Ants!

[jeffgrant]

Wow.

I was sitting here in my home office working away (*cough* surfing Pelican), got bored, looked out the window, and just noticed that there is a steady stream of ants that are walking along the sat cable wires from the tree to the house.

I haven't seen any inside the house, but I have no idea how long they've been marching back and forth, or what they've done inside the house.


Any thoughts on how to handle this? I've thought about calling the pros, but I'd rather get some PPOT advice first.


I'm going to head into town to get some bug sprays, and ant traps (just in case they show up inside).


Any advice?

[competentone]

They look like they could be carpenter ants.

This is a good source of information:

http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/pubcd/B1225.htm

[scottmandue]

I found somewhere on the Internet that said corn starch will kill ants. Not sure if that is applicable to the kind of ants you have. It takes awhile, seem the little buggers take the corn starch back to the nest where they munch on it and they can't digest corn starch.

I found this out because the hippy lady living in my front house was freaking out about ants, so I offered to spray and she said "oh no I don't want poison sprayed around my house" (she has a four year old). Well in a couple of days it took me to research non poisons ant control she called and said "screw it spray!"

I use malathion and a pump sprayer, I just do the outside perimeter/cracks/vents, works great! Because of the four year old that plays out in the yard I don't put out traps.

[cgarr]

If you have wood chips around, get rid of them and the ants will go.

[fintstone]

Ants are a terrible problem in NM. The best stuff I have ever used is the spray made by Terro. Nothing else has worked very well for me.
http://www.terro.com/

[tabs]

I have even had ants march right through my house without stopping...in a few days they were gone?

[Venetian]

If you find the nest(mound), soak it with water for a day or 2. I just did this successfully. I also drove a 2 x 2 into mound a couple of feet then pulled it out. Constantly fed water into holes. Ants gone but probably just move to new location(hopefully out of yard).

[tabs]

Originally Posted by Venetian

If you find the nest(mound), soak it with water for a day or 2. I just did this successfully. I also drove a 2 x 2 into mound a couple of feet then pulled it out. Constantly fed water into holes. Ants gone but probably just move to new location(hopefully out of yard).

That ought to teach the little Bast@rds not to make your yard a home...either that or take out flood insurance.

[Tidybuoy]

Originally Posted by fintstone

Ants are a terrible problem in NM. The best stuff I have ever used is the spray made by Terro. Nothing else has worked very well for me.
http://www.terro.com/

+1 on the Terro. It's the greatest ant killer made and very easy.

I used to work in a large 4 story building that had constant ant problems. We had Terminex spraying about every two weeks but they never went away.

I brought in my little bottle of Terro and I told the maintenance guy about this. He shrugged it off and thought I was an idiot but I convinced him to check it out. I put a few drops on my window sill in the middle of an ant trail and I told the maintenance guy to come back in a couple of hours.

A few hours later, he was amazed that I had about a thousand ants drinking at the Terro drops. I told him to just leave everything alone as it would take a couple of days......Each day, the maintenance guy came back and there were more and more ants drinking up the Terro. I told him that if there were any ants after 3 days, I'd give him 10 bucks. In about two days, there was not a trace of ants. The maintenance guy canceled Terminex and bout a case of the Terro. I tell you....this stuff works like you would not believe. Get it at the hardware store.

[jeffgrant]

Thanks for the tips... we'll see how this progresses.

I'll give that Terro stuff a shot, if the local stores carry it.

[ben parrish]

Terro also makes bait stations; you don't have to put the drops down. This stuff is GREAT. Works on a lot of differnt species.
Ben

[Mule]

Mix equal parts boric acid & flour with enough sweetened condensed milk to make dough. Stick little globs strategicly and wave bye.