Keeping ants out of your house-

[Blackjack]

Mix 1/2 cup sugar with 1/2 cup 20 mule team borax in a jar of water. Dip cottonballs in the solution and put them around where you see ants. By day two you won't be seeing them anymore-

 

[belfastboy]

My mother had a seasonal ant problem, showing up in mass columns each year. Raid makes a liquid ant killer/repellant that you just drizzle a tiny bit across the migration path of the ants. It truly stops them dead. It comes in a small (palm sized) plastic bottle with a red label.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Or alternatively, you can sprinkle/spray some peppermint oil where the ants are comming in.......they hate the stuff.

 

[philosophygirl78]

In Miami, we use cuban cologne to ward them off like this one:

We also use Listerine to fend off mosquitos. And Yes, it is Very Effective.

 

[tuppence]

When we had ant problems in previous homes, I'd sprinkle talcum powder around where they were coming in. That would stop them.

 

[LizzieMaine]

You need to get rid of the queen to get rid of the colony, so it's a good idea, whatever poison you use, to find the main anthill and apply a liberal quantity to it. I've had some luck pouring a kettle of boiling water directly into the hill.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Around here, ants are like Michael Jordan (or Kobe or LeBron or whomever your guy is)...you can't stop them, you can only hope to contain them. I get his gel stuff from the exterminator. I'm not sure what's in it, but it works pretty well for a while. But you will get ants. Thems just the facts of life on Gulf Coast.

 

[MisterCairo]

We had flying ants in the kitchen the other day, to add to the parade o' ants we usually have.

I'm taking notes on the suggestions above.

My wife had never heard of flying ants before. She thought I was making it up.

Until I showed them to her, on the sheers...

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Flying ants are the reproducing members of an ant colony. The bigguns are the queens & the smaller ones the males who die after mating. They emerge a few times a year, usually in hot humid evenings, mate in the air & then the fertilized females will form new colonies elsewhere.

 

[MisterCairo]

Flying ants are the reproducing members of an ant colony. The bigguns are the queens & the smaller ones the males who die after mating. They emerge a few times a year, usually in hot humid evenings, mate in the air & then the fertilized females will form new colonies elsewhere.

I'll spare my wife the gory details! And we're looking forward to the new colonies...

 

[Dirk Wainscotting]

I have six ants nests in the garden currently and they're a bloody nuisance. There are constant piles of displaced sand from between the bricks. I'm expecting one day to put a deckchair on there and collapse into a big hole when I sit on it.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

I'm expecting one day to put a deckchair on there and collapse into a big hole when I sit on it.

That is their plan.....

 

[Chicago Jimmy]

We had flying ants a few times. If you have a vacuum cleaner with the wand, just turn it on..they go right for it and get sucked in. i assume it's the noise their attracted to.

 

[HudsonHawk]

We had flying ants a few times. If you have a vacuum cleaner with the wand, just turn it on..they go right for it and get sucked in. i assume it's the noise their attracted to.

Ants are also attracted to electricity. Every so often I have to replace the contactor switch on the A/C unit or the well pump pressure switch because ants have crawled up there and shorted it out.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Ants are also attracted to electricity. Every so often I have to replace the contactor switch on the A/C unit or the well pump pressure switch because ants have crawled up there and shorted it out.

Carpenter ants actually depend on the earth's magnetic field to navigate. Electrical wiring gives off enough residual magnetic energy to confuse their direction-finding system.

 

[Miss Moonlight]

Boric acid powder. It's what my mom's mom used when they were growing up. We put it under floorboards and in nooks and crannies. Ants tend to walk up, and not quite touching it, go the other way. It makes a barrier good enough that I got rid of ants that way in more than one home.

It also happens to end roach infestations, and they take it back to the nest and it destroys the eggs. Silverfish it doesn't work so well on, but it seems to have helped a little here.

Boric acid powder is often sold in bottles with a little squirt cap and is sometimes called Roach Killer.

 

[LuvMyMan]

http://richsoil.com/diatomaceous-earth.jsp

This product here works really good for any insect control. It has no chemical to it at all. And if you shop around, you can find it "dirt cheap", (pun intended).

 

[Doctor Damage]

My mother had a seasonal ant problem, showing up in mass columns each year. Raid makes a liquid ant killer/repellant that you just drizzle a tiny bit across the migration path of the ants. It truly stops them dead. It comes in a small (palm sized) plastic bottle with a red label.

That RAID liquid ant killer you mention was excellent, a few drops of the amber fluid and 24 hours later not a single ant anywhere. When we went to buy more last year the hardware store said RAID doesn't sell it anymore since it wasn't environmentally friendly or somesuch. Frustrating, since the "replacement" stuff seems to be mostly a placebo in terms of (in)effectiveness.

I hate to revive old threads like this but it's an interesting discussion for me since last spring and this spring we've suddenly got a medium-sized (3/8") black ant problem. Basically, in the kitchen only. Last year I caulked some gaps in the cabinetry closed, this year I did more, but they're still finding a way in. They probably have a nest in the wall or something. Last year they went away after a week. We're day 3 this year, but I always worry they might make it permanent!

 

[Doctor Damage]

Well, on day 4 the number of ants dropped precipitously and on day 5 we didn't see any. That was surprisingly fast compared to last year. Anyways, good riddance!!

 

[Cuvier]

I use Spectracide Home defense spray on my house. It's indoor/outdoor but it works on crawling insects. Lasts for months.
I spray around the baseboards and exterior of my house and I don't have any problems for the next few months. At least inside.
I do have a fire ant problem. Those things are vicious and HURT! I have use Amdro fire ant killer on them. Only stuff I've found that works.