# How to eradicate Black Ants???



## NateHanson

It's spring here in downeast Maine, and the black ants have returned to our house. 

Everyone seems to complain about these, but nobody has a decent solution to the problem. We're using the bait pucks, and outdoor spikes, but it doesn't really solve the problem. Does anyone have a silver bullet for these things? 

Thanks, Nate


----------



## Sammy

We got em here in Va too this time of year! They were invading the third bedroom where the A/C lines drain outside. I used instant grits, cornmeal, and talcum powder inside along the baseboard. Along with some Hot Shot pucks and they seem to be clearing out pretty quick.


----------



## NateHanson

For the time being I'll disregard the problem of finding instant grits this far north of the Mason-Dixon line.  

Can you explain these home remedies? You sprinkle grits, cornmeal, and talc in your house, where the ants are cruising around? And how does that work? Ants don't like southern cooking, or powdered feet?


----------



## Sammy

My apologies Ya'll dont have instant grits up there. 

But the theory is quite simple... Ants are exo-skeletons and dont digest grains well. [or at all] So eating the the grits or cornmeal leads to their early demise. 

And as I understand it their main function in life is to feed the queen of the colony which means they carry it back to her. Once she is gone they give up. Same as most ant baits advertise. 

The talcum powder I have heard is abrasive to their skeletons. Dunno why.... 

I just checked where I had 200 ants last night.... Four ants moving and a bunch of non-moving ants that need to be swept up.


----------



## NateHanson

Wow. 200 ants eh? You've got me beat there. I'll bet you've got those freaky big-ass roachy-lookin' bugs down there too. Turns out there IS an up-side to the 6-week growing season up here - the bugs can't manage to get too big or plentiful. 

Thanks for the tip. I'll try some corn meal and talc.


----------



## Sammy

Make sure to treat the outside of the house too.. There is always a reason why they are coming in... Food, water etc.. The Hot Shot Max Attrax bait traps seem to work well also. I think ya'll can use oatmeal in place of the grits. I just like using the homemade stuff inside since its less toxic around the kids and pets.


----------



## keyser soze

I can't remember what it's called (sorry) but I bought some gel once that worked VERY well. We had big ants in our camper. I put down about three drops of this stuff on Sunday, ants everywhere, maybe 50 or 75? Hard to tell. Come Friday, no more ants for the rest of the summer. I think I got it at wally world or the grocery store. Mainly clear gel with a yellowish tint to it. 

If you see it, might be worth a shot, worked well for me. Much better than the bait traps.


----------



## ocoee

The main thing to remember about ant baits is
If you see dead ants the bait ain't working

Ants don't feed the queen solid food they feed her liquefied regurgitation if they die before getting to that point then it is all for naught


Method one
Find some Terro
Cut it at least 2 to 1 with another sweet liquidy substance, in some cases peanut butter will be used
Place the concoction in some sort of shallow feeding pan that they can readily climb in and out of, drowned ants also do not feed the queen.
Despite what the commercials say if the queen is killed many species will just pick another one and there may be several satellite colonies to deal with anyway

Method 2
Find the nests and destroy them.
This is the most effective way of dealing with any ant problem baiting is always second best but sometimes the only feasible method when nest destruction involves tearing out walls

Method 3
Find an Imidicloprid based insecticide and apply it according to the label
Bayer makes a lot of these

Grandma's method
Mix a small amount of boric acid in apple jelly or powdered sugar and Karo syrup (Terro is corn syrup and boric acid) and place outside on window sills

Mix and match these methods at will as long as you don't contaminate the bait with insecticide


----------



## jdoherty

"TERRO" get it anywhere, grocery store, drug store hardware store. Put a couple drops on a speck of cardboard and watch them line up to drink it, carry it back to the nest. Kills the queen, everything. Put it out in the spring or when there is a dry spoell. They like to come in the house to look for a water source. "TERRO" kills the entire nest!!!


----------



## ocoee

Terro in it's OTC form is too strong
mix it with another sweet liquid such as honey or pancake syrup

Change that other liquid from time to time
If an ant population is injured but not killed off by a certain substance they and their descendants will never take that bait again


----------



## water

*this is what i did*

last year I had ants in the kitchen on the counter and in the cupboard 
I put baking soda down everywhere i seen them, every second day I cleaned up the soda and then put down fresh soda. It took a week and a haft but it got rid of them

if you have ant hills in the yard boil a kettle full of water and pour the boil hot water onto the hill. It might take two kettle if the hill is large


----------



## ocoee

Ant hills are constructed so that the queens chamber will never flood, at the first sign of danger she is moved to a safe place

Now we have to address the ugly prospect of budding

Certain ant species expand their nests and territories by a process known as "budding"
They will send out a group to establish another colony.
They do this when the population has grown to large or when they sense danger

If a number of scouts are sent out and a sufficient number does not return they will send out new queens to establish new nest

Three months from now that nest that you "destroyed" will come back three fold maybe they come back to your home then, maybe they wait awhile.

Baiting is a slow process it has to be to work


----------



## water

What you say may be right. All I know is that this worked two other time at two house I lived at
Maybe the ants move next door into someone else's yard


----------



## ocoee

depends on the species of ant among many other things


----------



## rita

*Black Ants in Grains*

The black ants we have seem to thrive on grains. We find them in oatbran, rye crackers, whole grain breads and cereals, and brown rice. How can we get rid of them?!


----------



## ocoee

Take away their preferred food and give then the Terro concoction


----------



## rita

we already took away their grains and hid our new supply in far off exotic places. they don't seem to like sugary stuff, but we'll try the terro and let you know... thanks


----------



## ocoee

Can you describe these ants

Some ants just don't take baits well
The trick is to fool them into taking what you want them to

Different stages in the life cycle of the nest will dictate whether they look for carbs or protein

try mixing a very light boric acid to some of the grains that they like and using that as bait

My grandmother used to shake BA in Fritos because the little black ants seemed to like the grease, it worked well

The other option is finding how they are coming in and trailing them back to their nest

A proper ID is very important, and sometimes difficult


----------



## 747

when you see one. Give it a little honey. It should take the honey back to the nest. Then you can kill them all in one shot.


----------



## rita

thanks, okoee and 747. haven't had a chance to return to this website since last posting. meanwhile the lovely ants are spreading out!

we couldn't find boric acid locally, so we bought borax. we can mix some with apple jelly (which is mostly corn syrup) and some with grains (which I thought of too) and see what happens.

they are about one-eighth inch long, very thin, black, and crawl fairly slowly. we noticed that what appear to be younger ones are a light brown, and babies are almost a transparent beige, matching the color of the grain so we hadn't seen them before. also, they tend to travel alone and come out of hiding in kitchen one at a time.

only the black ones travel out. younger ones were found in sealed jars of oatbran and bags of rice. wonder if they are reproducing there. most of our grains are organic.


----------



## ocoee

You can buy boric acid at the pharmacy or in the pest control aisle at your local grocery store
What you are calling babies are just one size of a polymorphic species

Borax has a sudsing agent in it that may deter the ants

Are these tiny ants with an almost transparent body and dark to black heads?

Do a search on
Ghost and Pharoah ants


----------



## DangerMouse

CONGRATULATIONS!
this thread takes the prize for **most viewed thread by 'guests'*** today"!!
must be the season... 
surprisingly, MY thread on the 'homemade drywall lift' is second!
funny, right now there are 40 members online, and over 1,000 guests....
funny too, how 10% of the members seem to provide 90% of the answers...
keep up the good work! (you know who you are)

DM


----------



## DIYAmatureLeah

Oats, huh? I have no idea where these crazy ants are coming from. I checked around outside and nothing. They may be nesting under the siding and coming through the wall and up behind the backspash of the counter. freaky things driving me crazy...raid in ever crevice they can crawl through and they are still coming to visit. Nothing in our cabinets, drawers, under the sink. So, Terro, oats and honey and ewww there will be a huge mound of them on the counter if I do that wont they? funny they don't come out after the sun sets. Usually you would have a trail of them to follow but don't see one anywhere here. Suggestions? Im in Iowa by the way.


----------



## Chemist1961

Look for INSECTIGONE. Good stuff for all the tiny crawlers. Makes as tasty treat that they carry home to the queen. Safe for kids and pets if I recall and I think I saw it recently at HD


----------



## J2010G

*Another fire ant control and question*

Fire ants - Sprinkle a little cornmeal - like two tablespoon fulls - on top of their mound. Ants take it inside and it kills the colony. Also Home Depot or Lowes has cornmeal treated with insecticide called AMDRO that does the job too. Must replenish cornmeal if dew or rain has expanded it. 

Now for my question. The big black ants (about quarter inch long) I'm starting to find in the kitchen are few in number like two or three in the early morning so I will start going after them with hints from the above comments. Most amazing thing is the speed which they run and dodge my attack. Is this speed of running normal for carpenter ants? 
Maybe I should capture a few and have races.


----------

