# Ants in Kitchen



## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

First you figure out what type ants you have.
http://www.terro.com/guide-ants.php


----------



## gobug (Jul 13, 2012)

Ant baits are my suggestion. There are several brands, but I do not know what choices you have. Ant baits work well because the ants you see are the foragers. They take home a bait and give it to the larvae who feed the whole colony. They all die if the bait is taken.

I would place just a few grains of bait on the floor where the ants are. They will take it immediately if it suits them. If they don't, pick it up. A tiny capful, like 1/2tsp is enough to kill a normal size ant colony. Just place it where kids and pets cannot get to it, but the ants can.


----------



## creeper (Mar 11, 2011)

There have been a gazillion threads on ants. I live in the GTA also. I have had great success with borax laundry soap. (twenty mule team) Boric acid is the active ingredient in those expensive raid ant bait things.

Mix an equal amount of borax and sugar. Pour a couple of tablespoons onto a piece of paper. Set it down near where the ants have been spotted. Give it a bit of time, or take an ant and place it there.

Soon you will see a steady stream of ants...it will seem like an endless procession marching on the same path. Resist the urge to stomp on them as they are bring this poison back to the queen.

Within a matter of a day or two, you will see no more ants, unless a new colony makes it way indoors, then procceed as above. 

Use the rest of the borax in your laundry or to eliminate carpet odors, or to kill creeping charlie.


----------



## Amitabh (Oct 21, 2010)

Thank you everyone for their feedback. Once i see the ant again, i will take a picture.

Right now, i laced the corners with baking powder. Next, i will get the bait and the borax soup.

PTMD


----------



## Amitabh (Oct 21, 2010)

Here is what the any looks like


----------



## bubbler (Oct 18, 2010)

Chances are the ants are coming in from a nest outside, or if there is a satellite nest inside your home, they will still head outside regularly. 

I'd recommend you do a yearly exterior treatment with Termidor SC, you will have no more ants.

The stuff works wonders, it's not used inside your home (so no worries about crawling kids, etc) and it's safe for animals/pets outside/around your home when applied in the proper concentrations (especially used for ant control which is a lower concentration than used for termites which was the original use).

The chemical in Termidor is Fipronil, which is the same stuff you put on your dog/cats back when you apply frontline flea/tick treatments. In proper concentration it is deadly to insects and fish, but not harmful to animals/humans.

When I was a kid we had carpenter ants in the house... you'd find them under your sheets before bed, in the kitchen cabinets, you'd wake up in the middle night with one crawling on your face, you'd open the towel after a shower and one of them would fall out and run away on the floor... I recall being about 8-9 years old and I would lay in bed and night and hear "crunching" from the ceiling above... turned out there were tens of thousands of ants up there eating the house... I spent years being mentally tortured by these buggers because my parents were too cheap to call proper exterminators, so we would use the home remedies (like borax), the off-shelf baits, seal up our food, and my dad would poison himself once or twice a summer in a cloud of Raid up in a hot attic trying to knock them out when their numbers would grow.

2010 was the first spring the house I bought, it was around this time of year, we had a couple of days of rain, then sunny days... all of a sudden ants were everywhere in the house (the ones you have a pic of) ... I had an exterminator down the next day, they sprayed Termidor SC around the perimeter (a 15 min job) and within a couple of days, not a single ant in the house. I treat every year and not a single ant in the house in 2011, 2012 or so far in 2013. 

My neighbors complain about the ants in their home (we live in a wet area with lots of woods) and I keep telling them to just call an exterminator and get this stuff sprayed around... most of them think of a $200-250 bill and say forget it... not me, it's cheap money for peace of mind to have no crawling things around you.


----------



## Windows on Wash (Aug 30, 2011)

I have used the boric acid and sugar combo with great success. Very non-toxic option.


----------



## Amitabh (Oct 21, 2010)

Thank you everyone....

im going to look at the exterminator.

PTMD


----------

