Ants

I don't have any ants in the house, just in the yard. It wouldn't bother me except it is completely killing the grass in my back yard, and replacing it with sand and dirt -really unsightly. Problem started about 3 years ago and is worse than ever this year. Tough little buggers too, I've sprayed them repeatedly with ant killer, I've used ant granules, and Amdro. Just can't get rid of them. This year I have 4 separate ant hills in the yard. Sprayed the ant mounds and they just move the entrance two feet. Got to hand it to them, resourceful little guys. I read on-line they don't like pepper, cinnamon, or baking soda - so I have tried these as well. Again, they just move the entrance to a different part of the yard. Any ideas?

Its been all out war the last 2 weeks with the little buggers in the house. Little ants all over bathroom...kitchen....floorboards. I think they are sugar ants. With a new lab puppy cant spray the whole house but have been doing selective with little success. sprayed the outside, basement but still got them but not as bad. Freaked wife out when they were all over bowl in kitchen yesterday morning. What really helped was caulking the kitchen yesterday all over. Even patio door, sink, countertops, wherever there was a gap. No more ants today in kitchen for first time in a couple weeks.

BFR you could try Diatomaceous earth, I have had good luck with it! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatomaceous_earth

Anyone having problems with ants inside their houses now? We have a bunch of the little ones. I've tried numerous 'ant traps' at the stores with no success. We used to get the outside of our house sprayed, but we'd still have ant problems. The last couple of days the problem seems to have gotten worse. Any ideas? I saw a couple ideas listed here for spraying outside which I might try, but they are already a bunch inside now too. It's annoying to me, but driving the wife crazy.

Fishie- Were giving the malathion a try, I'll let you know. Unreel and Golden Eye- If the malathion doesn't get em' they'll be swimming in borax Thanks for tips

I only have 1 left and I dont really want to kill her. I do have a few cousins that need it though. Oh ants not aunts......nevermind...........

I agree with Unreel. Found this recipe online that the author swears by. 1 cup sugar 3 table spoons boric acid 3 cups warm water mix and keep in jar. fill jar lid with cotton balls then pour solution over cotton balls. leave jar lid with saturated cotton balls next to nest/hill entrance, drizzle some of the mixture around the edges of lid and ground surface. let them drink and fill up...the will transfer the poison to the rest of the nest/colony and virtually kill it. hope this helps

Not sure how it would work on carpenter ants, but I have had success with boric acid on my hills. I originally got the powder for bees. You spray something wet inside where the bees are and then hit it with the powder. The powder sticks to the wet stuff and stays longer. The worker ants or bees get it all over the nest and eventually kill the queen. I found 2 BIG hills in my yard when I cut for the first time this year. I blasted them both with boric acid twice. The grass turned a little yellow but all the ants are gone. I can fix the grass easy enough.

Just had 4 trees taken down, 2 willows and 2 silver maples. Good part of one willow came down in the last wind storm and good parts of one maple last year. I can see why now. Good parts of the trunks were hollow and were aten away by the big black carpenter ants. Should have seen them pouring out when I cut into the logs. How can I keep them from moving over and attacking the few good trees I have left?

Both when I lived in Texas and out in the country here, I'd soak the hills in gasoline, let it sit for 30 seconds and toss a match into it. Pretty good sized whoosh so be back a safe distance. The ground itself will burn about 5-10 minutes but I've never seen an anthill come back.

Amdro, works great for me! I have tried lots of stuff, this works the best for me. If the hill moves, hit em again, eventually they give up!

Just make sure you saturate the entire dirt hill. You should see alot of ant activity around the perimeter of the hill before you start the soaking so you know how far out you should be soaking, then work towards the center and really soak that center. You will kill the ants instantly, it's powerful stuff including killing those deep inside the nest. I have used it with great success.

We have a nasty ant problem at our cabin in Marinette county. We tried all the usual stuff with very limited success. I finally found the nuclear option at a web site called do-it-yourself pest control and a product called "demon wp". It comes in a powder form and you mix one packet with 2 gallons of water in a tank sprayer. We spray the cabin perimeter and any spots where the little buggars seem to like to hang out. We do it about 2-3 times a spring summer.

Fishie- I've tried Deltamethrin,Propoxur,Amdro, Ant Granules, as well as natural things such as cayenne pepper and cinnamon. The chemicals kill all the ones on the surface - literally hundreds of them. definitely slows them down, but one to two weeks later I find they just moved their entrance. I hit em' again, and they move again - leaving a big ole' brown spot where they were. I'll give Malathion a try, but so far chemicals just seem to kill the surface ones. I'll let you know how it turns out... PPPB - I do fertilize, they don't seem to mind much.

weed control and fertalizer helps, sometimes they get in my house but we spray the inside which usually fixes the problem and there are some hills along the driveway but other then that the grass stays nice and green...hope this helps!

Have also had ant hills, black ants, over several years. Have used Malathion, a liquid, use like 3-4 tbl spoons to 2 gal water can. Mix in garage or outside cause it does have strong smell. Thoroughly saturate ant hill in circulur motion so you get center and also perimeter. It will get rid of them, killing them instantly.