of the solution total. If you use too much, the ants die too fast before they take the food back to the colony or the ants will ignore the bait, and if you use too little, it will take too long kill or not at all.
Most ants will probably be sugar loving, so assuming that, you take the sugar water boric acid solution and saturate a cotton ball with the solution. Then, place the loaded cotton balls on the ants pathways and preferably out of the way of normal human activities. The ants will swarm it, it will take a couple of weeks, but it will kill all of the ants. Continue placing and reloading the cotton balls with the solution until ants are no longer visiting the bait.
See if you can buy a product called Alpine WSG. ebay might be a good place to look for it. You mix it with water and put it in a sprayer and spray wherever you have a problem. It is safe for humans and pets when dried. It will 100% solve your problem! For a major infestation like yours, boric acid or diatomaceous earth aren't going to stop the problem.
In addition to the recommendations on homemade pest control options:
If your home is surrounded by shrubs/bushes/plants, take the time to do the following:
1. Go around and make sure there’s at least 12 inches between the house and the plants
2. Rake out the area between the plants and the house so there’s not a lot of decomposing leaves
Those two things stopped the annual ant invasion at my parents place, but their’s was very minimal compared to what you’re describing.
I purchased a house that had been abandoned for 5+ years, that I now live in. When I got the house inspected, the inspector basically told me that I was buying a house that was currently owned by carpenter ants. Being that the house had not been lived in or maintained and the property is wooded, I had an uphill battle ahead of me. I had an exterminator spray the first year and was left killing ants daily. Needless to say it was a waste of money.
The next year I put down a combination of advion gel and Taurus SC outside and alpine WSG inside. The advion comes out of plastic syringes and I put it on the foundation in areas where I saw a lot of ant activity. The Taurus SC is a concentration mixed with water and sprayed along the foundation and around door/window openings. The alpine is a powder mixed with water and sprayed inside.
Two applications of each per year and I haven’t seen a single ant since.
Domyown.com and bugspray.com are fantastic resources.
Good luck
If your family makes coffee, save the coffee grounds and spread it around the perimeter of your home and on their trails. After awhile, they will stop coming around. This way works very well for me.
They still do, no crumbs. As i said before this is happening for 4 years now. I never eat in my room. They have a reason to just go in the house. They basically sleep in the house at night
Use Diatomaceous earth, it's a powder with microscopic razor sharpness that drips their exoskeletons up. Obviously dont breath it in and dont vacuum it up. But find their common pathways and spread it there as well exterior walls and baseboards. Its non toxic, I was it for all manners of insects.
Not sure if it's accessible to you, but I purchased Bifen IT concentrate from Amazon (~$55 for a gallon) and a $10 pump sprayer and that stuff works wonders. Spray around windows and door entrances. It's safe to use in kitchens and near animals as long as it's dry before exposure. Haven't seen a six or eight legged creature since. Apply every 3-4 months.
For a non poisonous method, you can try cornmeal. Ants in my area love it but when they eat it their bodies are unable to digest it. So they die. Give it a a try.
I have no idea if you can get this there, but I have really good luck with this. [https://www.amazon.com/Maxforce-Quantum-Imidacloprid-Control-stations/dp/B004SFQ7T6/](https://www.amazon.com/Maxforce-Quantum-Imidacloprid-Control-stations/dp/B004SFQ7T6/) I don't follow the instructions, I find the hole they are going to, and just put a little bit inside that hole. About a day later they are all gone.
[удалено]
Borax is banned in Europe.
>Borax is banned in Europe Banned as a food and cosmetic additive. Look for insect control products with boric acid.
Are you sure about that? I've tried to find it but haven't been able to anywhere.
Not sure what form would be sold in, but the ban is specific to certain uses. Its not available as a stand alone product due to the ban.
What?! How y’all doing your laundry?
Hence the ants!
Diatomaceous earth. If ants crawl over it they die. You can put near any/ all entry points.
Diatomaceous earth really is amazing at killing and stopping ants. Put it around the perimeter of your house. Once ants realize that they die when they cross it, they will stop trying to cross. Plus, it's inexpensive, non-toxic, and super easy to apply.
note, non-toxic doesn’t mean not dangerous. you certainly do not want to be inhaling any of that dust, the microscopic barb shapes can be problematic in your lungs and other soft tissues.
For sure. I should have added to always wear a mask when applying. 👍
Second the guy below...create a full perimeter around your house, and repour after rains. I normally start it in the early spring and then right before winter hits. Then aggressively kill and track the trails of any that get into the house.
Terro liquid ant traps. Cheap, nontoxic and insanely effective. Ants are attracted to and take it back to the nest. Takes about 3 days. We literally had hundreds of ants. Then we didn’t.
For me it worked too but had to do 2 things. First is to not kill the ants during those until a days. They need to eat the poison and bring them back. Second, I had to pour out the liquid onto something else because my ants wouldn’t go inside the container.
These worked well for me, but my ant issue was relatively minor. In theory, they should work the same for a larger infestation. Good luck, my young friend.
Get a picture of these ants and edit this post. Make sure there is something of known size near it, like a coin or ruler. I don't think I could suggest anything more than clearing out all food and deep cleaning to help destroy their chemical trails. I'm hoping that they are just ants and not something eating the joists of the house. Someone should be able to let you know if they are the type that's doing damage or not. Good luck, but a quick Google search for diy ant repellent. Vinegar, cinnamon, and peppermint might be worth a try. I guess baking soda and sugar is supposed to kill them. Worth a shot as these should be available around the house or your closest store.
If you can’t get pest control products then let’s try a different exercise. Ants are most active when the sun comes up and at sunset. Get a flash light and track them at sunset to find the nest. You have to kill the queen who stays in the nest. If you can find the nest you can try dumping boiling water into the nest.
If this is an indoor colony, boiling water isn't really practical
Get those ant baits that poison the colony
Oh no we did do that, for 4 years now. And i also have no idea where they are coming through. The part that pissed me off is that we have enough money to go to expensive vacations like maldives and tenerife. But they don't plan to buy a new house, that is so bs
The solution to ants is absolutely not to buy a new house lmao what
I agree, better to just nuke the whole area. /u/Saned1408 literally every house I've lived in has had ants. Continuously put down bait, maybe treat the yard if they're REALLY bad. They show up for a few days and are dead/gone within 2 days of when I use the bait. They may come back, but rinse and repeat.
There's likely a larger colony outside somewhere close by the house.
The important thing is to bait them. You have to kill the Queen. No more Queen, no more ants. If you only kill the ants you see, the Queen will just make more ants. So you need to use a bait - something they like to eat mixed with a poison that works slowly over a few days - which the worker ants take and feed to the Queen and she dies 2-3 days later. If the poison kills them too fast then they won’t take it to the Queen. If the ants are not eating food, they are eating *something*. I don’t know about your area but some places have “carpenter ants” that eat wood. It’s really expensive to repair the damage from carpenter ants.
Carpenter ants technically don't eat wood, they just dig it out to make nests.
It's really their decision bud.
The ground around your property is host to a very large colony. The only thing you can do is prevent them from coming inside, you will not be able to eliminate the source of them.
Ants hate cinnamon too. I believe it can kill them, but mostly they just hate it and avoid it. If you can find where they get in and put cinnamon across that space, that should help deter them.
We put cinnamon at our door threshold every spring when we start seeing ants in the kitchen. It has worked great for us.
If you can find where they are entering your room, you can caulk the hole.
Identify the type of ants you are dealing with, they will either like sugar or protein. Although borax is effective, it's better to buy 99% boric acid and mix with a sugar water solution or peanut butter. The optimal amount of boric acid to mix is dependent on the type of ant; but, until you figure that out, 0.25-1.0 percent of the solution total. If you use too much, the ants die too fast before they take the food back to the colony or the ants will ignore the bait, and if you use too little, it will take too long kill or not at all. Most ants will probably be sugar loving, so assuming that, you take the sugar water boric acid solution and saturate a cotton ball with the solution. Then, place the loaded cotton balls on the ants pathways and preferably out of the way of normal human activities. The ants will swarm it, it will take a couple of weeks, but it will kill all of the ants. Continue placing and reloading the cotton balls with the solution until ants are no longer visiting the bait.
See if you can buy a product called Alpine WSG. ebay might be a good place to look for it. You mix it with water and put it in a sprayer and spray wherever you have a problem. It is safe for humans and pets when dried. It will 100% solve your problem! For a major infestation like yours, boric acid or diatomaceous earth aren't going to stop the problem.
In addition to the recommendations on homemade pest control options: If your home is surrounded by shrubs/bushes/plants, take the time to do the following: 1. Go around and make sure there’s at least 12 inches between the house and the plants 2. Rake out the area between the plants and the house so there’s not a lot of decomposing leaves Those two things stopped the annual ant invasion at my parents place, but their’s was very minimal compared to what you’re describing.
I purchased a house that had been abandoned for 5+ years, that I now live in. When I got the house inspected, the inspector basically told me that I was buying a house that was currently owned by carpenter ants. Being that the house had not been lived in or maintained and the property is wooded, I had an uphill battle ahead of me. I had an exterminator spray the first year and was left killing ants daily. Needless to say it was a waste of money. The next year I put down a combination of advion gel and Taurus SC outside and alpine WSG inside. The advion comes out of plastic syringes and I put it on the foundation in areas where I saw a lot of ant activity. The Taurus SC is a concentration mixed with water and sprayed along the foundation and around door/window openings. The alpine is a powder mixed with water and sprayed inside. Two applications of each per year and I haven’t seen a single ant since. Domyown.com and bugspray.com are fantastic resources. Good luck
Keep your house clean and don't leave any food out that the ants can find.
If your family makes coffee, save the coffee grounds and spread it around the perimeter of your home and on their trails. After awhile, they will stop coming around. This way works very well for me.
Don't eat in your room and keep it super clean. If there is no food/crumbs the ants will not have any reason to come into your bedroom.
They still do, no crumbs. As i said before this is happening for 4 years now. I never eat in my room. They have a reason to just go in the house. They basically sleep in the house at night
Use Diatomaceous earth, it's a powder with microscopic razor sharpness that drips their exoskeletons up. Obviously dont breath it in and dont vacuum it up. But find their common pathways and spread it there as well exterior walls and baseboards. Its non toxic, I was it for all manners of insects.
Not sure if it's accessible to you, but I purchased Bifen IT concentrate from Amazon (~$55 for a gallon) and a $10 pump sprayer and that stuff works wonders. Spray around windows and door entrances. It's safe to use in kitchens and near animals as long as it's dry before exposure. Haven't seen a six or eight legged creature since. Apply every 3-4 months.
For a non poisonous method, you can try cornmeal. Ants in my area love it but when they eat it their bodies are unable to digest it. So they die. Give it a a try.
time to pull a salvador dali
Any trees touching your house that need to be trimmed back?
Do they sell Ortho Home Defense spray at the store? Spray all along outside and inside where you find them enter8
I have no idea if you can get this there, but I have really good luck with this. [https://www.amazon.com/Maxforce-Quantum-Imidacloprid-Control-stations/dp/B004SFQ7T6/](https://www.amazon.com/Maxforce-Quantum-Imidacloprid-Control-stations/dp/B004SFQ7T6/) I don't follow the instructions, I find the hole they are going to, and just put a little bit inside that hole. About a day later they are all gone.