HOME INVASION Ants... Everywhere Ants! (Sugar ants / Argentine Ants)

[Nifty-Chicken]

It's as thought they've been planning the attack all year... getting ready for the fateful day that they would strike!

A few days ago our house was invaded! Thousands of these little buggers all over the house. They aren't as bad as red / fire ants, etc. but they are all over the place:

Here are some pics of them. They are tiny black sugar / Argentine ants:

http://images.google.com/images?um=1&tab=wi&hl=en&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-44,GGLD:en&q=argentine ants

We've tried the borax / sugar mix but that either isn't working or is working too slowly. We try spray poison, but that only works until they find a way around it.

Anybody have any suggestions. I'm not necessarily looking for any home remedies, but will take anything that people know works and works well (other than setting the house on fire... not an option

). Basically, we'll try any poison / bait / whatever that will get rid of these guys... or girls... I guess they are all female, right?

Thanks for any help you can provide!

 

[Cheri]

Ok, combat have these ant baits and they Work!! I finally had to get some chemicals and kill a huge ant colony around my sycamore tree. Grits help outside. But seriously! Ant Baits!!

 

[poppycat]

EEEEEWWWWWW!
OMG I hope that's not your finger! How long have you been using the borax/sugar? It takes at least a week in my experience. Sometimes more. Do you see them gathering around the bait?

I don't have any good advice but lots of sympathy. We got rid of ours using the borax and sugar. It took over a week but they finally left. Are you using a liquid mix or dry? I think the liquid works a little better.

 

[Queen of the Lilliputians]

I have two suggestions:

Friends of mine suggested spraying "Hot Shot" bug killer around the foundation. They said it worked really well.. well, it worked AFTER the ants all came in <did not try this>. I have tried spraying the hotshot around in my house, and that worked for a little while, but then they came back.

My yearly tried-and-true ant ridder is Ant Baits.. but not just any. Raid ones didn't work for me. I buy the cheap-o's (they are "Pics" brand). It always runs the same: I have inv of medium black ants, set out traps. Those ants disappear, tiny black ants move in. I replace traps, ants disappear altogether.

Sorry, no idea what species they are. Good luck! I HATE ants in the house!!

-Meghan

 

[Cheri]

Combat is da bomb! Im telling you! Within two weeks I had no ants and they haven't made it back in. If only the fire ants would go away.

 

[MayberrySaint]

Bring your flock inside and let them have a feast...

 

[Queen of the Lilliputians]

Mayberry Saint does that work? LOL! I have lots of ants on my property.. I'd be willing to catch and show the girls where to find them LOL!

So far at 4wks they seem to think ants are interesting.. but not so edible. They'll watch them, but give them nary a peck. Hopefully their taste buds will change a bit as they get older!

-Meghan

 

[Cheri]

I can just see it.


Q of L posted at the same time. Miine was directed at Mayberry.

My girls love the little ants in the coop.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

haha... nope, not my finger!

Here is a pic we took of our Borax / Sugar mix (do you see a huge queen like ant to the top left?):

We'll keep trying the borax / sugar mix and will probably go get some combat as well.

I did some searching and found this great article:

http://www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/arg.htm

Most interesting part: "The use of residual sprays or dusts will cause stress on the colonies, causing them to split into sub-colonies that scatter to other areas in the structure. This is also called budding."

Also saw the following for making the borax mix:

http://www.ps.uci.edu/~tomba/ants/

Any other thoughts / suggestions are appreciated!

 

[Whirlwind]

If you can find it Amdro Ant killer. I bought it at wal-mart. My FIL lives in New Mexico. He bought it to put on red ant hills the nasty ones. He showed us one. Put it on there, maybe 2 TBL spoons or so and 1 hour later no ants. I had a colony of those small buggers , not quite as small as yours marching up the inside of my garage wall to build a new nest. Sprinkled this out, 2 hours later no ants. They made this stuff for fire ants and I would not let any of your pets near it or small childern for sure. But man it is worth its weight in gold. I hope it would work on those tiny ones too.

The container says AMDRO fire ant bait