Ants. The little tiny black ones, invading my house

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Been using Taro but is there something more effective? Taro baits them to eat it and take it back to the colony to share, eventually poisoning the entire colony. In the meantime, Taro actually attracts hordes of the little badstich's ...

Is there a more effective DIY treatment?
 
I had this happen about this time last year here outside Seattle. First time ever, nasty little things that bite, and stink when you smash them.

Quick fix was just laying down some Black Flag ant spray on the perimeter of the side of the house they were entering and the door sill. Instant fix.
 
If you go with a bait like Terro you have to put up with the horde.
It's food, harmless until digested and excreted.
 
I moved into a house that had a massive ant problem a few months ago. Professional exterminator used Optigard Ant Gel Bait and it was AMAZING. The ants swarmed the bait, which was a little annoying as I wanted the things gone and dead, but the exterminator assured me that's whats supposed to happen. They swarm the bait, eat it, bring it back to the queen, regurgitate it, feed the queen, everyone dies. Went from hundreds/thousands of ants in the house, to not a single ant, in 24 hours. They all disappeared. No dead bodies, no piles of ants, they just crawled off somewhere and died.

After the exterminator left, I ordered some of the same bait from this website below. There is a ton of information on this website about pest extermination and I learned a LOT from it. I got rid of the exterminator and do everything myself now, to include spraying the yard, the house, etc. No pests or ants at all. My yard used to be infested and now you cant find a single ant pile anywhere.

https://www.domyown.com/ants-c-1.html
 
When ants moved into our linen cupboard, and brought their eggs with them, I knew we were in for a few days of wet weather.
 
Had good luck with Terro in the shaker bag for outside perimeter treatment. No spreader needed. Took care of a sugar ant kitchen invasion on a outside wall. Keeps chemicals outside.
 
The ants are coming in for a reason. Either you are providing a food source for them or there is something dead somewhere.
 
We have a real exterminator treat the house once each quarter. I highly recommend it-never had any insect issues and it's only $60/treatment. I've had a couple rental units that, when the tenants left, there was an insect problem. I can't imagine living like that.
 
Do you know where they're coming in from? As in, did you find a door or window or crack where you see them following the pheromones from? If you do you can do the following:
1. Apply a barrier treatment. Something like Ortho Home Defense Max, anything that is applied wet but dries to create a barrier like OHDM which is cypermethrin. This makes it so when the ants actually traverse the barrier they die on contact.
2. The barrier treatment will kill any that make it to the barrier. Once you know where to place the barrier, follow from the barrier to the outside and apply an outdoor bait so that they die outside before they make it to the barrier. For this there are a million brands that sell the gel baits like terro but in a plastic housing that you can stake into soft dirt. I've found these tremendously effective. The first day or so you stake it in, the ants will be all over it and you can see them eating the gel. The next day they'll all be dead and the gel won't have a single ant around it because they took the gel back to the colony and died.
 
Terro and Advion gel work for me. Might take a day or two but between the both it always gets rid of them.. until the next time....
 
If they are swarming the Terro that is good. My brother said some ants are grease ants and will not go to Terro. If they are grease ants you have to mix grease such as bacon grease with the Terro to get them to take it.
 
Google boric acid and sugar mix. You mix it up, saturate some cotton balls and leave it around in old bottle caps. In about a week all ants are gone. Has never failed us.

Conventional sprays just send danger messages back to the nest and cause the colony to scatter. Good luck, John
 
Originally Posted by PimTac
The ants are coming in for a reason. Either you are providing a food source for them or there is something dead somewhere.


Sometimes if it rains a lot they will seek a dry spot in your home.
 
Originally Posted by Mr Nice
Originally Posted by PimTac
The ants are coming in for a reason. Either you are providing a food source for them or there is something dead somewhere.


Sometimes if it rains a lot they will seek a dry spot in your home.

Yeppers.. when I wash the car I sometimes see them pouring out the ground as I've flooded their home...if your crawlspace or basement gets wet like that no perimeter spray will help.
 
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