Anybody else in SoCal having a problem with small black ants?  They're all over the damn place.  For the last few years we've had a small prob' with ants in the summer, but after an application of Dursban around the perimeter of the house, they'd be gone.  Not this time.

I haven't been able to find Dursban anywhere this year and am using a new product called RealKill which is supposed to be just as effective. NOT!

The ants are mainly in the kitchen and bathrooms, so they are obviously attracted to water.  I've sprayed around all plumbing as well as in/around light sockets.

I'd consider calling an exterminator, but they're about as bad as chiropractors.  They all want to set me up for a series of visits for "maintenance".

This is bullshit.  Sorry, had to rant.

Dursban was banned from over the counter consumer use back in June of 2000. Exsisting stocks were allowed to be sold untill they ran out or untill after 18 months of the ban.
[url]http://www.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/06/08/dursban.ban.01[/url]
Diazinon is next, the EPA started a four year phase-out of it starting in Dec of 2000.
[url]http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncsmon08.htm[/url][img]http://www.ortho.com/content/products/images/2DUIS.jpg[/img]

Orkin came to my house and layed down some goo out of a giant syringe around the vital areas.  They told me not to kill the ants that swarmed on it so that they would take it back to the nest.  BYEBYE ANTS!!!!!!!!  Worked GREAT!!!!!



Nuckles.   [smash]

Be very, very glad you don't have Fire Ants yet.  When the little mounds of happiness start appearing in your yard and you kick one over, then you WILL understand.

I've tried this and it works better than anything else I've used:

Take equal parts of Borax and sugar and dissolve them in a minimal amount of water so you have a saturated solution.  

Put this liquid in small containers near your affected area.  Splash some around if you like - it not only kills 'em, it's bait!

Fixed my ant problem for about four bucks, with enough left over to do several square miles.

My sister's father-in-law mashes some hot chile peppers and sprays on the ants.  For me, for a small amount of them, I mix a drop or two of dishwashing detergent in a spritzer bottle, and spray them, the ants drown because the detergent breaks the surface tension of the water, and they fall thru and drown. I was at an insect fair at the L.A. County of Nature History Museum a few years ago, and someone sold some diatomacesous earth or DE, which is the very fine remains of tiny ancient sea creatures, this powdery stuff supposedly sticks to their bodies and acts as an irritant and causes them to die. Personally, I have not tried the DE this stuff, because fortunately I don't have an ant problem.  Major Surplus, Gardena, Calif 800/441-8855 has some food grade version of this stuff.

What - ?  You aren't going to take the GWBush approach to killing ants?

First, you must send food supplies to the "innocent" ants that have never bitten anyone.  Ants are basically peace loving creatures, and only extremist ants attack humans.

Second, you must only kill the terrorist ants that have attacked you in the past.  The fact that they all live toether may make this difficult, but it is really the only "formicidarian" approach to take.

Using harsh, effective chemicals like Dursban is out of the question.  Neighboring ant beds may no longer accept your humanitarian aid, and will probably develop terroristic attack ants.  Remember, none of the ant attacks would have occurred if you were not so sympathetic to the ant hating ladybug colony in the backyard.

As you will have to systematically identify and hunt down [b]only[/b] the ants that have attacked you in the past, this will be an expensive, time consuming process.  It is suggested that you implement extensive security measures to properly screen and identify all insects (including ants) prior to allowing them into or out of your domicile.



[i]second thought, why not go ahead and kill [b]all[/b] of the ants, and continue to do so until they are gone?[/i]

- Satire over -

Bud

My mom lives in the victorville area and she has them every where cant get rid of the fuckers ! mayby napalm will work!

The ants are from south american jungles.  They need water to survive.  Get rid of grass around your house, make it dry again, and they will disappear.
c-rock

They announced on the news a couple of days ago that we now have fire ants in California's central valley.

I could have told them that many years ago.

[b]Diazanon[/b] is good advice.  I like the
liquid you mix w/ water.  Also helps keep wasps
and yellow jackets from building nests under
the eves of the house, if sprayed up there.

PS - I hope everybody here is smart enough that
I shouldn't have to say "But don't stand under
the eves and let the shit drip on you."

Back in '81 while my dad was stationed at Kessler AFB, I was horseplaying with another kid on my baseball team, and rolled through a fire ant  bed.Didn't even realise it until they started eating my up. Man did the next few days SUCK!!!

Here at Cherry Point, I've had ant problems in the past, but now I have moles!!! Just about broke my ankle in my backyard  in a mole tunnel. And I just thought the swamp was reclaiming the land....

[smoke]

I've been getting a lot of ants recently too, and they kept coming back every two weeks even after I killed them with ant poison.

When I first moved in to my apt, I squished some of that Raid Contact syringe type cockroach poison all over the place. I've had extremely good luck with this particular roach poison and have never seen a single roache when applied. When I rechecked the old bait areas, and most of it was gone so I placed another bead down behind the cabinets. Strangely enough, my ant problem dissapeared soon after too.

I have heard that this is the best and only way to go also.  Same pricipal as my previous post, just let them swarm that sugar mixture and bring it on home to mama!!



Nuckles.   [smash]

Diazinon crystals or Terro.

Borax soap powder or diatomacesous earth work great to kill ants and roaches.
They way they work is when it is laid down on the ground the ant or roach crawls over it. Since they are in crystal form it cuts the "skin' of the insect which causes the covering to try and heal itself. The borax or the diatomacesous earth stick to the wound and act like a dessicant, drawing the moisture from the insect's body. Crystalized Diazionan works the same way except it uses the poison as an added kicker.

I loaded up with dursban before the ban.
Diazanon works well too.
I was bit by a fireant this summer on the Kern river, it hurt like a bee sting but made my foot swell for a week. two weeks before all of the swelling went down. Nasty little bastards.
I squished his little head with all of my strength[:)]

I take great offence to this. Why do the ants automatically have to be black? I know we live in a world where color divides, but this has gone too far. Those ants could have easily been green or red, but you have to vilify the black ant. I hope you learn from your mistakes and realize that the next time, it just might be a red ant that bites you in the ass.

Mr. Chocolate,

It is with my most sincere and heartfelt apology that I humbly request your forgiveness for my insensitive and grossly politically incorrect reporting of the color of the pigment enriched ants that have descended upon my home.

It is wrong for me to describe the offending ants in terms which might be construed by some as a direct correlation to the ethnic resemblance to my long oppressed black brothers.

Keep the faith.  Right on my strong , black brother! [@:D]

The last couple days ants have been everywhere...

I'll tell you what I did in an old apartment.  We had these lousy little ants that would form a Ho Chi Minh trail network anytime even 1 crumb was left out.  This became tiresome and I decided to "teach them a lesson."
I didn't care if they died, or simply became so pissed off, that they just permanently went away.  
 Knowing that small animals (bees, hummingbirds, etc.) often rely strongly on their onboard fuel supply, I decided to give my ants some fake fuel, so they would stoke up on it, walk along, and then "crash and bonk" without any energy.  HOW?
 I located an ant-superhighway on the kitchen counter.  I scattered a teaspoon of Nutrasweet(think it was Nutrasweet) all across their path.
 They tanked up on that fake 2h1t, walked away without any fuel, and crashed somewhere, out of energy.  Those d@mned ants Never Came Back.