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Ant wisdom

Alacrity59

Wanting for wisdom
Usually at this time of year as the sun heats up the South side of our house the ants wakeup and I use some spray to create what can only be called an "ant Armageddon". I've been reading up a bit and found that the poison is not the best way as it does not kill the queen.

I'm trying the borax and sugar syrup method now and I've got about 20 ants licking at a dollop of syrup I put on a scrap of cardboard. I swear some of them are looking up at me and saying "bring it on dude!"

Does anybody have experience with this method? I'm wondering how long it will take to get results?
 
I got excited for a second, hoping for a thread seeking an anthropologist. :frown:

:wink: We've had good results with Terro, but it does take 3-4 days.
 

Alacrity59

Wanting for wisdom
I got excited for a second, hoping for a thread seeking an anthropologist. :frown:

:wink: We've had good results with Terro, but it does take 3-4 days.

I watched the video on the Terro website and was somewhat relieved to see that the ant problem seems to get worse before it gets better. Apparently the liquid bait is 5% borax so I think I'm on the right path to success with my sugar and borax syrup. I think I'll try to pick up some of the neat outdoor bait stations and ant powder when the snow all melts.

Thanks :thumbup1:
 
Sounds great -- let us know if the borax works. I don't imagine I'll run out of Terro anytime in the next 5 years, but when I do, it'd be great not to need to buy more!
 

Alacrity59

Wanting for wisdom
My ant problem appears to be resolved. Despite having to look at ants crowded around feeding for a couple of days I feel this is the way to do it. I didn't have to worry about breathing in bug spray or about getting poison in my food. I've also read that if my dog swallowed some of the borax he'd likely only suffer diarrhoea. Still wise to keep it away from pets and kids I figure.

For anybody else that wants to try it the recipe is two cups of sugar to 2 tablespoons of borax and one cup of water. Boil it on the stove for 3 minutes.

Place a quarter size dollop of the syrup on a small piece of cardboard and place where you have seen the ants. The ants come out and eat the syrup and it seems as if they are having a wonderful party. Around day three they start dying and hopefully they have dragged enough back to kill the queen and colony as well.
 

Alacrity59

Wanting for wisdom
I was a bit premature on celebrating my success. It seems as if some other colonies have woken. Over the past few days there have been no less than 8 queen ants who have made it out onto the floor to pass their final breath. I'd never seen a queen ant in the 10 years we have lived here so I think with the liquid bait I'm finally getting to the heart of the problem. The last couple of days the number of dead ants I have to clean up has shrunk incredibly. I think this is a war I'm going to have to take to the outside when the snow melts.

I'm so glad we don't have carpenter ants. We just have the pavement ants that used to raid our lemon aid stands back when I was a kid.
 
A little fire will show them who's boss.

It's how my grandfather used to deal with yellow jackets. Dump gas down the hole, drop a match.
 

Alacrity59

Wanting for wisdom
I was reading some other threads about spiders and other bugs . . . and I recalled the problem I had with ANTS. After using a borax and simple syrup mix and having what I had described as ant Armageddon . . . with many queen ants finding their way into the middle of the floor to croak . . . This past Spring we had no ants. The borax and syrup solution works!

I'm just setting some mouse traps with peanut butter now to see if any mice made it in this year. They did last year . . . but the doors were open due to construction.

These are both tips that came from B&B. Thanks Guys and Gals.
 
I cut down a tree on the SW side this summer. With the sun now beating on that side of the house, carpenter ants began coming out of the wall. I had an exterminator come in, but 6 weeks later they had to re-treat. I plan to have the house retreated again next spring to be sure. I think every tree in my neighborhood has a carpenter ant colony so you always see them outside. This is the first time in 10 years that I had them inside.
 
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