posted
So it's spring, and the little sugar ants are getting active and doing their usual indoor invasion.
When I lived in Oregon and Missouri, I'd put out those little plastic poison bait things, and that'd get rid of them. (I tried doing more eco stuff like not leaving crumbs on the counter, wiping down the counter with pennyroyal solution, etc.; never seemed to work.)
Here in Virginia, though, the plastic poison bait things don't seem to work. At least not the 2 brands I've tried so far. ("Combat" and -- I forget -- "Raid"?)
How do other folks deal? (Especially interested in hearing from folks on the East Coast, since it seems like there's different sorts of sugar ants here.)
Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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The only possible solution is to destroy the planet they live on. I suggest you get a job at the LHC and try for the micro black holes or strangelets.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Ants are utterly dependent on a pheromone trail that leads them to the food source (which is found by chance) so I follow the trail and introduce a food source on the trail in a more convenient (for me) location. Whether that new source is poisoned, I'll leave to your own standards. Then I scrub away the unwanted pheromone trail. I will also locate their colony and introduce an even larger food source closer to them. If the source is not poisoned, the colony will just likely grow.
I love ants. They are probably most responsible for my understanding of how the world works. But when they come into my kitchen, they must die. Posts: 675 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Are you sure they're sugar ants? There are several varieties of ants near my home (my daughter identified 4 for a school project) and not all of them are attracted to sweet things. Some seem to prefer meat and/or fats. My experience has been that the sweet-eating ants are easily controlled with commericially available ant baits, but the ones that prefer proteins walk right around the bait. If you figure out a solution, please share.
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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quote:Originally posted by King of Men: The only possible solution is to destroy the planet they live on. I suggest you get a job at the LHC and try for the micro black holes or strangelets.
This made my morning (subjective morning that is, as it is now ~1:40pm). I think I should go back to sleep and leave this day at 1 - 0.
Posts: 636 | Registered: Apr 2002
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They're definitely sugar ants. If there's a drop of jelly or honey left on the counter, there'll be a huge crowd of them all gathered around the spill. Similarly, they go after fruit, cookies, etc.
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This stuff works great. You put a little drop on a card and wait. They take it back to the hive and kill the hive. It's really cheap and easy to use.
Posts: 1766 | Registered: Feb 2006
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quote:Originally posted by brojack17: This stuff works great. You put a little drop on a card and wait. They take it back to the hive and kill the hive. It's really cheap and easy to use.
Alright then, destroy an entire colony of ants just because they annoy you...
Posts: 930 | Registered: Dec 2006
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Don't try to make me feel bad. I want them out of the house and the little kids don't like them either. If they would listen to reason, I wouldn't have to resort to this level of destruction.
Posts: 1766 | Registered: Feb 2006
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quote:Originally posted by brojack17: This stuff works great. You put a little drop on a card and wait. They take it back to the hive and kill the hive. It's really cheap and easy to use.
Alright then, destroy an entire colony of ants just because they annoy you...
I've got no problems destroying ants in my home. Or roaches or centipedes. I have no guilt about exterminating spiders, either, although as long as they stay out of my space, we can live in peace.
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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quote:Originally posted by brojack17: This stuff works great. You put a little drop on a card and wait. They take it back to the hive and kill the hive. It's really cheap and easy to use.
Alright then, destroy an entire colony of ants just because they annoy you...
Tara, My husband went into anaphylactic shock a few weeks ago after being stung by an ant. They don't simply "annoy" me. If you are going to lay a guilt trip on people who try to kill the insects that invade their homes and food, do it somewhere away from me.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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But I've always liked ants. My and my grandmotehr used to feed them. But these were not evil fire ants from hell though. Just harmless nice black ants. Or perhaps brown.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote:Alright then, destroy an entire colony of ants just because they annoy you...
That's ok, the other 4 million colonies in my immediate vicinity won't be harmed.
Ya know, a couple of years ago, I kept a pet ant lion. I don't see any practical way to introduce ant lions as pest control, though...
Posts: 1813 | Registered: Apr 2001
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quote:Originally posted by brojack17: This stuff works great. You put a little drop on a card and wait. They take it back to the hive and kill the hive. It's really cheap and easy to use.
Alright then, destroy an entire colony of ants just because they annoy you...
I'm with maui babe. If they stay outside of my home, I will leave them be (to the best of my ability -- I can't claim I never stepped on a bug). If they enter my home, their lives are forfeit. Call me a specieist, I don't care.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Have you considered "bombing" the house? It's rather time consuming, there's a lot of preparation involved, and you'll definitely find out exactly what kind of creepy crawlers are moving through your home, so if these are deal breakers then maybe it's not a good solution for you. But Ericka and I did it at our previous apartment, and we didn't have a single problem with ants or anything else except water spiders after that.
Posts: 1945 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by brojack17: This stuff works great. You put a little drop on a card and wait. They take it back to the hive and kill the hive. It's really cheap and easy to use.
Alright then, destroy an entire colony of ants just because they annoy you...
Oh my...
Question: Are you sure you're not mistaking a colony of ants with, say, a litter of cuddly little kittens?
Posts: 1945 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I'm not a fan of anything that eats our food supply.
Trying to discourage them by not leaving food out isn't effective. All you have to do is be careless every week or two... and to a teeny little ant, a few cookie crumbs are boulder-size nuggets of delight that signal the need for countless follow-up searches.
Also, last year I had a small ant crawl into my ear. @#$%^&*!!!!! (Granted, this happened while I was outside working with some bean trellises... but after that, I'm not happy about having ants crawl around the kitchen, when there's a chance they could wander on to me and end up in my ear again.)
Posts: 2911 | Registered: Aug 2001
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plaid, true story . . . I had an ant in my ear on my mission. Felt/sounded more like a centipede with hiking boots, but it was a teensy ant. Luckily (for me), my previous companion had had the same thing happen in the same room, so I knew what to do. Go stand with a light bulb by your ear (flashlight would be easier, but we didn't have one) and the ant crawls out towards the light. Weird, huh? But it worked both times. She'd read that in a Reader's Digest or something years ago and remembered it.
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Thankfully, none of the ants in my house have crawled into my ears. *shudders*
Bugs don't bother me that much. Well, I don't like silverfish or thousand-leggers. They creep me out. But as long as they stay away from me I'm content to let them be. I would like to cut down on the ant population, though, so I'm gonna be doing some extra cleaning soon.
Posts: 1805 | Registered: Jun 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Uprooted: plaid, true story . . . I had an ant in my ear on my mission. Felt/sounded more like a centipede with hiking boots, but it was a teensy ant. Luckily (for me), my previous companion had had the same thing happen in the same room, so I knew what to do. Go stand with a light bulb by your ear (flashlight would be easier, but we didn't have one) and the ant crawls out towards the light. Weird, huh? But it worked both times. She'd read that in a Reader's Digest or something years ago and remembered it.
Sometimes that works if you get a wasp or a bee in your room. They better stay OUT OF MY EAR AND AWAY FROM ME!!!!!!
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote:Originally posted by brojack17: This stuff works great. You put a little drop on a card and wait. They take it back to the hive and kill the hive. It's really cheap and easy to use.
Alright then, destroy an entire colony of ants just because they annoy you...
Tara, My husband went into anaphylactic shock a few weeks ago after being stung by an ant. They don't simply "annoy" me. If you are going to lay a guilt trip on people who try to kill the insects that invade their homes and food, do it somewhere away from me.
Well technically I DIDN'T do it around you, because I have no idea who you are and don't know anything about your husband.
Just sayin'.
Hope your husband is okay.
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Honestly, they're just ants. Fascinating creatures, actually.
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