Ant problems?- the very best advice you will ever get

[underpants]

Yes we tried (and succeeded) with various parts of the organic way of- vinegar, cinnamon, borax, baby powder but the ants this year are relentless and superpowered.

The exterminator at my work told me that the rains from September to March in the mid-Atlantic killed their food stores forcing them to come out early and to thrive as they found easy food.

Inside
TERRO- $4 - this stuff actually has Borax in it. It looks exactly like hand sanitizer. Put a little on pieces of cardboard and slide them under the stove, fridge, dishwasher, and under the sink. You have to be very careful with pets and kids with this stuff. I put it out yesterday after work and have not seen an ant on the countertop since- this is a new development after weeks of fighting them.


AMDRO - $14 - this goes outside and is supposed to be safe for kids and pets to be around. Pellets that they carry back to the hive (Terro has the same goal), kills the queen -- game over. This takes longer and you may not see the immediate results but everyone I have talked to says that two treatments a year will keep the ants dead.

[Fire Walk With Me]

1. Ant bully

:cry:

;)

[underpants]

2. No

any killer

in massive numbers

hopefully

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. I prefer the more natural approach:

[ChoralScholar]

11. I estimate that I could maintain 10 obese anteaters with the ant population at my house - EOM

[applegrove]

4. Nuke em! LOL!

[NewJeffCT]

6. Only way to be sure

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s1MspmfEwg

[applegrove]

9. I was channeling Boehner. LOL!

[underpants]

19. I agree with Chet (the pre-Mormon years)

F'n A!

[NewJeffCT]

20. He had so many great lines in that movie

and, was subject to one of the great movie putdowns of all time...

Hudson (to muscular woman), "Hey Vazquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man?"
Vazquez, "No, have you?"

[NewJeffCT]

5. Amdro has worked well for me in the past

don't need to use anything inside with it.

[underpants]

14. This was for immediate relief

I was told the same thing about Amdro by someone at work.

[UTUSN]

23. AMDRO comes in two versions: black label for "regular" ants & green label for leaf-eaters

Both have worked great for me. I have had at least 3 types of "regular" ants: The large fire ants, the tiny-teeney fire ants, and the black (honey?) ants. The last ones don't bite and don't bother me. The big fire ants CAN bite but aren't usually aggressive. Unless the first movie you ever saw was "Them" and gave you nightmares, like me, but that's another story. Their main nuisances is that they wear-in clear, extensive superhighways from their extreme industriousness in marching and marching, plus if unchecked their mounds can get more than a yard in diameter and with extensive "rubble" around the holes.

The teeney red ants are FEROCIOUS biters. If you step on their mini-mounds or scrape them with the mower, your flip-flopped bare feet will get instantly attacked en masse, all of them biting without letting go with terrific pain.

The black label AMDRO works totally fine on all of these. The leaf cutters ("carpenter"? ants?) are a totally different situation. These laborers can appear suddenly, their home mound can be up to a mile away on somebody else's property, and OVER NIGHT they can strip a shrub totally bare. It's like they have SCOUTS who reconnoiter and pick out a certain bush, who knows why, and then calls, "ATTACK!!!!!!!!!1" and the next day the whole troop have done it. They look charming in their parades, each once carrying a piece of leaf like a banner. When I first encountered these I thought their attack on a plant meant the death of the plant, but I've learned that the plants DO come back eventually, as in, don't kill the goose/golden eggs.

The GREEN label AMDRO is all of what works with the leaf cutters. And both AMDROs work on the principle of getting the laboring ants carry back the granules to the queen in the mound.

[csziggy]

25. There is also a version for fire ants - I think red or orange label

It does not seem to work 100% - at least we still have plenty of fire ants. That could be because I don't like poisoning the entire farm, I just spot treat around the house and barns.

[Auggie]

7. How do I get rid of uncles?

[underpants]

13. Very funny

:applause:

[grasswire]

8. I had a horrible problem with ants

Then I learned that febreeze kills them instantly and they don't come back for weeks to that spot. I have had none on the kitchen floor since spring, and just a few on the counter. It is a blessed, blessed relief!

[underpants]

15. Really Febreeze? Windex kills them instantly too but has no lingering effect

After I put down the Terro about 30 minutes later I swept into a circle and Windexed about 300 ants. I know that the point is to let them take it back to the queen but damn it killin' just felt soooo gooood!

[Lasher]

10. I advised last week in your squirrel thread that Terro will do the trick.

Don't know if you saw that, because I was replying to somebody else. I didn't know about Amdro but I've so far not had any reason to kill them if they stay outside.

[underpants]

12. No I missed that

thanks though

[MajorChode]

16. There is no one solution that's going to work for all types of ants

Different types of ants have different diets, so you have to match the bait to whatever type of ant you have. The first step is identification. After that it's easy.

[jobycom]

17. Dude, that's violent.

I have always had success with diplomatic methods. Often simply sitting down and talking to them works. If that fails, try economic sanctions. Chemical warfare is brutal, and only a last resort.

[underpants]

18. A good stern talking-to

:rofl:

[seabeyond]

21. we had flying ants in bathroom. never before. they finally died out after a month, a little more.

we pulled out our shower a week ago. redoing and tiling. found an ant nest. used tons of raid. took care of those suckers.

hopefully that was the source.

all my cheking i never found where they did damage, just irritant.

i dont know what you do about the ants. we have patches yearly. almost always outdoors. i spray raid

?????

[mike_c]

22. terro's pretty safe, actually....

I'm not sure why you'd be concerned using it around pets and kids. We use it here all the time and have no problems at all. It's really just sugar syrup with boric acid added. It's pretty harmless-- like if someone licked those drops off the cardboard squares it wouldn't harm them at all.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

24. I just play Monty Python's Theme Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rutX0I6NxU&NR=1

Those ants know what comes at the end.