Has anyone used All About Ants in the Portland area before? Yelp reviews are all positive, they offer a 4 month warranty (which the lady was very upfront and said they would probably have to come back out once during that 4 months due to the weather this time of year), and no contract required. Their chemicals are mammal safe (IE my crazy cat won't die from them), and they responded to my email in just over 12 hours after it was sent on a weekend.

The only issue: they are expensive... Quoted $269 for indoors, wall injections, and outside.

allaboutants.net

haven't tried them but are tired of the little 'sugar' ants that continue to be a problem in my house.  I"ve done all I can myself both inside and outside.  I've also had a contract exterminator but even they didn't help.  I'm ready to spend the 269 but one thing I don't want it in 5 months they're back again.  were it a guarantee for a year, I'd do it in a second.

OP - what kind of ants?
Carpenter ants suck...35+ years ago as a kid we had them in our house. Brought them home from Mt. Hood as we cut our own wood every year.
$269 would be cheap for those bastards.

Sugar ants? Go get some Terro at any store (FM, HD, Lowes) and use it per instructions. Use it all over. Keep up on it. Those little bastards are persistent.
1) at least they are now longer trying to find food all over your counters/pet bowls any more...
2) poison to take back to the kiddies...

There are home recipes but Terro is just too easy.

If I were you I would do take care of the problem myself since its cheaper and sometimes better than some pest control "experts". Pets can be a real issue in effectively treating the problem due to the necessary chemicals required for proper treatment.

What kind of problem do you have?

We  tried Killers extermination company years ago for  ants and spiders, we had them come out once a month to take care of it.      The first few months, things seem to get better.  Then  things started going back to normal, lots of ants , lots of spiders.   I called the Killers to let them know .    The came out to inspect, sprayed a little and left.    The next month the spiders were back, I called and got the "Oh this is the time of the year they are out in force"  So the next month I asked my neighbor to watch them for me.  HE watched the guy pull in to the driveway, sit in his truck, eat lunch , write the bill and leave.   The only time he got out of the truck was to place the bill in our door.   The next month the same thing, this time my neighbor filmed them.   I called , they gave me the "That would never happen, our tec are professional! "   I told them my neighbor videoed the whole thing and asked if they wanted a copy.  I was told "How do I know your neighbor didn't edit it to make us look bad"    They never came back, they did try to bill us for the month that they never came out.   After a phone call, they decided that they wouldn't charge me and never came back.

My lesson learned, ALWAYS make sure someone is there when exterminators come to your house to do work.

I am not familiar with any local professionals as a reference, but I will give you my experience doing it myself for a fraction of the cost of a professional.
My wife and I bought a house earlier this year that had been vacant for a little over a year and the ant problem was the worst that I had ever seen and worse than I could ever imagine. We had 4 separate colonies, it seemed like millions of ants, climbing up the side of the house and another colony of ants in the garden area...lots and lots of ants. First, I tried Terro for several weeks because it had worked well in the past, but they just ate it like candy. I did some research online and found Termidor SC here: http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/termidor-sc-p-184.html
This stuff is effective and terminated all of the ants (and spiders) within days. The active ingredient is Fipronil. We had a huge problem, and Termidor SC flat out worked. The catch...it is what professionals use and you don't want to get any on your skin or inhale any spray. I wore gloves and a respirator. You have to keep pets off the area until it is dry which isn't hard, just lock up the pets in portable kennels.
We were fortunate that the ants weren't interested in coming into the house until we used the Termidor SC and then we used Terro bait traps inside the house for the worker ants looking for a way around the Termidor SC barrior around the exterior of the house. The Termidor SC was a lot cheaper than hiring a professional and the results were excellent. The Termidor SC can only be used 2x per year and I have enough to last many years for a $50.00 cost. I plan to spray 2x per year for general maintenance.

Termidor works great. Premise and Tal-Star are good as well. Drione dust could be handy as well.

Thanks for all the replies.

Our problem: Sugar ants coming in somewhere in the kitchen and dining area. Unknown location of entry. I have tried  "natural" spray that worked well, but is now unavailable (might have been OOS). Currently using mixture of RAID traps, Hot Shot Spray, and Hot Shot gel (spray and Gel in locations my cat can't/won't get in). These seemed to be working well, but my wife found a new trail coming from the air vent in the living room (vacuumed and now gelled that vent).

I'm starting to think my house was built on an ant hill...


My wife is a little weary because she looks at their warranty as "we know it only works for 4 months, so on that 5th month, you'll be paying us more money".

My parents use Terminex (down in CA) and pay $90ish every 2 months for inside/outside spray services.



I hope my current endeavours  (spray, traps, and gel) work, but I'm trying to find reviews on other resources. Thanks for the help.

Guilty,

I checked out the Termidor link...
I too noticed this year the sugar ants seem to "enjoy" terro...I might try this stuff out as a perimeter and spot treatment.

We've used Halt Pest Control for the past 15 or so years, every quarter. I would recommend them.

IMO, the Termidor is very effective.
Usually the Terro has worked for me in the past, but perhaps because of the huge quantity of ants I encountered this year it seemed ineffective, that is until I had exterminated the majority of the infestation with Termidor, then Terro bait traps worked well at finishing off the remaining stragglers that found their way into the house. I think that Terro works well, but not for large ant infestations.