A couple of nights ago, I found my bathroom floor crawling with ants.  I must've smashed a hundred of the little bastards.  I captured a few and had them interrogated by a torturer, er, looked at by a pest control professional, and [red]thank God[/red] they're [red]not[/red] carpenter ants.  They're a type that goes after fatty foods.

Got some poison bait from him and put it down this morning, and now there are literally about a thousand ants all over the floor chowing down. [puke]  I'm hoping they'll be good little critters and take some of that food home to momma. . . .

Anyone have any tips on actually locating the primary nest? or on keeping them out of the house?  I'd like to vacuum it out to cut down on the eventual number of ant corpses that will be littering my house (don't want to attract other bugs once these are toast).

Grants Kills Ants bait works pretty well on the little grease-loving bastages around my house.  But most Southern Californi ants are sweet-seekers.

We get the most ants at two times of the year:  The peak of the rainy season (when they are looking for a dry place), and the rest of the year (where they are looking for water).

Had that same problem once.  Could not get rid of them.  Orkin came out and squirted some goo from a syringe around the effected areas and told me "let them eat".  Haven't seen those suckers in years!  HOME TO MAMMA!!



Nuckles.   [smash]

thank you os. i particualrly enjoyed the allegheny mound ant summary.

when I was just a boy I sat on a street corner one day smashing ants with my thumb. "Goddamn ants, goddamn ants", I said as I smashed them.
A priest came along and told me that everything on earth was put here for a purpose. I said, "I don't know father..." He replied, "Fine my son. Name me three things that have no purpose."
"That's easy, Father. Balls on a priest, tits on a nun, and these goddamn ants."

I hope the stuff the guy sold me is the same as what Orkin used, then!  It's a green goo from a company named "DRAX".  It sure is attracting them.  They're lined up like jets around a busy airport terminal building, eating the stuff.

Interesting site, Osprey.  I guess the ones I have aren't so bad -- the site lists a "crazy ant" and a "cow killer ant".  I sure wouldn't want a psycho kow killer invading my house. [:D]

This is the one the guy identified as being in my place:  [url=http://www.pestproducts.com/bigheaded_ant.htm]Big-Headed Ant[/url]
Hmm, the page even lists Drax as the preferred bait.  Excellent. [:D]

Hey, cool!  It's banned in California!  It *MUST* be good! [^] [^] [^]

lo DRJH!

A trick I've heard will maximize the effects of poison is to first put out fish or other meat for a day, then swap it with the poison. This gets them going full bore for the bait, with the maximum number of ants taking it back to mama.

Check out:

[url]fireants.tamu.edu[/url]

Dr.Fireant is my name, ants are my game!!

Mix 1 teaspoon Boric Acid (purchase at pharmacy) to 2 cups Mint apple jelly.  This combo works well on Pharoah ants (sugar ants).  May take several weeks to a month to control ants. Have to get at the nest that can be in any part of your house.  Can find information on these and other ants through the above web site (go to "materials" and then "fact sheets."  Look for #24).  It is about boric acid bait for ant control.

Also check out:

[url]insects.tamu.edu[/url]

Click on "insect answers" and "household" and look for publication on ants in structures.

Doctorfireant I need some advise we have those damn sugar ants in our house every damn year. It ussually takes a month to get rid of em but every winter they come back but we have no probems in the summer most years. we are currently useing a product called TERO (sp?)
It ussually works well its clear syrup stuff and you put it on a little piece of card board. this year we have got rid of them a number of times but recently theier numbers have exploded
the little bastars are everywhere we have a wood stove And I know thats were they come from because I find nests out there from time to time. now thhey climb all over the wood by the stove apparntly eating the pitch. do you have any sugestions on getting rid of these bastards once and for all??
Thanks a bunch

Some if not most ants dislike the food seasoning SAGE. Buy some at the grocery store, put a bunch in a old nylon stocking so it can breath and let it sit where the ants travel.

Also it was found out recently ants don't like catnip either. However it may attract unwanted pusseys. Cats that is. There are a number of insects that don't like catnip. Mosquitos also are among them. If you have a problem with repellant or poisons try it.

One can also burn sage to dispel evil spirits.  Thanks for the reminder;  I will have to do that in case my house has been cursed.

The latest on the mess is that a few ants are still crawling around, but they are now refusing to eat the bait.  They actually covered over the bait with debris yesterday, so that it's inaccessible to them!

I don't know if this means that they figured out it was for killing them, or whether they just dropped what they were carrying so they could take the bait and now are looking for other types of food to round out their diet.

I guess over the next few days I'll see if they stop showing up entirely.  This bait was supposed to be one that they would take back to feed to their queen, so if that works, the colony will die down completely over time.

You also need to dust your pipes and basement sills with something the ants will carry back to the nest with them. Do the pipes everywhere you can see them, under every sink, etc. They are @#$%^& ant super-highways!

The half-life of the poisons are relatively short. You need to put down new stuff once a month for a few months running, because even though you kill off the current lot, in a few weeks there'll be a newly hatched lot running around. It usually takes several cycles of this to eradicate them.

Finally, put down a chemical line of death around your foundation so new guys can't get in. Not being a very green, tree-huggin' kind of guy, I spray my foundation and lawn with Diazinon twice a year. Kills everything (and probably killing me too [:)]!) but I don't have ant or cutworm (grub) problems anymore.

OregonShooter,

Sugar ants are real tough to get rid of.  They nest in the house and will forage for food rooms away from where their nest is located.  Food can be anything with sugar/carbohydrate or protien/oils, this includes hair shampoo and toothpaste.  The product you are using is fine but sometimes they change their food preference making that product less effective.  I would suggest rotating the type of bait used.  See attached links to publications.  The sugar ant is also known as the Pharoah ant.

[url]insects.tamu.edu/extension/bulletins/l-2061.html[/url]  

The link below gives additional baiting choices.  Click on "Fact Sheets" and then check out Fact Sheet #24.  I recommend not only using mint apple jelly, but also use peanut butter.  Jelly combo in one side of the straw and the peanut butter combo in the other side.  After reading publication you will understand.  This gives the ants a sugar choice and a protein/oil choice, kind of a "smorgasboard" ant style.

[url]fireant.tamu.edu/materials/index.html[/url]

I have an e:mail on the board [email protected] , if you have specific questions.

Damn I hate ants.  Anybody whose ever been out in the CA desert is familiar with the red ants we have out there, and I'm allergic to the damned things.  I understand that the scorpions out there have pretty much the same toxins, just in larger quantities.  If one of them had ever gotten hold of me I'd have been done for.