Ants

David Wulff

Welcome to Ant Warfare. My condolences. Rule number 1 of 1 is to not waste time tracing back to their entry point and blocking it - they will simply find another one. I've had ants eating through a newly plastered wall, the sealant around a window frame, and up through a solid concrete floor, latex underlay and then carpet. If they want to get in to your house rest assured they will do. Some people say it's not nice to kill ants just for entering your home, but I always ask them to wait till they've come home to find thousands of ants flying around their house. It's like a locust plague, but each and every one of them will start a new colony... in your house if you don't get them out quick. Boiling water is very effective, but only if you want to boil them alive. Find their entry point and pour boiling water straight from a kettle all over it. Repeat for about 24 hours to get all of them. Those that are left alive will have no rail to follow, and usually the bleached remains of ten thousand of his buddies prevents a stray ant from coming back the same way. If you can find the colony then you can use more humane methods. Smash it to bits, scoup up as many ant larva as possible, and rehome them in a hole a suitable distance away from your property.. You should have scouped up enough ants to care for them where the end up, and the rest of the critters seem to be able to trace their way to it, so you can safely boil the remains of the old colony without ending their genetic line. Not sure if you need the queen though... I don't know how ant colonies work, only that I did this with one by my patio earlier this year and then they started attacking my neighbour instead. :-O

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Steve Mayfield

How about making an ant trail to one of more of the spiders hangouts - let nature take its course.

Roger Wright

The idea of leaving peppermint oil by the entry is a good one - it probably also overwhelms the pheremone trail, as well. Another fairly non-toxic blocker is boric acid. It's sold in drug stores as a powder, used primarily for an antiseptic eyewash, so it shouldn't be too hard on pets (if you have any in the yard). Sprinkilng the powder along the foundation perimeter will repel them, along with any cockroaches you may have around. The ants already inside will have to be dealt with some way - an indoor insecticide is probably the best bet. And, if you find it necessary to do a one-time kill around the house, use Diazanon - very effective against ants, and fairly cheap, but it smells terrible for a few hours after you apply it. Use it only outdoors, and take the family for an outing for a few hours after you spray it. "Your village called -
They're missing their idiot."

peterchen

yep... spiders make that crunchy noise. Just think of it like catchips.

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Jack Puppy

Dress up like the queen ant and they'll obey your every move! I think the home remedy is baking soda and lemon juice, but then again I could be thinking of the remedy for acne or some other ailment.

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Martin Haesemeyer

mhh, yeah but there is more to eating than just the noise.... X| "Situation normal - all fu***d up" Illuminatus! http://www.martin-haesemeyer.de

J Dunlap

Navin wrote: As for me, I've been having problems with ladybugs. I feel bad killing a lady bug becuase they are cute, and can be beneficial when outside. But lately there have been tons of them. That's because they think your house is a good place to hibernate for the winter. ;) :)

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J Dunlap

Jack Rabbit wrote: think the home remedy is baking soda and lemon juice, but then again I could be thinking of the remedy for acne or some other ailment. Or maybe the recipe for a home volcano or a small explosive? :~ :rolleyes:

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Navin

Yes. It's ironic that I would like to attract more ladies to my house... but this is not quite what I intended. :) No single raindrop believes that it is responsible for the flood.

Kant

Rama Krishna wrote: to keep sugar and all other stuff in the refrigerator Eat the laddus quickly.... ;P
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Phil Martin

I've had a few successful ways of discouraging ants from the house, though none fit the criterea of non-harmful. For interiors: - Get some borax, and mix a teaspoon with maybe a couple of table spoons of honey. - Place this mixtue in a small container thats easy for ants to climb on, and pepper these around the house or where ants go. - They absolutely love the honey, and will eats it up in no time, carrying the borax back home and killing the colony, or at least reducing it in numbers. For exteriors: - mix 1 table spoon of borax to 3 handfuls of blood and bone. - Mix up that ratio to the desired amount in a bucket. - Sprinkle it in large handfuls around your house. The ants love the blood and bone, and will also eat up the borax, with the same effect as above. Bonus is next time you water it will act as a great fertiliser for your yard as well. I've used it a couple of times, and the ants left for at least a month. Another thing to note, is that those little tiny black ants (at least where I live, middle east coast of australia) are perdators of white ants. Large infestations of these type of tiny black ants often indicates some form of nest of white ants. Might be worth looking into.