Ants Have Taken over My Home, Please Help.

THe tips below are great, another thing you can do is after you clean them all up, wipe everything you can down with vinegar. It destroys the ant trails (pheromones which they secrete so they can find thier way back and forth) which they follow, so they wont know how to get to that great spot they found (if they can't find the path to follow they wont go that way.

Once you do that you can then keep kiliing hte scouts they send out (wiping their trail up with vinigar ) eventually they stop coming.

Terro liquid ant baits have never failed me. I have never found them at wal-mart tho, I go to a garden supply store to get them. I have even taped them to the wall where ants were climbing up to get in my kitchen cabinets.

Try cornstarch! I used it when I had an ant problem in my townhouse and didn't know what to do because of my cats. The ants eat the cornstarch, dehydrate and go outside for water (and to die). I sprinkled the cornstarch outside where they were coming in, by the door and on my carpet and it worked really well. They were GONE in a few days. It's safe for kids and pets and it's CHEAP! Good luck!

Try some stuff called Terra? or Terror maybe? anyway, I get it at Home
Depot. It is basically a poisonous lure for them. It's sugar water with something that they take back to their nest. Put it where you find them. Put it under something, like a flower pot bottom turned upside down. You will have to watch kids closely, and you will also see a surge in them for a couple of days, because it will lure them. But they will take it to the nest and the queen, and it will get rid of them all. You do have to make sure the kiddos don't get around it, but the good thing is that you can cover it up as long as the ants can get to it. good luck!!

I 100% agree with the Terro recommendation! My mom used it when we were younger, and we all knew to not touch it. But I have seen a new kind of trap that is safe for kids to be around. Check out your local hardware store. If they only have the old-fashioned kind that needs to be out, just put it in places where your kids can't or won't reach. It might be a little grosser, but it will be worth it in the long run. (My parents initially put it on the kitchen counters because we couldn't reach the back of the counters. They were crawling with ants for a day or two, then there were NO MORE ANTS.)

I had an ant invasion as well. I tired the natural remedies - borax and sugar water & also cinnamon - they did not work. Terro bates worked wonders! I had been fighting the ants for weeks trying to do it myself gave up and bought Terro (which is a non-toxic type of sugar water). It took about 3 days, the first day there seemed to be more, but now I am ant free! They are pretty cheap (6 bates for 5.00), you can get them at Walmart, Kroger etc...

Borax is highly toxic to kids and pets! If they are anything like my ants, they will be gone in no time. Try to figure out what they are going for. I would assume the scouts have located food and that's why they are there. We had a dog and we always gave him a treat ball and I do believe that was part of our problem. 3 weeks back, we had teenie weenie redish ants crawling out from under the lip of the sink counter so I beleive they are under the floor. Just try to get rid of their food source and wipe your counters with bleach daily. If they are on your carpet, continue vac as often as you can. With the rains, come ants (at least in my area).

Borax and sugar water. I can't remember the measurements, just look it up. It worked great for us. It's a slower process (7-10 days), but if you have pets or kids it's nice because it's non-toxic. Plus you'll have the borax left over for laundry!

I had ants in my kitchen and dining room a couple months ago and tried Hot Shot which my Grandma suggested (I bought it at our local grocery store). I sprayed around window seals, doors and the back of the counters at night and it worked great. You will need to keep vacuuming a lot until you don't see them anymore. Also, keep your kitchen counters very clean and no dishes in the sink. If you allow your kids to eat and drink throughout the house, that will make the ants spread to the rest of the house. They know when there is a drip of juice or a crumb we might not see. Good luck! I know they are so frustrating!

diatomaceous earth. it's natural and non-toxic and ants hate it. sprinkle it around your baseboards (yes, it does look as if you have a little 'dirt' around your perimeter for a while. oh well.) it consists of ground up bits of ancient shellfish, and the tiny grains are sharp enough to cut an insect's carapace but way too tiny to hurt us (although you should be careful not to breathe it.) the ants try to invade us periodically but i beat 'em back every time with this stuff. and it's cheap!
khairete
S.

I am not sure what kind of ants you have, but I had sugar ants really bad in the kitchen. No matter how much I cleaned there they were. So we bought ant bait traps. They are little gray plastic things with food in them. The ants come to it and take back the bait that will end up killing the queen. I could not believe how well they worked after everything else I had tried. I bought them at home depot, but I am sure you can get them at walmart of any where like that. I just put the traps up high in spots the kids could not get to and I also told the older kids not too touch......everything has been so much nicer without those ants...GOOD LUCK and I hope this helps you!!!

I don't use chemicals. I use Melaleuca products, they work on everything.

I've never heard that a landlord is only responsible for outside - my bet is that he hopes you just drop the issue so he won't have to do anything...check your lease, then call the appropriate agency to get help (there's one that helps tenants, but I can't think of the name.)

Until then, here's my home remedy:

I read that dryer sheets such as bounce are great for keeping ants and other bugs away. Apparently there is something they hate about them. Just put some in your pantry and drawers and see if it works.

If you have chiggars, just rub a dryer sheet on your legs or pants and you won't get bitten (I did this my entire childhood and only got bit when I didn't do it.)

Good luck!

Hi D.,

I asked this very same question a while back! Several moms recommended Terro so I gave it a try. I just put liquid drops on a piece of paperboard and the ants flocked to it like a party! They LOVED it! I had 3-4 days where I just had to turn a blind eye to the ant trail but then they slowed down and they never returned. I put it in several locations where they popped up and I kept the liquid drops "fresh". I think we were living on a huge ant mound and it worked great! Also the Ortho Home Defense outside is a great idea too, after you have poisoned and killed the mound/queen with the Terro. Hope you find something that works for you!

Terro is the best stuff ever for ants! The only places I've seen it are Homer Depot or Lowes. My parents had them and used this stuff, and then we had to use it later for the same problem. It's a tiny little bottle of think liquid that you only use a couple of drops in each place. You can put the poison out in places the kiddos can't reach, but the ants are attracted to it. Within a couple of days the infestation will be gone. We had to retreat about a month later, but never had them again after that.

Hi D.,

My husband has a degree in entomology and has his commercial pesticide applicators license. Pesticides often get a bad rap, but people often forget that humans have been using chemical compounds since 2500 BC and many pesticides have been responsible for eliminating harmful diseases (such as Malaria) for years. The products that are used in the home here in the United States are deemed safe. The EPA has very strict regulations and even in studies that are deemed "inconclusive", they have taken products off the market as a result just to be sure we are safe. Chemical companies are also getting more and more advanced at creating chemical compounds (using chemicals that are naturally occuring in the environment) and creating products that are bad for the bug and safer for humans. All that being said, put your mind at ease about the safety of different chemicals that are on the market. As long as you are using them responsibly, then you and your kids should be fine.

You have received several great recommendations already. The folks that said you need to bait the ants are exactly right. It sounds like the ants have established a colony somewhere and you need to bait them so that they can take the bait back to the queen. It will probably take a week or 10 days to erradicate them, but it should work. You may want to get the other neighbors in your unit to get on board as well, in case the problem is widespread. The cost should be minimal. After you have baited the ants and there has been sufficient time to take the bait back to the queen, you will want to clean your baseboards (or anywhere else the ants were traveling) really well. Ants leave a phermone trail for other ants to follow, but cleaning up really well should get rid of the phermone trail. You may also want to caulk your baseboards or any other place where the ants can get into your house. HTH!

Unfortunately, you will most likely not be able to completely get rd of them, but spraying is not what you want to do (per my exterminator). Ants need to be baited. Spraying just makes it worse. THe colony will hide the queen. THey take the bait back to her, killing her.

There are some very good baits available over the counter. I have used them with success. Until we get some rain, you will most likely have the ants.

Good Luck!

Outside of using Raid, I do not know, but I had my daughter to try cloves, because I used them after reading about its usage in the paper.

You have gotten some good suggestions for taking care of the ants now. I am a little disappointed that the landlord is not being very responsive. Lots of ants in all the duplexes could be damaging his property. If the other tenants have similar ant problems and this continues, I would suggest all 4 tenants meet with the landlord and get some help.

It might be easy to tell one person (you!) to take care of it yourself, but his response will be different when the group talks to him about the insect problem.

Ortho home defense max has worked well for ants around here. Whenever I see them, I spray the perimeter of the townhouse where we live. It seems to last for several months.
Best of luck.

I had ants for a couple of years. Found out they are Pharaoh ants. Look them up online and see if they look like what you have. When you spray, they know their colony is under attack and make lots of satellite colonies and then come back in other places with a vengeance. Apparently you have to bait them to get them to take the poison back to the entire colony to really get rid of them. Terro works well sometimes, but they weren't always attracted to it, and they still kept coming back. I finally gave in and called an exterminator. He sold me a product called Advance Dual Choice bait, which seems to be really working. The ants swarmed most of the stations that I put out, and now I haven't seen any more in 2 months. I even put some on the outside where I saw them entering my house, and when I went back to check the baits, not only were the Pharaoh ants taking the bait, but the fire ants were, as well! Good luck!!

Trap some of the ants and take them to the "Solutions" store. They sell the same stuff the big exterminator companies use. The guys that work there are experts, not some kid they hired. They gave me some gel traps for the ants and it worked. (I tried stuff from Walmart, but the ants just avoided it.)

We had a problem like this when my duaghter was a baby in CA.. we had been in our house less than a year... but we only found them in one room. They were the larger ants.... I would see them marching across the ceiling at night when I could get up to nurse my daughter.....needless to say this drove me nuts. I searched and searched and put tape over any little hole I could find.....there was one little hole about the center of the inside of her closet door. A few days after I put the tape over the hole.. there was a new hole. My husband and our realtor told me that there couldn't possibly be ants living in the door..........BUT none the less I removed the door... and took it outside... It was a hollow type door... I took strip ... and there were tons of ants inside....... Trashed the door... Put up a new one.. and NO MORE ANTS the entire time we lived there except for outside.

Being in an aptment makes it harder but check any place where your apartment meets up with another one.

My daughter had problems with ants coming in through a kitchen cabinet from the apartment next door...

Try stashing some of the ant traps that are made like roach traps in places that the kids can't get to.

Good luck!

Call the better housing office. Get a lawyer to get out of your lease. Take pictures. This is your landlord responsibility to have your home sprayed. Talk to the other tenants and see if they are having the same problems. If so all of you get together with the landlord. You can also call the better busniess
bureau and report them. If a ant bite any of your kids. Call the police. Make a police report. Move out!Than sue your landlord for not listing. You do have the winning hands.