Ants (rental, townhome, gated)

[muse1110]

Anyone else have an ants problem? We've never experienced ants inside a home before, is this a hot weather phenomenon? How do you keep them outside (please tell me we don't need to spray haz mat rubbish)?

Thanks!

[NewUser]

What kind of ants are they? Big black carpenter ants? That could be a problem. Fire ants? Yikes! I had a problem with them when I was living in Texas. Are they into your food cabinets?

[muse1110]

They are black, but small. They are all over our floors, so far. Even with no food on the floor, they come in and are migrating slowly to everywhere in the house.

Ugh.

[NewUser]

We had a problem once with ants getting into our pantry. We did a few things:

First, make sure there is no food that they are getting into. We put all of our dry goods into tupperware and plastic containers. . . . them ants easily get into cardboard boxes.

Second, ants follow each other around by scent trails. Frequently wash areas that you see ants with a stong cleanser, perhaps one that is specifically for organic stains. We used the Resolve cleaner made for pets. Also find where they are coming in and frequently clean that area.

Third, squash any of the little buggers that you see so that they don't go back to their nest and say "Hey! Look what I found!" to all their buddies.

[MAtoNC!]

We use Bonide from Agway. It seems to be the heat. When it get warms in MA they come out of the woodwork (no pun intended ). But if we get a cool spell the disappear.

[adlnc07]

I spray the foundation of my house with this long-lasting bug killer - it seems to work, for the most part. I've also used it inside the house, along the baseboards and window sills (it's suitable for that). I have had a few unpleasant surprises along the way though when I didn't realize there was a crumb of food on the floor (or some pieces of dog kibble in the laundry room.. eep!). My backyard has a scary number of ants (billions!).. they make a trail all the way from the far back to the front, using my fence as a super highway. I should really call in an exterminator but I'm afraid they'll tell me I have to have my house fumigated or something!

[procfreq]

Uh oh. Sounds like my house a year or two ago.

When we moved in, we had a MAJOR ant problem. Each day, we'd wake up to find a new "hot spot," where there would be literally hundreds upon hundreds of tiny black ants swarming around. Once they even started pouring out of an electrical outlet on my kitchen backsplash. It doesn't matter how clean your house is--there's always SOMETHING that lures them in. And once they're in, they leave a "trail" behind so that other ants can follow their path. Ugh... it makes me nauseous just thinking about it.

Get a good exterminator. And get one who doesn't charge for "problem" visits inbetween quarterly paid visits. If your problem is anything like mine was, no home remedy is going to solve your situation. Per my exterminator, we had a "super colony." On any given day, you could find at least 5 watermelon-sized anthills somewhere in my yard. We got a reprieve in the fall/winter, but it took 2 solid years of spring/summer treatment and a whole arsenal of different insecticides to finally break the cycle. I think that having liquid bait stations placed throughout our yard and along our foundation was what finally did it. They took the bait back to their nests and killed the queen(s).

I should mention, however, that I've never met a single other person whose had an experience as bad as mine. So hopefully yours is just an isolated, transient problem. If not, I'd like to give a shout out to Frontier Pest Control. Mike is my hero.

[NYC2RDU]

Sugar ants! The best sort of ant to have if you have to have ants.

Options are limited to strategically placed ant traps, exterminator treatment or patience. We've tried all three and the only one that worked was when we had our house exterminated quarterly. It's also the most expensive option. Everything else proved to be relatively ineffective.

Good luck!

[he's so hott]

Originally Posted by muse1110

They are black, but small. They are all over our floors, so far. Even with no food on the floor, they come in and are migrating slowly to everywhere in the house.

Ugh.

I'm in a rental townhome community and Sunday afternoon around 4pm I saw a trail of small black ants in my kitchen for the first time since I've been living in this place, which has only been 5 months. They were coming from underneath the dishwasher and the cabinets next to the dishwasher. The exterminators are supposed to come by today but I'm not confident in this group. That same morning I saw a small black roach for the first time and my problems with the little brown roaches has reoccurred 2 months after the exterminators allegedly had taken care of the problem. If they don't get it right this time, I going to start complaining to every local housing agency and advocate that I can think of.

[lamishra]

The best luck we've had was to use ant baits or traps. The ants are attracted to the bait and take the poison back to the rest of the colony and kills them all. They work very well.
As for the roaches, get used to 'em because you'll never get rid of them totally. They're just a part of life here. I keep a pretty spotless house AND we have a regular pest control service but we still get them too.