How to stop Ants from entering my house under the aluminum siding on the 2nd floor?

[JEDI]

Every year i get ants in my 2nd floor bathroom and only there. Nowhere else in the house.
every year i use Terro liquid ant bait/killer which stops it but only for a few weeks.
rinse/repeat a few times every summer.
been wondering for a while why it's not killing the nest inside my wall.

this year, by dumb luck, i noticed an ant column climbing up the side of my house.
they're crawling underneath the aluminium siding near my 2nd floor bathroom.

i used bleach cleaner to try to clean the trail that the ants follow.
didnt work.
a few days later, i still see ants climbing up the side of my house and disappearing under the siding near the 2nd floor bathroom.

Any ideas?
thx

 

[WilliamM2]

You have water intrusion somewhere. Soft wood attracts carpenter ants. It may even be a leak in the roof, and they are just traveling under the siding to get there. Or you have a plumbing leak somewhere in the wall/floor.

Fix the moisture issue, or you will never get rid of them. Besides, the rot will do more damage than the ants.

 

[Raizinman]

I have had similar problem with ants coming in via under my metal siding. I've used the Terro Ant Bait with three applications (May, July and then September) a year and have never seen an ant inside. Terro is good stuff, but you have to keep using it. We had the flying ants.

 

[H T C]

Every year i get ants in my 2nd floor bathroom and only there. Nowhere else in the house.
every year i use Terro liquid ant bait/killer which stops it but only for a few weeks.
rinse/repeat a few times every summer.
been wondering for a while why it's not killing the nest inside my wall.

this year, by dumb luck, i noticed an ant column climbing up the side of my house.
they're crawling underneath the aluminium siding near my 2nd floor bathroom.

i used bleach cleaner to try to clean the trail that the ants follow.
didnt work.
a few days later, i still see ants climbing up the side of my house and disappearing under the siding near the 2nd floor bathroom.

Any ideas?
thx

You need to track where the ants are coming from (their main nest) and use the ant killer product there and afterwards use it on "the route" they took to your house. They use pheromones to communicate with each other so, unless you kill their nest they'll eventually keep coming.

EDIT

Once i woke up to find "an army" of ants in my food closet and it took quite a while to get rid of them all: the culprit turned out to be a coke bottle that seemed to have been spilled over with something that ended up attracting the ants. Everything seemed OK and there wasn't a single ant in sight before we went to bed ... but the very next day ... "another army" of ants was in the same place again so, and in addition to kill and remove every single ant in the house, we also tracked their main nest and used the ant killing products we had @ the time there as well. Never had a problem with ants again, so far.

 

[KK]

Spray Taurus/Termidor, that'll do the trick.

 

[mindless1]

I'd try poison granules along the foundation. Closer to the colony increases the chances of wiping it out.

 

[razel]

I've used the Terro Ant Bait with three applications (May, July and then September) a year and have never seen an ant inside. Terro is good stuff, but you have to keep using it.

Agree with the Terro Ant Bait. I had major ant issues. They love this stuff. It's probably just Borax and well chosen sweet bait, but they got nuts for it. It doesn't work quickly to kill them, but it'll distract them and they'll bring the bait back to their nest where it'll continue to kill. It took 1 1/2 years for me to get the ants under control, but at least I have reached that point without resorting to strong chemicals.

Buy the smaller version and see if the ants you have love it. If so, buy the larger outdoor variety. It's like a white cup upside down on a green large bait. That will last you 3-4 months. What's awesome is once they find that bait, they'll stick to it rather than biting you and roaming around trying to find other food.

 

[mikeford]

Terro when I see them in the house, and once or twice a year I get a gallon of bug spray and spray the whole perimeter of our house between the siding and foundation.

 

[Scarpozzi]

When I was doing construction on my house, I removed a bunch of vinyl siding before putting it back... I saw lots of evidence ants had lived there over the years. Siding provides a safe haven that is warm, protected, and watertight... Ants don't have to worry about getting flooded.

Ok... So terro gets rid of ants for a few weeks. You aren't totally eradicating them, but killing a bunch. The problem is that, ants that live in your yard will continue to look for food and water. Your house will always be a source of food and water for them. If you follow my logic, here's what you do... Treat your yard with granules.

Use boric acid around your foundation inside and out. Roaches don't like that stuff either. Use terro baits or liquid as you always have. Hopefully, if you are able to kill off the ants in your yard, while battling them inside, you will keep them from repopulating and foraging in your house.

 

[KeithP]

Agree with the Terro Ant Bait. I had major ant issues. They love this stuff.

I just used Terro ant bait for the first time a few weeks ago and it seems amazingly effective. I would also recommend it.

-KeithP

 

[H T C]

Agree with the Terro Ant Bait. I had major ant issues. They love this stuff. It's probably just Borax and well chosen sweet bait, but they got nuts for it. It doesn't work quickly to kill them, but it'll distract them and they'll bring the bait back to their nest where it'll continue to kill. It took 1 1/2 years for me to get the ants under control, but at least I have reached that point without resorting to strong chemicals.

Buy the smaller version and see if the ants you have love it. If so, buy the larger outdoor variety. It's like a white cup upside down on a green large bait. That will last you 3-4 months. What's awesome is once they find that bait, they'll stick to it rather than biting you and roaming around trying to find other food.

If you don't use the anti-ant product on their main nest's entrance, as well as the route they take to your house, unless that anti-ant product disrupts the communication between the ants, they WILL keep coming to your house.

 

[JEDI]

If you don't use the anti-ant product on their main nest's entrance, as well as the route they take to your house, unless that anti-ant product disrupts the communication between the ants, they WILL keep coming to your house.

unfortunately i have no clue where they are coming from.
i saw an ant column going up the side of my house.
i used Clorox bleach to wipe that path.
no more ants going up the side of my house.

yet there's still ants in my 2nd floor bathroom, especially after it rains.
alot more ants after it rains.

and i use Terro. they drink it.
ants reduced to a handful.
then it rains.
and ALOT more ants in my 2nd floor bathroom

 

[H T C]

unfortunately i have no clue where they are coming from.
i saw an ant column going up the side of my house.
i used Clorox bleach to wipe that path.
no more ants going up the side of my house.

yet there's still ants in my 2nd floor bathroom, especially after it rains.
alot more ants after it rains.

and i use Terro. they drink it.
ants reduced to a handful.
then it rains.
and ALOT more ants in my 2nd floor bathroom

That means you haven't figured out where their nest is. Next time you spot ants again, try to follow their trail to their nest and do what you have been doing up to now there as well, as well as the whole trail that leads to your house.

In my case, the "ant trail" was coming from the street, in front of my building: they "climbed" the two steps to my apartment's building, plus another eight steps to reach ground floor, "walked" that floor to my house and in to my kitchen's food closet. On the 1st day, we only killed every ant inside our house and it all seamed OK before we went to bed but, the next day, it was as if we hadn't killed a single ant: we killed them all again but only after following their trail to their nest, and then use our anti-ant product the entire path from their nest to our kitchen.

Haven't had another "ant episode" since.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Spray taurus sc about two feet up around your entire home. It is a poison that will kill the entire colony. It is not a fast reacting poison. The ants will walk through it not knowing they have picked it up. They go back to the nest and spread it all around including the queen. Within a week you won't see another ant or any other bug around your house. It is what professionals use. It works.

 

[mikeford]

Taurus? That sounds like Bull.

The trick with Terro, is not to skimp, leave one of the plastic feeders (they tend not to evaporate as fast) until no more ants for a week or so. AFAIK Terro is just Borax and corn syrup, but its just the right mix for most ants to like.

 

[Stopsignhank]

What has worked for me and getting rid of ants is the ant stakes. I used to love Grants but they do not make them anymore. Now the main brand is Amdro. The way I use ant stakes is to find a trail of ants and get an ant stake. Open up the ant stake and stick the glob of stuff directly on the trail of ants. A couple of days later there are no more ants.