What to do about ants?

[suesjools]

Posted this on the Cocktails thread, but am posting it again so I can get more opinions and advice.

And here I thought I was having a good day. Went out to the kitchen to get more coffee and saw a million tiny black ants all over the sink! I ran the water and knocked them down the drain then poured drain cleaner down after them, (not a good idea as my sink is now backed up, ugh). Went to the drugstore and got ant spray and ant cups, figured out they were coming from under the stove and pulled out the stove drawer and found the most disgusting mess I've ever seen, bits of dried up food and dirt and even a tie! I just hope my landlord didn't give the pigs their security deposit back, I know I sure wouldn't.

I tossed the lot in the bin, then washed the area down with ammonia, then sprayed the ant spray, am waiting for it to dry before putting ant cups out. Anyone who thinks people aren't the most digusting species God ever put on the Earth has no clue at all, makes pigs look like neatniks by comparison.

OK, rant over. It scares me as I don't know where they came from or why now, after two years, they've made an appearance. Ants scare me more than just about anything else, as there are so darn many of them. Any ideas on anything I can do to make sure they don't come back would be greatly appreciated. They're the really tiny black ants, the ones you can barely see, but when they swarm even my half blind eyes without glasses couldn't miss them.

Best wishes for many sales to all,

[cheaver]

I've only ever had them outside so as soon as they appear to be edging closer to the house I pour boiling water over them.

Found this though for more ideas:

http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Ants




.

[suesjools]

Thanks, they're all over outside but it never bothered me too much, as long as they stayed outside. I'll check out the article, thanks muchly. Ms. Penguin to the rescue!

Now I have to figure out how to unplug my sink...

Best wishes for many sales to all,

[TiasTreasures]

Something in coffee kills ants. When we got anthills in our yard, my mother would kill the colony in two or three days by spreading the used coffee grounds on top and pouring all the leftover coffee into it. So if you find the colony (and if you drink coffee) that's a safe way to kill them. Someone told her tea and tea leaves kill them too, but we didn't drink tea so she never tried it.

And when I came home one day and found a trail of ants all the way across my living room into the kitchen, with another trail alongside it heading back for home (carrying little pieces of the cat food one of their scouts had found), I sprayed Simple Green straight out of the bottle along the entire trail. It killed the ants on the spot and destroyed the scent trail. It was also easy to clean up with no worries about dangerous poisons.

[suesjools]

Ooh, Simple Green, I love that stuff! I used to have a lot of it but used it up cleaning when I moved in here, (and I never thought to check the stove area as I don't use it, stupid me). I'll have to get more.

I drink instant coffee, I wonder if that would work as well as the brewed kind?

Ant baits are out, unfortunately I put them where I sprayed but oh well, live and learn. I don't want to put them anywhere else as I don't want to encourage them to invade other areas.

This kills me as I'm the neatest person I know; whenever I finish eating all the wrappers go into the outside bin right away, nothing sits in the indoor garbage can except ciggie butts and non food stuffs, and all food, even non perishables are in the fridge, as I've always been paranoid about insects, I absolutely hate them. I swear the next place I live will be brand new and the only filth will be dog hair, that I can live with.

Best wishes for many sales to all,

[FirstGreenIsGold]

For anthills.

Take about 1/2 borax and 1/2 fruit syrup. Something fructose. Put in saucepan and heat until borax dissolves. Cool and store in some kind of bottle. We use an old plastic syrup bottle.

Take caps from milk / juice jugs or lids from yogurt containers and sink into the ant hill. Pour the juice into the cups. The ants go crazy for it. Apparently it does something to their eggs.

We've tried all kinds of pesticides and this is the best thing we've found. We have a 25 foot brick planter in the front of our house and we've always had a problem with ants in one end of it. Also have ant hills in our lawn and a big one in the back alley.

Also, I've read that people use a dry mix of borax and icing sugar. I haven't tried that yet.

[suesjools]

Thanks, much appreciated. I'll definitely give this one a try. They're all over the place outdoors, but I never bothered them as I figured if they were happy outdoors they'd stay there and not come inside. I wonder if the large amount of rain we've had recently has anything to do with it? Maybe they got flooded out and were seeking new homes, (the rain did destroy most of the ant mounds on the walk behind the house).

Now for something completely different, does anyone know how to unclog a sink that someone (me) stupidly poured drain cleaner down? I tried the baking soda and vinegar suggested on Wiki and also a plunger but neither seemed to help, the water's just sitting in the sink.

Maybe it's time to call the hot plumber...

Best wishes for many sales to all,

[JimmyCee]

You do not want to kill ants !!!. what you want to do is eliminate the colony.
This is done by allowing ants/termites, etc to carry back to the colony material that will eliminate them.
I have used a 20% solution of boric acid / sugar in water, just enough to dissolve it all with a good mix, warm water is best for this.
here's a clip of an article.
When ants or termites eat a solution with boric acid in it, the abrasive powder damages their digestive tract and kills them. It may also cause damage to the nervous system of insects, reports the National Pesticide Information Center. It does not happen immediately, however. Leave the boric acid solution out for the ants to eat and they will take it back to the colony to share. Then it will kill the entire colony over a few days. You can buy boric acid ant bait at most any grocery or home improvement retailer.
This has worked for me with ants, termites is another solution.

[astral276]

Used to plagued by ants as the house is built on the site of an old orchard (everyone around here had them). The worst was a major nest behind a back-boiler in my living room, so as well as the normal ants the flyers came hurtling out each year. Not nice.

Tried many things - including some military chemicals that I really shouldn't have used, but was desperate.

Nothing worked until I tried some Nippon Liquid ant killer (commercially available here) which is much as others have suggested - Borax in a sugary syrup.

You do have to allow the ants to feed on it and take it back to the nest though. That means allowing them free reign for few days and resisting the desire to stomp on their heads.

You could try and see where they are entering to seal it, but it is possible they are coming up from under the floor.

I too have had the cartoonesque twin trail of ants going across the floor and up a table leg to feed on some grapes in a bowl.

[HaleysComics]

Here is links to what I used outside & what I used on inside & it did what a pest control company wasn't able to do, got rid of the ants.

Indoors http://www.homedepot.com/p/Terro-Liq...T300/202532940

Outdoors http://www.homedepot.com/p/Terro-Out...1806/203225198

Outdoors http://www.homedepot.com/p/Terro-Out...1812/204661245