# Dead ants on washer



## bucksone (Aug 7, 2007)

For the past few days we've been finding small dead ants on top of our washer in our unfinished basement. They're always clustered in the top right corner of the lid. I've seen a few live ones as well. I'm looking for suggestions on how to figure out where they're coming from and how to get rid of them. 

Thanks.


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

Go buy yourself some Terro paste. Put a few drops along the baseboards, even a few drops on the washer will do not harm.
What your going to see is hundreds of them will show up to eat it. Keep applying once it's gone until there's no more ants.
They take it back to the nest and feed it to the queen, once she dies there all going to die out.
http://images.search.yahoo.com/imag...097&sigi=15gohlsjv&sigb=13ru6fpb2&fr=slv8-w3i


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## PAbugman (Jun 29, 2010)

Put some bait on top of the foundation wall above and behind the washer too. Terro makes a liquid ant bait that comes in stations also. The liquids/gels/pastes work well for the small ants. Don’t spray anything as you will work against the bait.


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## bucksone (Aug 7, 2007)

I'm going to buy the liquid Terro and give it a try. It got great reviews on the Lowes website.

I'm still curious why they're on that one corner of the washer and why most of them are already dead?


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## Eds_tls (Apr 11, 2011)

Look above the washer. When i was a kid my folks house had carpenter ants in one section of the ground level subfloor. For some reason the dead ones would fall to the ground below along with some live ones. But only in one spot. 

Exterminator took care of them and the never came back


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## PAbugman (Jun 29, 2010)

Insect colonies always have a natural mortality rate. Ants take the dead ones out and drop them. Look up on the foundation wall/sill plate and you may find dirt, frass, etc from their excavation. That’s why you need to bait up there. Do not disturb anything or disrupt them as that could change their patterns.


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## bucksone (Aug 7, 2007)

Time for an update.

I put out the liquid Terro around the washer but all six cards were ignored.

This afternoon the live ants have shown up by the kitchen sink which is directly above where the washer is in the basement. I took the Terro cards from the basement and put them by the sink, and the ants are having a feast! I'll keep adding the liquid Terro to the cards until the colony is hopefully killed.


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## bucksone (Aug 7, 2007)

It's been about a week and a half. I add Terro to the cards, the ants feed like crazy, by the next morning they're done to just a few, but they never seem to go away completely. How much longer should this take?


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## bbo (Feb 28, 2010)

terro mentions it may take a couple weeks.

http://www.terro.com/faq-ants.php#q2

just keep feeding them and don't disturb them. you might want to put the bait in other areas as well where they may be coming from.


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