Just Spotted Tiny Ants

Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it "home," can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works & you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

My friend told me to put cinnamon sticks where I see them coming out. I never had a chance to try it as it was easier to buy Tarro than to find cinnamon sticks when I was in college. Sounds like others have mentioned cinnamon too, so maybe it's worth a try.

Try putting cinnimon where you see them coming out of. I've tried that and it works. I've also put out some ant bait traps where my son and dog can't get to them (as an extra precaution). I haven't had ants since then. Good Luck!!

C.

I saw in AARP some natural pest repellents. For ants, they suggested to sprinkle cinnamon, bay leaves, cayenne pepper or baby powder in problem areas and along base boards and windowsills. It is a safer alternative to commercial pesticides and worth a try. --R. H.

Basil leaves work wonders put them in areas where ants are found. working mom of twin7yr old boys.

Ortho Home Defense Max was what we used to stop our ants. We got it at Target, but you can get it at Walmart.

lay cinnamon in the crack where they are getting through. It suffocates them. Ive used it myself and it works!

I use Terro - the kind that you put a drop of liquid on a piece of cardboard. Our daughter isn't crawling yet, but we do have two cats, so I take a styrofoam cup, tear a few noches in the edge and then tape in down over the Terro. Within an hour or two the ants are gone and the cats don't get into the poison.

At our previous home we had a continual problem with ants trying to invade our kitchen. These were aggressive little critters and if a scout found something it like, within an hour you had the whole colony arrive. We tried cinnamon, pepper and borax; just slowed them a bit, didn't deter at all.

What finally did the trick was a completely non-toxic, orange-oil based bug killer. Orange Guard is the one we've found here in southeastern Iowa, Bugs-R-Done is the one we used when we lived on the west coast.

Both products have websites (www.orangeguard.com and www.bugsrdone.com) and both work. Here in Iowa we haven't had to use the spray outdoors, but the Bugs-R-Done was almost magic how it worked outdoors at our old home. As I understand it, ants and some other pests have a wax-like coating on their breathing passages and something in the orange oil breaks that down so the creepies essentially drown in liquified lung coating.

If the ant problem is bad outdoors I also highly recommend Grants Ant Stakes. Googling just now I found this blurb about them: http://www.colehardware.com/hotline/96/10/ants.htm

Ant stakes are preventive. Ants do indeed love them and during the height of ant season where we used to live, the stakes (stuck in the planting beds maybe five feet apart all around our house) were emptied sometimes in a day or two. We just kept a supply of the things on hand and tried to remember to check them frequently. When a big bunch of ants got in we knew we hadn't checked and replaced the stakes in a while! Oops!

One thin I must add about Orange Guard and Bugs-R-Done is that they can be sprayed right on kitchen counters and other food surfaces, around pet food bowls, and in kid areas. They really are completely non-toxic -- and it always smells great wherever you spray, just like a freshly peeled orange.

I use Cody All Star Pest control. They are awesome. They are not too expensive and the spray the entire house inside and out for all bugs. I have used them for about 14 years now. The first house we were living at about 8 or 9 years of keeping up with the bugs, they were pretty gone. Now at this new house we have mega spiders. Each year we are seeing less and less of them. It depends on the size of your house what they charge. I have told MANY people about them and no one has been disappointed with them. We had the little ant problem here too and we don't see many now.

Good Luck!

I have had the best luck with those little ant traps. The kind where the ant walks into it and take the bait back to it's nest. I've used them several times. You will need to keep your one year old away, but you can hid it with furniture I'm sure. Good luck.

If they are really teeny tiny ants, then it is probably no biggie, just buy some spray and spray your baseboards. My mom had this problem in her home(only a few years old too!). It seems to happen every summer, but go away after you do 1 spray.

On the other hand, if they are normal ant size, they could be carpentet ants! We had these in our previous house. Don't be fooled, they come in all sizes!!! I just thought we had occasional ants-they were just regular in size. After a year though when they came back, I discovered they were Carpenter Ants!!! We tried some home stuff, but in the end decided it was best to call Orkin.

Also, you can call your local Extension Office for identification of any ants and tips on treatment for FREE! That was our first step. If they are carpenters, stay on it and start treatment! They say they are the most destructive because people just assume they are regular ants! Good luck!

Ortho also has a product that you can use both indoor and outdoor. It's safe to use and it will get rid of the ants and anyother little creapy cralwers around the house.

L.

There is a product that Menards sells (I have gotten it at some Walmart's also) that is called bug stop. It is a clear liquid that comes in a clear bottle. It works AMAZING! Just pray all your cracks (where wall meets floor) and the ants stay away for 9 months or more. I would be a spokeswomen if I could! - that good... It is also pet and child safe

Sounds like sugar ants...incredibly common. The best stuff is called "Ant Terro." It's a poison, so make sure it's underneath something so kiddos and pets can't get to it. You can usually find it at places like Home Depot or Menards
Good Luck :)

We had this problem in my daughters room last year and this year. I used a ant killer from Menard's. It is safe for indoor use. or so they say. You spray it on the baseboard and one inch of the carpet and it is effective for up to 6 months. It worked really well. I don't know why the ants come in through her room. There is no food in there.
Good luck!

My grandma used to have ants bad and the way she kept them out was to lay a partially peeled cucumber slices on baby food lids where they where coming in. Once they eat it, they can't burp up the gases and it kills them.

Hi J.,
thanks for asking the question. I'm having the same problem and it's driving me crazy. I've tried a bunch of the traps and we've sprinkled little pellet things around the house twice. I just read that 20 Mule Team Borax is supposed to work also...sprinkle it around and they can't cross it. I won't be in town till next week to pick some up so I haven't tried it yet. I'm going to try some of the natural things that the other mom's have posted then probably call someone if it doesn't work. Good luck.

We had an ant problem at the beginning of the summer and I thought I could try a bunch of things to get rid of them. I kept the area immaculate, I tried the gum, the chalk, the ant traps, the sprays and NOTHING worked. We finally had to have someone come and do a perimeter pest control spray around our house and they were gone in a few days. Our house is on a concrete foundation so I'm sure it'll be a yearly thing for us........don't mess around and let them take over your house like they did ours.....get them to spray right away!!

As someone else suggested, cornmeal.

Good luck!

We have them, too. They come in on hot days for water. Ours enter near the kitchen sink. You need to spray all around the base of your house, and then around the area they are entering. Be sure there is not food or food residue in the area either. As the weather cools they will go away.

SAHM of seven

This is going to sound crazy but it works. Go outside, find the trail of ants and put used motor oil (which we happen to have thanks to my husband) just before where they are getting into your house. Ants cannot cross the oil and if one does the others do not follow because the oil messes up the chemical signal that ants leave.

If you're not concerned about chemicals, I swear by this stuff called Tarro (sp?). You can get it at most hardware stores. It comes in either a liquid or prepared tins with openings for the ants.

Be sure to keep this away from children and pets by putting in corners etc. near the path where the ants are coming into your house. It has a syrup base that's sweet like corn syrup to attract the ants. Your problem should be taken care in a day or so.

i have also used cinnamon. i like it becasue it's natural and i don't have to worry about the dogs and kids into it!!! and the cinnamon makes your house smell good too.

I found that Terro traps work the best for long-term control. Hide them around where the ant trail is. I even got a couple outdoor ones and put them on that side of the house. Within a week, no more tiny ants!

If none of the previous stuff works, call someone to come out. We had small ants when we bought our house, thought they were sugar ants/food eating ants. After a year of trying things, called the bugs guys we used to treat some carepnter ants at our other house. Turns out they were also carpenter ants. I am no bug expert so I always assumed big ants = carpenter and small ants = sugar. They treated them twice that summer, they are gone and have not come back in 3 years. We tried Tarro and everything else and that all works on other ants, but carpenters eat the structure of your home and those other things rarely work. The source usually needs to be found outside to help stop them from coming back each year.
Good luck.

In the ant killer department at walmart there is a little box I believe it is orange or white called terro. It comes in a clear little bottom. Have to keep it away from kids but put it in the corner where they are coming from and in like three hours you won't have ants again.

Baking soda along their trails will work well too.