How to Get Rid of Ants |
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If only people worked as hard as ants. These amazing insects cover the earth and perform essential tasks in our environment. Even so, there aren’t many people that appreciate them performing those tasks in their personal environments. This article will detail the process of removal.
1. Are they really ants?
Ants and termites are commonly confused so it is important to figure out which one you have before you go any further. Take a look at these two pictures and compare them with the insects present in your infestation. Ants have very thin waists and bent antennae while termites have thick waists and straight antennae.
This article does not cover carpenter ants, which can be identified by:
- Foraging ants that vary greatly in their size.
- Piles of sawdust collecting around slitted openings.
- Large, winged ants appearing in your home in the spring time.
- A faint rustling noise that can be heard within the walls near the nest.
If you want some really nice pictures of ants, check out myrmecos.net.
2. Ant-proofing your home
The first step in battling an ant infestation is to eliminate the things in the environment that are attracting them. Know that ant-proofing your home will also decrease the number of cockroaches, moths and beetles, and by extension predators like spiders.
Different species of ants eat different things, and with over 15,000 species on this planet it would be very difficult to list them all here. The important things to know are:
- What are they eating?
- How are they getting in?
- Where is the nest?
- Do they bite?
Harvester and fire ants bite and can cause allergic reactions, but rarely enter homes.
You will likely have to clean up live ants during the ant-proofing process. When you need to kill a quantity of ants, use either a sponge soaked with soapy water or a spray bottle filled with soapy water. The soap helps to kill the ants while you clean them up so you don’t have to squish them all. When you do locate a string of ants, take a few moments to study them before you start smiting. Attempt to understand where they are going and from where they are coming this way you can eliminate the sources. Seal up any openings that they are coming in through with silicone caulk.
Eliminate food sources
Ants are normally found in locations with a high food concentration - kitchens, so this is where we will start. Follow these steps to ant-proof (and cockroach-proof) your food:
- Store food in rubbermaid type plastic containers, jars with lids that have sealing gaskets, or jars with tight-fitting hinged lids.
- Refrain from storing anything in the open or in bags.
- Jars without sealing gaskets can permit ants to enter through the threads, so replace any that you find with the above mentioned containers.
- Clean out your toaster or toaster oven after every use.
- Clean (with soap) all of the surfaces in your kitchen at least once a week to remove crumbs and food residue.
- Sweep or vacuum the kitchen floor weekly.
When throwing away food wrappers or containers, rinse out any remaining organic material first.- Save all of your organic waste in a sealed container and dispose of it separately. Either compost it in your garden, or throw it in the trash bag as you take the garbage out.
- Use trash liners (bags) and ensure your trash can has a tight-fitting lid.
- Rinse out the trash can if it ever gets grime or garbage on it.
Ant barriers
Now that all of your cabinets are packed away neatly let’s take a good look around for anything else that may be attractive to the ants. Potted plants, unprotected pet food, open bowls of fruit or nuts are all possible targets. We can keep these things safe by erecting barriers that the ants can not or will not cross.
Sticky ant barriers
Sticky goo’s like Tanglefoot are normally avoided by ants. Use them on table legs and around plant platters and pots. They can also be used on the stems of plants that you wish to protect in the garden.
Detergent ant barriers
Detergent barriers are made by placing something (a potted plant or your pets food dish for example) in a larger dish or platter partly filled with a water and detergent mix to create a moat. The detergent will break the water’s surface tension causing any ants that attempt to cross it to drown.
Other ant barriers
Following is a list of substances that people have reported success with when used as barriers or deterrents:
Baby powder- Petroleum jelly
- Eucalyptus oil (a little on a cloth goes a long way)
- Bay leaves (Keep out of reach of children and pets!)
- Cinnamon
- Dryer sheets
- Tea tree oil
3. Ant control: Colony management
Once you’ve battled the ants back this far, consider stopping if the number of remaining ants is tolerable. With no more human-foods left, they will focus on picking up tiny organic crumbs that would normally be food for cockroaches and beetles. On top of that, they will also eat other pest insects like termites, bedbugs, fly eggs and larvae, flea eggs and larvae, silverfish and moths. The population size is relative to the amount of available food, and will actually help you keep the house clean.
Moving ant colonies
If you have a colony that is right next to your house, you can make the ants relocate by repeatedly flooding the earth where they reside. A soapy water mix works best as it kills some ants, and causes the rest to grab their stuff and go. If the ants aren’t inside of your home don’t worry about them unless they bite. Many species will repel termites, so it’s cheap insurance.
If you are unlucky enough to have had a colony take up residence in a potted plant here is how to send them packing:
- Place the potted plant in a plate partially filled with soapy water (To keep the ants from leaving).
- Fill a bucket of similar size with loose, dry earth and place it also in a plate of soapy water.
- Create a bridge from the plant to the bucket with a ruler, some twigs, a length of tape, anything that the ants can easily cross.
- Begin flooding the plant. Flood it and let it drain - then flood it again and keep repeating. You will see the ants start to swarm out and clamor across into the bucket carrying their eggs and young. Continue flooding until you see no more ants emerging to escape.
- Take the bucket outside and dump it out away from your home.
Killing ant colonies
If moving isn’t good enough and you’re set on destroying the ants, then there are several poison possibilities available to you. Remember to always keep poisons inaccessible to children and animals, especially the sweet-tasting baits. Following is a break down of some of the less toxic solutions:
Sorptive dusts
Sorptive dusts such as diatomaceous earth work by damaging and drying out the ants and causing them to die of dehydration. These can be placed in walls and blown into cracks and holes. They work slowly at first, but last a very long time.
Silica gel & Pyrethrums
This combination will kill ants quickly and works well but it’s important to purchase in packages that come with applicators that keep the dust out of the air. Revenge, Pursue, and Drione all come with effective and safe applicators.
Insect Growth Regulators (IGR’s)
Insect growth regulators work by inhibiting the natural growth of an insect. This will not effect current adults, but will cause any ants that are not yet mature to die. These take 3-4 months to begin working but will last for a long time.
Poison ant baits
Poison baits are more effective at controlling ant populations then eliminating them. They are generally mixes of poison and a favorite food, like sugar (for sugar ants). If a good ratio of poison to food was used, then the ants that eat the poison will live long enough to bring some of it back to be fed to the colony-dwellers, who will then die. The catch is that the queen is usually the largest ant in the colony, so the magic ratio is not always adequate to kill her and the ants can come back. Drax is one of the least toxic products available (It uses Borax).
DIY poison ant bait
It’s easy to make your own Borax-based poison bait. Just purchase a quantity of borax and a box of pint-sized mason jars and then follow these steps:
- Combine 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water.
- Mix in 4 teaspoons boric acid.
- Fill 4-8 mason jars with about 1 cup of bait each.
- Loosely pack cotton into the jars to about the half way point so they sit in the bait solution and then saturate the rest of the dry material with more bait.
- Separately, take the lids and poke 3-5 holes in each lid top with a hammer and nail.
- Screw the complete lids tightly onto the mason jars.
- Place the jars out in the areas of infestation. Keep these inaccessible to children and pets!
If the sugar doesn’t work, trade it up for something you’ve seen the ants go for already. Protein or grease perhaps?
well i know all about the chinese chalk stuff but i cant find the website anywhere!!! we used to buy it at soo kim in peoria illinois but kim had to stop selling it or the government was going to close down her shop… can you find the web address for me and email it??? i know when we did use that product it killed all insects, spiders, cockroaches, ants, and the like. it never harmed our pets, or myself or my family members, and i would like to get my hands on more. if you could be of any assistance that would be terrific. thanks so much, and your website has been very helpful. i have also found out that cloves and oatmeal make sufficient ant repellants if used in conjunction with each other. thanks again
use ant poison
We have ants living under our house, or at least we think thats where they are. We have laminate flooring, and they just come out from under the skirting board. We’ve tried tracking them, but they come from everywhere! So we’ve tried baby powder, but it doesn’t seem to help. Problem is, we also have a pet marmoset, who has a penchant for eating EVERYTHING he can. Hes only just recovered after eating an ant which had eaten ant poison, so we need to try something else. Is there anything we can use which will be harmful to the nts but not my monkey?
I live in the UK if that helps.
Sadly, here in Los Angeles where they claim an entire unbroken colony stretches hundreds of miles nothing works.
Best I’ve been able to do is keep food off floors and counters.
Caulk cracks in window sills and floor boards.
Use expanding foam around pipes and in places where there are big gaps.
Around the house wet down the ants to give ‘em hell.
An undisturbed colony is more efficient than one that’s under constant attack.
The Terro baits don’t work. The ant stakes don’t work.
There is supposedly a poison from China that makes the ants confuse their own scent with an invading ant and kill each other.
Apparently they eat themselves to death.
I didn’t believe it or want to wait so long for the poison, but then I saw on the news that some US scientist was claiming credit for designing a poison that did the exact same thing.
Obviously they stole the formula from the Chinese stuff.
You can find it online if you search.
There are a lot who try sell different versions.
Only one is the original.
It’s a poorly designed website with crappy text and no photos.
They ship from China and I think they might lie on the customs forms to get it here. I will try to find it again.
I’m going to try the borax, however I’ve heard aspartame works on carpenter ants as powder and also fire ants when wet.
Ants=pain in the but
Huge problem, we have a new home being built next door and since the hot weather and the digging next door, I believe that is why our house is full of ants. Everyday, we wake up to tons of ants in our kitchen and sometimes even in our rooms. We clean our kitchen and mop it every night with some bleach and also our counters (that’s how bad its gotten) and no luck. Any suggestions?
Well, for the quick, permanent, and very toxic way. vinegar and wd40. enjoy
For me I find the best way to get rid of ants is smushing them. Simple and cost free,just have a lot of time on ur hands..
In the past I’ve used a bottle of Diatect Results Ant Killer. Their products are supposedly all-natural and safe around kids and plants. I found it to be extremely effective in eliminating my ant problem and it was only $20 for a bottle. I read lots of their testimonials and that’s what hooked me and I feel the need to pass it along to others.
Two different people from Texas have told me to sprinkle DRY OATMEAL around. The ants take it back to the queen, and ingest it, where it expands in their stomachs, making them explode.
Chili Powder works great if you have no pets……But could someone tell me how to get rid of big black ants in my flower leaves ? It looks like they have eggs under some of the leaves and they are dying????????HELP………..