Ant control

[cbourbeau32]

How do ya'll keep ants out of your house? We have them coming in from outside and I have sprayed inside and out and nothing seems to help. Help please!!

Thanks, Charlie

[skarke]

What kind of ants? 

[torpedoman]

spray the perimeter with mint tea unsweetened of course, the mint will destroy their scent trails and override new ones.

[cbourbeau32]

What kind of ants? 

Not sure what kind. I don't think they are fire ants though.

[GeneRector]

  Howdy! I'm sure there is a way to do it yourself; however, we use a pest controller agency that comes by quarterly to spray. We had ant problems frequently before using the pest controllers. Nothing we did previously seemed to work very well. I have not seen an ant inside our house since we started using the pest control company. They spray the yard, around the house, and inside the house as well. Good luck!  I hate ants!  Always, Gene

[skarke]

There are a couple of ideas to ponder.  Of course, pest control services work great.  If it is really dry, they might be searching for water.  If wet, they'll try to get away from it.  The little bitty black ones are sugar ants, and they like, well, sweet things.

I've had great results on fire ants with a combination of bait insecticides and Orthene.  Start with the bait, give it a couple of weeks, then follow any survivors with Orthene.  The stuff stinks, but it hammers.

They really aren't that hard to eliminate.

[243dave]

Sometimes I have problems with the little blackones and when I do I grab the windex.  I know it sounds stupid but they always come under the backdoor and its a solid trail of those little buggers right to the counter where I left out the watermelon.  I spray the whole trail down with the windex and it kills the little ants almost instantly and erases their scent trail where more outside can't follow.  I also spray it heavily where they are coming under the door.  Windex just don't clean windows.     Dave 

[bobg]

  I found that interesting Dave. I use to spray box elder bugs with windex. It killed them too.

[Land_Owner]

I use Permethrin.  It is the active ingredient in many over the counter bug killers.  It can also be found as "High Yield 38", which is 38% Permethrin.  I dilute it with water into a 0.50% solution and spray it all around the house and in any yard ant mounds I find.  Not only does it KILL ants, it also will kill most other bugs too.  Non-toxic to humans and pets.

[squirrellluck]

Some folks used borax mixed with water and sprayed around the outside foundation.

[gypsyman]

Found a spray made by the asprin company Bayer. Used it around the house, and worked pretty good. We had alot of rain earlier, so I have since given the house several doses, and we're in pretty good shape.
By the way cbourbeau32, if you get around fire ants, and rake or hoe the mound, you'll have a lemon smell. They'll be red ants. gypsyman

[charles p]

Get an ant control product called Tera.  Put it where your pets can not possible get to it.

[Uncle Harry]

One word - Malathion........

[Land_Owner]

...rake or hoe the mound, you'll have a lemon smell. They'll be red ants. gypsyman

what the...?  If you get that close, you'll end up with a face full of fire ants!

[gypsyman]

Nope. We had several mounds that were about a foot in diameter. You could smell the lemon smell 18'' to 2' above the mounds. gypsyman

[Land_Owner]

Can't you just look at them to tell color?  I usually do.

[gypsyman]

Yes you can. I had never noticed the smell before, I guess because I'm a grown up,(try and convince my wife of that at times) and almost 6' tall. It was my youngest son that noticed the smell. He discovered it last year when he was 8. When I heard him and my wife talking about the smell, I had to bend over and smell for myself. Scratched the ground and sure enough, lemon smell, or some kind of citrus smell. gypsyman