# Help with winged ants coming up from baseboards



## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

@Cicnus Nice to meet you and welcome!

Hmm. I don't think you have the correct ID on the ants (wrong color), but I don't think that really matters. 

Are flying ants continuing to reappear? If so, they'll eventually stop, though, they will come back next season, likely at this time next year. If you're getting wingless "workers" too, then they're hanging out somewhere nearby in an underground colony.

So, I suspect you want to be rid of the colony. 

You've made a good start in your initial efforts, which I'd have advised. Except they didn't work.

I suspect you might have used sweet bait for grease eating ants. If you're getting workers, leave a bit of greasy meat like bologna and see if they go for it. If they do, look for a bait that's aimed at "grease eating ants."


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## Cicnus (Oct 31, 2021)

Edit: also, I failed to mention my house is on a slab foundation. No crawl space/basement

Hello DoomsDave, thanks for your reply!

The flying ants are continuing to appear. I haven't seen a worker ant since the first day the ants started appearing which is about 2-3 weeks ago. There was only 2 or 3 of them, and I have one picture of them. They're a yellowish color as opposed to the darker colored winged ones. The most recent thing I've done was pour diatomaceous earth powder in the cracks and crevices along the entire wall's baseboards. Temperatures here just dropped significantly so I'm hoping they stay away for the winter so I can develop a plan.

I would like to get rid of the colony as I don't like bugs in my house. I have turkey meat, which I will try when I see more ants, but I'm not seeing worker ants so I'm not sure that will work with the winged ants.

The winged ants don't seem to travel very far. The furthest I've seen them from their entry point is only a couple feet. I also haven't seen one fly yet, or even try to...

Thanks


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

Cicnus said:


> Hello DoomsDave, thanks for your reply!
> 
> The flying ants are continuing to appear. I haven't seen a worker ant since the first day the ants started appearing which is about 2-3 weeks ago. There was only 2 or 3 of them, and I have one picture of them. They're a yellowish color as opposed to the darker colored winged ones. The most recent thing I've done was pour diatomaceous earth powder in the cracks and crevices along the entire wall's baseboards. Temperatures here just dropped significantly so I'm hoping they stay away for the winter so I can develop a plan.
> 
> ...


Okay, thanks for the education!

I (apparently wrongly) jumped to the conclusion that the workers and winged "alates" would be the same color; you proved me wrong. Never too late for a buggy old dog to learn new tricks.

Baiting and poisoning the workers is your likely key to getting rid of the colony. The hope is that the workers will share poisoned bait with the reproductive female or "queen" and the whole colony dies. 

One thing on the bright side is that the workers don't seem too interested in you or your food, so, if for any reason you can't get them to take poison bait, at least they won't be the problem that something like Red Imported Fire Ants can be. That said, I also understand your desire to get rid of them. (I had an ant colony in the soil by my house that liked to raid my cats' food, to the cats' and my annoyance. Terro bait whacked them.)

The D-earth is a good start, though it's not a full "cure."

The winged ants' job, as it were, is to fly away, make whoopee and start new colonies, hopefully the further away from you the better. They'll reappear now and then, but won't really hurt anything.

According to this Wiki article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lasius your ants are part of a group that lives in moist areas, in the soil. That's an important detail. You might want to look outside nearest where you're finding them inside and see if you can find the colony. According to this, they're also sweet-eating ants, so the sweet Terro bait should work for them.

Be advised that they might be laying low for the winter and you might have to pick up your beef with the colony in the spring. (I'm in California now, but I'm from Cleveland, Ohio, with a somewhat similar climate, flora and fauna.)

In any case, do keep us apprised and let us know what happens. You'll add to the greater body of knowledge for everyone.


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## Cicnus (Oct 31, 2021)

Thanks for all that information. To give more detail and whatnot, i drew a picture since i didnt give much info initially. With this picture, theres a yellow wall that starts in the kitchen, and stretches into the living room. This is the wall the ants have been coming in through. I first saw the ants in the kitchen where the green X is at the wall. Ive since sealed the portion of the wall in the kitchen with silicone caulk (i initially thought that would have stopped them but it didnt). Now theyre coming in along the same wall thats yellow, just in the living room. The entire wall thats yellow, ive filled with the earth powder stuff. The purple dots are where i found ant hills in my yard after this problem started. The ant hills near the driveway i drowned in insecticide. The ones in the backyard i filled with a boric acid powder. Ive seen zero activity from the anthills since finding them and "treating" them. Ive had outdoor Terro bait placed all summer, and since the problem came about, ive had indoor terro bait inside in the kitchen, and in the garage, but have seen zero activity.

Im also pointing out this "garden" in red. I moved into this house back in February, and this "garden" was here when i moved in. Its probably a 3ftx5ft rectangle, made with cinderblocks. It looked like it was once a garden, but hadnt been used in awhile, and just looked all dead. It was probably June/July when i noticed that the entire "garden" was filled with spearmint plants. Plan is to get rid of the whole "garden" at the end of winter when it looks like its all dead again. However based on all the information im reading, im starting to think theres a good chance this colony is underneath this "garden". What im considering doing when i get home from work today is filling up my 2Gal insecticide sprayer with 2 gallons of the Viper Insecticide mix (probably 2x strength mixture), and just pouring it directly into that garden rather than spraying it. Sounds like a good idea to me, but what do i know?

Ive also considering dumping insecticide in the crack where the House's foundation slab meets the garage slab. I drenched it with the sprayer two days ago, but maybe it needs more?

Hopefully im not just rambling and this information proves to be slightly useful 😅

Thanks


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

@Cicnus I'd look along the exterior wall by your living room, or in your garage. Look closely to see if you can find the telltale grains of dirt around an ant colony entrance. 

The nests with the purple dots I don't think have anything to do with your ant problem.


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