Help! Ants are taking over my apartment!!!

[Oyeve]

I live in a co-op on manhattan on the lower east side. I am on the ground floor and ever since sandy hit (lost power for a week) I have been plagued with freaking ants! Its better than roaches but still, if I drop a piece of food on the floor it will be swarming with ants! I have ancient wood floors with many crack in it and they run into them. How can I get rid of em without spraying toxic crap in the house? The co-op will only spray bomb the house but I have severe allergies and that crap is nasty. Other than obviously keeping the house clean, is there a good safe way to get rid of them and KEEP them away?

 

[Slacker]

 

[olds]

Link

 

[Rakehellion]

You should probably stop dropping food on the floor.

 

[SaurusX]

Do the dishes immediately after cooking and eating and put them in the dishwasher. Make sure everything in the pantry is sealed up tight. Starve them out.

 

[jaedaliu]

Google search has told me Grants Kills Ants works.

You can also make a mix of boric acid and sugar and let the ants bring it back to the queen, slowly poisining her with acid then eventually killing her off.

 

[Leymenaide]

Those little ant cans sold in hardware stores work well. Ants go into the can and take the stuff back to the nest killing the nest. Takes some days but works.

.

 

[Codewiz]

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Terro-Ant-Killer-ll-Liquid-Baits-6-Pack-300/100595879#specifications

This will attract them by the thousands, then proceed to kill all of them.....

I have used it to kill outdoor fireants before.

The ingredient is borax. You could buy just borax and make your own but these traps work well.

 

[Oyeve]

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Terro-Ant-Killer-ll-Liquid-Baits-6-Pack-300/100595879#specifications

This will attract them by the thousands, then proceed to kill all of them.....

I have used it to kill outdoor fireants before.

The ingredient is borax. You could buy just borax and make your own but these traps work well.

Hmm, looks interesting. Gonna give this a go. Hopefully it wont attract more than ants! Thanks.

 

[PingviN]

You should probably stop dropping food on the floor.

Yep, that's how you get ants.

 

[JEDI]

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Terro-Ant-Killer-ll-Liquid-Baits-6-Pack-300/100595879#specifications

This will attract them by the thousands, then proceed to kill all of them.....

I have used it to kill outdoor fireants before.

The ingredient is borax. You could buy just borax and make your own but these traps work well.

i tried those. ants drank it like water but a week later they were still drinking it like water.
didnt solve my problem

the next year i made it myself w/borax. 50% hot water (to melt), 25% borax, 25% sugar.
a week later, no more ants

unfortunately, every year i have to do this. i dont know why. eggs lay dormant and hatch a year later?

 

[Codewiz]

Hmm, looks interesting. Gonna give this a go. Hopefully it wont attract more than ants! Thanks.

Don't be alarmed. They will swarm the poison. The entire trap will be full of ants. I am not joking about thousands.

i tried those. ants drank it like water but a week later they were still drinking it like water.
didnt solve my problem

the next year i made it myself w/borax. 50% hot water (to melt), 25% borax, 25% sugar.
a week later, no more ants

Weird that it didn't work because it is just borax.

 

[Jeffg010]

http://www.bugspray.com/article/ants.html

I have ordered from this place and had good results with a gnat problem I had.

 

[jaedaliu]

i tried those. ants drank it like water but a week later they were still drinking it like water.
didnt solve my problem

the next year i made it myself w/borax. 50% hot water (to melt), 25% borax, 25% sugar.
a week later, no more ants

unfortunately, every year i have to do this. i dont know why. eggs lay dormant and hatch a year later?

Maybe you only got some of them, and not all. Or someone else is moving into the newly empty mansion every spring?

 

[brainhulk]

I wonder if you keep a bottle of honey underneath the house, if that will keep them preoccupied and to fat and full to bother with your scraps

it looks like you have bread boric acid resistant ants

 

[MixMasterTang]

Ants can go many days without food but only a day (maybe two at the most) without water. Look for any standing sources of water, don't leave any liquids anywhere in the house and like said above put dishes in the dish washer immediately and not laying around. I have also had good success with liquid ant bait / killer like this: http://www.amazon.com/Terro-PreFille.../dp/B000HJBKMQ

 

[T9D]

Those terro ones from home depot DO work. They work every time. I use them in different houses that I've lived or my rental places. It can take quite a long time sometimes. But they slowly all die off in weeks and there will be less and less until there is none.

What I do is get a bunch of those packs and empty them all into a cup at once. I then mix sugar and water with it. They come in the millions but take it back to the nest and all die eventually. Just give it time. It's made to not kill them right away. It will seem like nothing is happening at first. This is so they can spread it to the rest of the colony.

I promise you I've tried it all and this stuff works awesome and the best. Just have to be patient.

 

[*kjm]

Those terro ones from home depot DO work. They work every time. I use them in different houses that I've lived or my rental places. It can take quite a long time sometimes. But they slowly all die off in weeks and there will be less and less until there is none.

What I do is get a bunch of those packs and empty them all into a cup at once. I then mix sugar and water with it. They come in the millions but take it back to the nest and all die eventually. Just give it time. It's made to not kill them right away. It will seem like nothing is happening at first. This is so they can spread it to the rest of the colony.

I promise you I've tried it all and this stuff works awesome and the best. Just have to be patient.

Your right if they were drinking that long you have a big nest/mutiple nests feeding on it.

Just keep it out of reach of children and pets.

 

[Jaskalas]

Those little ant cans sold in hardware stores work well. Ants go into the can and take the stuff back to the nest killing the nest. Takes some days but works.

Sounds brilliant for his sort of problem. :thumbsup:

 

[chalmers]

if I were you I'd accept your new insect overlords.


Posted from Anandtech.com App for Android

 

[dmcowen674]

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Terro-Ant-Killer-ll-Liquid-Baits-6-Pack-300/100595879#specifications

This will attract them by the thousands, then proceed to kill all of them.....

I have used it to kill outdoor fireants before.

The ingredient is borax. You could buy just borax and make your own but these traps work well.

The borax stuff is only temporary. Gets the ones you see but not the Queen so more will come.

These work fantastic and kills the Queen so they are gone for the year.

A new Colony may come the next year but for this year you will be good.


http://www.raidkillsbugs.com/fop_dc_ab.asp

Raid ® Double Control Ant Baits contain two types of food that ants eat. Place baits by ant trails or close to areas where ants are present. The bait food is then carried back to the nest to kill the queen and destroy the entire colony.

Population reduction and less activity can be expected in about one week.

Use it in attics, basements, bathrooms, closets, dining rooms, pantries, kitchens, recreation rooms, or anywhere ants are a problem.

 

[JEDI]

The borax stuff is only temporary. Gets the ones you see but not the Queen so more will come.

These work fantastic and kills the Queen so they are gone for the year.

A new Colony may come the next year but for this year you will be good.


http://www.raidkillsbugs.com/fop_dc_ab.asp

Raid ® Double Control Ant Baits contain two types of food that ants eat. Place baits by ant trails or close to areas where ants are present. The bait food is then carried back to the nest to kill the queen and destroy the entire colony.

Population reduction and less activity can be expected in about one week.

Use it in attics, basements, bathrooms, closets, dining rooms, pantries, kitchens, recreation rooms, or anywhere ants are a problem.

when did that come out? didnt see it at my walmart

will try it this year when i move into yet another new mansion.
loved shorting apple

 

[Aikouka]

Ants can go many days without food but only a day (maybe two at the most) without water. Look for any standing sources of water, don't leave any liquids anywhere in the house and like said above put dishes in the dish washer immediately and not laying around. I have also had good success with liquid ant bait / killer like this: http://www.amazon.com/Terro-PreFille.../dp/B000HJBKMQ

I was in the kitchen once, and I noticed an ant or two around my dish washer. I didn't think much of it until I opened my dish washer and saw tons of ants inside! My fridge is to the right of my dish washer, and when I pulled it out, I saw that the ants were coming in through a small gap in a wall socket that was behind the fridge. A couple weeks later, I found ants climbing up the back of my apartment building like little ninjas.

Ever since I took care of those two problems, they haven't been back to bug me. I used ant spray to kill them all. Also, if I spot any ants near my front door, I spray the stuff around the front of the door inside and outside. Ants will not go near the stuff... which is probably why they resorted to my outlets.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Cyonara 9.7 Insecticide.

http://www.pestmall.com/cyonara-9-7-insecticide.html

That stuff leaves a path of death and destruction behind. I spray my house foundation with it once a year and hardly get any spiders in the basement, and no other bugs. Maybe the occasional centipede. In winter, there is not a single bug. Any bug that has come in for winter retreat has died from coming in contact with this stuff.

Actually anything with Lambda-Cyhalothrin as the active ingredient should do.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

Like many other posters I've had success with Terro, but the ants would always come back after a few weeks and I could never find how they were getting into the building. The long term solution was to buy a giant container of boric acid powder and lay down a thin strip on one path that they always followed under my radiator.

They don't eat the pure boric acid like the Terro, but they pick enough of it up by walking through it that it kills them later. Since I did that I haven't seen a single ant. I'm not sure if it kills the scouts before they can lead the others back, or if it has some repellent properties, but it definitely works.

Of course this strategy will only be practical if you have an out of the way area that you know is near the entry point where you don't mind leaving a bit of boric acid. My understanding is that it's particularly harmful to humans.