How do I get rid of ants that just won't die? for Questionland Seattle

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How do I get rid of ants that just won't die?

They just won't stop. They torment me and my cat all the time--eating his food, stealing my food, just crawling and creeping and TERRORIZING me. I've tried those little trap things that are supposed to poison them, but you have to let them live in order to get the poison back to their peeps, and I try to give them a coupla days, but then I go crazy and just kill them all executioner style. Is there a way to make them stay away forever and ever? I live in an apartment and my landlord is pretty rad, but he's given me cinnamon and ant traps and chalk, and none of it has worked. Those little effers are persistent!

Julia Wayne asked in Home Fix & Maintain about 1 year ago | Report

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Sacrelicious

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Hi Julia,

We had this problem one summer and it was horrifying. My sympathies! We also have a cat, so spreading poison around was definitely out.

The solution that worked for us was an ant trap, like you've already tried, but a specific kind. The Ortho ones did jack for us...the ants couldn't have cared less.

The trap you want is made my a company called Terro. It comes in an orange box. There's who types, one where you put some solution on a little tissue for them to find, and one that's an actual clear plastic trap that they go inside.

The nice thing about Terro is that it's not poison r high-tech. It's basically borax in simple syrup. The ants eat it and just dehydrate, but not so quickly that they can't take it back to the nest. We used this when Raid and Ortho traps were doing nothing for us, and our problem was over in a matter of days.

Give it a shot. They should have it at your local hardware store. I'm hoping this isn't what you've already tried and found to not work, because it was super effective for us.

Sacrelicious answered in Home Fix & Maintain about 1 year ago | Report

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Flamethrower.

Brammimonde answered in Home Fix & Maintain about 1 year ago | Report

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Kyle Knapp

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First and foremost, keep your living space as food free as possible. This will help tremendously. Also, making it harder to get into dry food like cereal; use food containers. And for food, like fruit or vegetables, that sit on the counter you should only keep the essentials out but in a tied or zip plastic bag; oranges and apples should stay in the fridge anyways, and bananas will stay longer in a sealed off bag.
Do some rooting around and find where the ants could be entering. If you find the entry/ies, use a liquid glue to seal up the hole.
You may not like sprays, but they work the best, and you only spray along base boards or problem areas.

I have heard another alternative is to, this is if you want to go all green about it, place dry rice out. Yes, dry rice. The ants see and detect the rice as being edible. Problem is they don't have enough saliva to turn it into edible food, and they don't know that. In turn, they gather all this food and essentially starve themselves to death. However, this would mean that you are leaving dry rice laying out, and your cat could possibly eat it as well.

Calling or talking to a professional might be a viable option, i believe there is a store in Seattle that just sell home stuff for stopping pests.

Kyle Knapp answered in Home Fix & Maintain about 1 year ago | Report

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I've heard that diatemeceous earth will work. And agree with Russ re moating the cat bowl.

And ok, so one crazy thing that worked for me. Do you have a spidery household? If you do, and you tend to kill or move indoor spiders you might consider giving them a pass for a while in that area and they might help. I, too, had a cat bowl ant problem and nothing worked until some spiders in the area decided to pitch in. (This was accidental, I just happen to have a lax spider policy as they do not freak me out like insects do.)

I then had to clean up some ant corpses for a couple weeks but after dealing with ants for so long, it was worth it. Since then, I haven't had a problem.

If you do not have a spidery household, I am not sure of an effective...like spider importing process, though...

Good luck! It is maddening and I hope you find a good solution.

FreshPickedSeattle answered in Home Fix & Maintain about 1 year ago | Report

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Every time you go executioner style, and kill them directly, you split the nests. This results in one colony becoming two, and you actually end up with MORE ants in the long run. So, first and foremost, resist the urge to spray them, because that only makes the problem worse.

You must kill the entire colony, and to do this, you must leave out traps or poison. I've had the most luck with Grants Kills Ants, which is a blue liquid. You need to put a few drops on ant trails, and then WAIT for a week or so. I've used this with cats around, and the cats have never shown any interest. Of course, it would help to put the drops where the ants are but the cat can't get to (baseboards, behind cabinets, etc).

Mahtli69 answered in Home Fix & Maintain about 1 year ago | Report

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Russ Campbell, NWEBS

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I found a real laundry list of more homemade kinds of remedies that I am sure have some effectiveness in one application or another but they also sound like what you have been trying.

http://www.thefrugallife.com/ants.html

The basic fact is that you have to be scrupulously clean to not give them a food source that they can find. If you have to leave food out for your cat all the time you could place the bowl of food in a larger pie plate filled with some water to form a little moat and the cat could still eat, but the ants cannot get to the food. Wash and clean the pie plate frequently because it may be the place your cat decides to drink also.

Following the trail of ants back from the area where you find them feeding can help you locate where they are entering your apartment and that may help you stop them by applying your repellant/counter ant strategies closer to the source of the invasion. Using the more toxic solutions in the hallway common areas of the building may be a solution to protecting the animals and people there as you won't be applying them in your living space. A lot of what exterminators use is applied to the corners and along where the wall and floor meet as these are the common pathways for ants.

Russ Campbell, NWEBS answered in Home Fix & Maintain about 1 year ago | Report

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Have you ever read "Lenningrad vs. the Ants"?

Some very good tips in there...

O my captain answered in Home Fix & Maintain about 1 year ago | Report

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I've never had really serious ant infestations, but both times they invaded, after generally making the kitchen spotless, I found their entry point and poured liquid soap along the crack in the wall. After that, I found a few individual ants here and there but the long line of ants disappeared.

keshmeshi answered in Home Fix & Maintain about 1 year ago | Report

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