Hurry Down Doomsday...
...the bugs are taking over!
You remember our kitchen, right? The room for the ants? Well, they decided to return a couple of nights ago and it's been a struggle ever since. We've also had some nasty storms and heat run through town and it seems that the ants might have just moved inside when that started happening.
In any case, we've both lost count of how many ants we've killed since Tuesday. They're everywhere in our kitchen: our dishwasher (again), the stove (new), the floor, the counters, the fridge, and especially along the floorboards. Yesterday Ryan asked me if I had tried cinnamon. Cinnamon? Yes, cinnamon. I decided to give it a shot and - like the fellow in that linked story - it has seemed to work well so far. Until they find a way around the cinnamon, of course.
We did call our landlord, but we're not really sure what's going to happen next; he's had an exterminator out numerous times. It really makes us want to move, though.
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The problem with cinnamon is that it stains everything. I wish I'd found a natural solution that works well, but so far, I haven't.
What kind of ants are they? We had a massive sugar ant problem when we moved into our home, because the former owners were, well, filthy. We had to:
1. Keep everything really clean.
2. Use Ortho Home Defense perimeter spray.
The Ortho is as safe as any poison is going to get (as in, be really careful, but it's better than some other stuff), and it works like a charm. This is the stuff:
http://www.ortho.com/index.cfm/event/ProductGuide.product/documentId/28b1387cce30ef5f5297d662624a3365
We could only find it at Home Depot here.
We have given up on the dishwasher as spray just washes away, but that doesn't bother us so much. Something to remember about ants: they're *clean*. They are an exceedingly fastidious insect, and they won't carry in diseases or anything horrible. They don't even bother my husband the biologist.
A few ants here are a fact of life, and I've relaxed quite a bit about it since we first moved in. I'm a very live-and-let-live person when it comes to most critters, and we only use the chemicals when things are at unacceptable levels. Mostly, we just keep the kitchen free of anything they can eat.
Cinnamon stains. Neil Young song? Good to know, though - I'll have to do some cleanup later.
I'm not quite sure what type of ants these are. They're little (maybe, ah, 2cm? or less) and are very very fast. The former owners of our place could have been filthy - we're not sure - but these little guys are in just about every single crack and separation in our place.
That Ortho Home Defense stuff looks hardcore. But it might be worth it. Thanks.
Bet they're sugar ants--they sound the same as ours, and are pretty common household "pets".
Terro.
Terro.
My wife and I swear by the stuff. We had terrible ant problems at our old house, and the Terro worked like a charm.
Ya know, I haven't had much luck with Terro, but I've only tried the traps. All I got was a room I couldn't use for a very long time. We finally gave up and sprayed.
My mom and dad used to use boric acid. It's not exactly pet friendly, but it did take care of our ant problem.
Simple Green spray cleaner. It's enviro-friendly. The "grease cutter" element of it prevents the ants from leaving a trail so they can't find their way back and if you spray it on them it kills them pretty quickly and since its a cleanser you can just wipe up the dead ants and a little dirt in one swoop.
We used to get them every spring through fall at our last place. We figured out where they were coming in and would just soak the area for a few days until we saw them again.