Ants! Lost of them! Help!

[Merlot]

Anyone have a suggestion for dealing with ants? The rain has pushed them indoors. They come in through the bathroom, and march down the hall, through the living room (around the edge of my rug, thank you) and out the front door.

I taped off the holes where they were coming up and it seemd to make them more insistent. I can't find their new port of entry.

Today they are taking a detour through the kitchen, even crawled inside the oven to overtake yesterdays muffins. They also have a detour out the back door.

I have four-legged friends, so don't want to use poison.

help....

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. Boric acid all the way around the house ...in all the crevaces

it isn't harmful to the other animals to my knowledge. I've used it and I have cats and a dog

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

19. Diluted in water and sprinkled, you mean?

There's the white powder thing too.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

20. Sorry it took so long...Powder in all the crevaces

[catzies]

2. I'm inundated with them too. First they came inside when it was dry

and now since everything is soaking wet, they won't leave. They're coming in through the light sockets and the phone jack in the wall, and through the grout in the bathrooms.

Right now I figure, the ants, like me, just wish it would stop raining.

[murielm99]

Place sticks of spearmint gum where they come in.

I don't know why that works.

You can get ant traps, as long as you can put in places where children and pets don't find them.

I think they have some types that are non-toxic to kids and pets.

[meti57b]

3. It looks like you are in L.A. Yes, the ants are coming in out of the rain

at my place, too.

[goodbody]

4. vinegar

I've heard that helps. Apply to where they're entering and put it in a spray bottle too for others areas.

[lpbk2713]

5. This stuff works good for me.

It is a syrup that has boric acid in it. You put down a few drops and the ants
take it back to their nest and it kills the queen and the whole colony.
It only takes a day or two to do the job. Not harmful to pets.

[flvegan]

6. Kent Brockman would say

Your community "apparently been taken over – "conqured" if you will – by a master race of giant space ants. It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive earth men or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain: there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. And I for one welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality I could be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves."

http://www.the-ocean.com/simpsons/others/ants2.wav

[Merlot]

10. My community has been taken over, conqured if you will,

by a master race of four legged carnivors. And they are sick of getting ants in their mouths, and have decreed that I do something about this situation!

[Merlot]

7. I'm off to the store for boric acid, vinegar, and gum

Usually they just come in for a few months in the summer, but this winter they have continued. And the rain has made them worse by tenfold.

I work at home and when they started coming near my computer area, I decided it would be all out war!

thanks, all!

[cornermouse]

8. Kidnap an anteater?

(I can appreciate your situation.)

[HawkerHurricane]

9. How big are these ants?

Giant ants, in Los Angeles...

[Quakerfriend]

11. Borax tis the ticket!

[name not needed]

12. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

[amandae]

13. Ugh! I remember the ants when we lived in CA

We lived just north of San Diego. I remember the ants that would get into our apartment, mostly in the Fall. It sucked. We had a cat, but I remember spraying them and the hole they would come in from to keep any more from getting that same idea. I know nothing we did to get rid of the ants hurt the cat.

If you see any ants by themselves, roaming around like they're looking for something, they are. If you get rid of those few ants looking for food, water, etc. than you can usually ward off a long line of ants later on.

Good luck!!

:hi:

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

14. Get some Raid ant bait

Especially the more expensive ones with see-through tops so you can how much bait has been consumed. Put them near where you see the ants congregating. The ants will be attracted and carry the bait back to the colony, where they die. These work EXTREMELY well. I have cats, and they don't even bother with them. Really, try these - they work great.

[frylock]

15. i'm having the same problem..

in the summer, they come in looking for water. When it rains, they come in to get away from the water. Make up your mind already!! Every time I seem to get the upper hand on them, my roommate will inevitably leave something out on the counter overnight, and when I wake up, there's a bajillion ants all over the kitchen.

[chefgirl]

16. BAIT

I have a HUGE buggy tweak, so I speak from experience.

After having lived in the South, I learned that almost anything made to kill bugs will work to get rid of the ones you can see, but the only real solution is bait.

It may take a little while, and the Raid can may become your best friend for a while, but in the long run, bait works better than anything else.

Good luck! UGH..:scared:

-chef-

[1monster]

17. Take a bottle of clorox around to all the areas the ants are coming in and

wipe the surface with the clorox. You will need to renew that clorine wipe of the surface every three days. It disrupts their senses and they are unable to cross the clorine wiped surface.

For fire ants, do that and go to the hardware store and get a good fire ant killer. Follow directions on the package for the mounds, then broadcast the granuals all over your yard.

If they are carpenter ants (AKA bull ants), you might as well burn your house down and rebuild in concrete and steel. That's about the only way to get rid of them...

edited to spell the name brand chlorine correctly.

[48pan]

18. Don't screw around...

Get an exterminator. If they are carpenter ants, they could be destroying your house.

[Merlot]

21. What are carpenter ants? are they larger?

These ants are pretty small. I live in a fourplex and no one else has the ants comming in. Next door she leaves out catfood 24 hours a day. If I did that it would get ugly fast. I'm very good about cleaning up food. Doesn't help.

[48pan]

23. Carpenter Ants Are...

average size ants. They are bigger than the little red ones and smaller than some. They are black. They eat wood, particularly wet wood. They build their nests near water. They have the same effect as termites.

They live throughout the US and seem to have been surging in the northeast lately. They forage in groups.

If you have a leaky pipe or a damp area in your house, look closely for little piles of sawdust. I had a refrigerator with an ice maker that dripped when it refilled. The carpenter ants took up in the beam under the fridge. They destroyed an 8x8 floor joist in a few weeks.

I saw the pile of sawdust and called an exterminator. It took 4 months and multiple visits by the exterminator to get rid of them.

[musette_sf]

22. We just put traps under the house yesterday

in the crawl space. The cats don't go down there.

Diatomaceous earth is good too, does not hurt the animals, but the ants hate it.

Drop me a message if you want more details... husband has been on ant patrol since the rain started in earnest about three weeks ago.

[Santa Cruz]

24. We have animals also,

and have tried everything. We have to spray around the outside of the house every two weeks, religiously, usually that is where they are nesting. (under the house) Then areas of the house inside where they are coming in. Then, ant baits. Be careful not to put these where your animals can get ahold of them. In two weeks, your ant problem will be gone, but you do have to use spray and you have to continue this process especially during the summer for every two weeks.