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How do I get rid of ants

Page history last edited by PBworks 18 years, 2 months ago

2001.01.28 How do I get rid of ants?

 

The first weapon in your arsenal should be information. Hence, you will need the following information before deciding on a course of action:

 

  • Identify whether ants are workers or queens. If queens, simply collect and kill/relocate her -- as they are probably looking for homes off nuptual flight. Make sure to close off all entry points to eliminate future problems.

 

  • If ants are workers, then try to track them to where they nest. This is to determine if they are foraging inside the house or actually are nesting there. This makes a huge difference as to which methods will be more successful than others.

 

Once you have this information. The following are various methods which may eliminate them:

 

  • If ants are nesting outside and only foraging for food or water inside, simply eliminate the food or water source. Either fix dripping faucets or secure food sources in sealed containers, cleaning cupboards, etc. Generally in these cases, it is easier to control the food source than to control the ants by killing them via various methods.

 

If ants are found to be nesting in the house structure:

 

  • Baiting. I have heard conflicting reports about how successful baiting is. Some have had complete success and others claimed none at all. * Poisons or professional extermination. In the cases when ants are foraging. I have heard this can work well in conjunction with cutting off food supply. Frankly, I believe simply cutting off food supply is the main reason ants do not come back -- not the poison. If the ants are residing in the house, then poisons can work. I personally do not like the idea of filling my walls with a poison which I'll have to live with the rest of my life.

 

  • Attrition. This is the method I have used reasonably well. One simply puts out bait (poisoned or non-poison) to catch workers. Carpenter ant (Camponotus) colonies usually only have workers which numbers in the thousands. Often I check my trap (a jar with bait in it) and simply kill, In my case, I capture and imprision until the colony dies by attrition. This method takes a lot of time, but it is the most environmentally friendly way to remove ants without resorting to removing walls. This has worked in my house two times now with carpenter ants. Eventually the queen is forced to leave the nest due starvation. All I know is that the colonies were evetually gone after I captured/killed a few hundred or thousand workers.

 

  • I have heard of people using cinnamon around entry points. Also one can simply cultivate a lot of spiders here and there -- though this will not for certain work. If they are foraging, closing entry points physically (with caulk etc.) can help. Elimination of foraging rewards is best.

 

  • If a colony lives in a house and doesn't yield to other methods, then the best and environmentally friendly way of removing them is simply to remove their nest from the house physically. Often this section is rotting or damp and will need to be replaced or repaired anyway because of weakening due weather or ants tunnelling. In these cases, removal is the most certain way to eliminate the colony since colony disruption is massive. If done properly, then a queen capture can be assured.

 

  • In the case where colonies are looking for temporary nest due to flooding/fire etc., almost every normal method of removal fails simply because the number of colonies being dealt with is much greater than one. The best method for extermination is to actually provide better home(s) than your home for the refugee ants. By doing this, one simply encourages ants to move into the homes you've provided which are readily transportable. Once residence is established, one can remove them easily. Or you can destroy them. In effect, you are creating a friendly home trap where by you can simply remove the ants by removing their temporary homes. I have suggested to people to try cardboard boxes, with alternating layers of soil (for soil species) and corrogated cardboard (nice open homey spaces premade). When your ant refugee homes are created, bait them with something the ants like. Eventually if the refugees like your new homes, you will see columns of ants moving in with the whole brood and the queen. Once they are done moving in you can safely remove them knowing the whole colony is gone.

 

--Mr. Ant

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