Ant problem! Help!

[bicentennial_baby]

Ok, I get up this morning and when I pick up a binder off the floor, there are 4-5 tiny brown ants on the manila folder under it. I take it outside and shake it off, assuming that something one of us had yesterday brought in a couple of ants. Fast forward to this evening...I look down at the same area of the rug where I found them originally, b/c the cat was going nuts, and there are more tiny brown ants! Uh oh...

So i throw the cat in the bedroom and get out the vacuum, get on my hands and knees and proceed to suck up probably 10-20 ants. I stopped once I didn't see any more of them. This is in front of a large recliner, I'm afraid to move it and see what I find.

I don't know what to do! This area is close to our sliding glass door, so it's conceivable that they came in when we had the glass open, with the screen door shut.

Help!! :o

[Auggie]

1. Boric acid mixed with sugar water

http://alsnetbiz.com/homeimprovement/boric_acid.html

From the website:

1 Tablespoon of Boric Acid, 1 tsp of Sugar, 4 oz water, Cotton Balls.
Mix Boric Acid and Sugar in a bowl. This can be poured over a cotton wad in a small dish or bottle cap. Keep this from drying out for continued effectiveness. Place Cotton balls in path of Ants

[bicentennial_baby]

2. And what do I do about the cat?

He won't let those alone for 5 seconds. This sucks. x(

[Auggie]

11. Okay -- ask the bugman. He seems to know everything:

http://www.askthebugman.com/

[sniffa]

3. Will that kill our cat?

[DS1]

6. Google Image Search was unhelpful, save for this King Cockroach with a Gat

I asked for a Cat.


Anyway, not to be completely unhelpful

http://www.finishing.com/112/28.shtml
http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/toxcat/toxcat.html

[Parche]

4. That Sucks, I Have An Uncle Problem

:woohoo:

:hi:

[Critters2]

13. In 3...2..1...

Parche!!

[hyphenate]

5. Spread either diatomaceous earth or

plain old boric acid around the edges of the rooms. Boric acid is a weak acid, but does deadly things to ants. Diatomaceous earth is earth with diatoms in it. Neither is poisonous to the animals, but make sure you use boric acid, NOT roach pruf.

The boric acid can be bought at a drugstore, and the earth at Lowes or Home Depot. (In case you're wondering about the boric acid, we used to use it as an eye bath, so you know it isn't too powerful)

Either will do the trick if you're patient. If you're not patient, like myself, you'd set off a few fumigators or bug bombs (making sure no animals are inside) and nuke the soms-a-bitches.

[bicentennial_baby]

9. Nowhere to put the kitteh, so no bug bombs...

Yeah, I've used Boric Acid as an eye wash for baby kittens with crusty eyes before. Thanks!

[PeaceNikki]

7. Vinegar

I had the same problem last spring. I kept a spray bottle of vinegar around and squited the little fuckers and the area where they were every time I saw them as well as the perimeter of my front door (where I surmised they were letting themselves in. It took several days, but they eventually got the hint.

[VenusRising]

8. Spray soapy water on them.

Also try to locate where they are coming in and pour some soapy water around there. The soap covers their little breathing holes and kills them. And it's safe for kitteh.

The things I learn living with an entomologist, eh?

:hi:

[hatredisnotavalue]

10. Me Too!

I have been alone this week and have been giving the house a good cleaning. My house is now better homes and garden clean! Lo and Behold yesterday I come into the kitchen and the counter is covered with ants. I still have three feet of snow by the bird feeder! I have been scooping them up and pouring them down the drain!

[huskerlaw]

12. I had that problem too...

a line of thousands of tiny little ants, straight from the sliding glass door to the kitty food dish.

I was told that ants follow each other by following a scent trail. I was told to spray the trail (and the ants) with orange-scented 409. It killed the ants, ruined the scent, and apparently ants really hate the smell, so they didn't come back.

Also, if they are headed for the cat food, get a shallow aluminum pan and fill it with soapy water, then place the food dish in the middle. Ants can't/won't navigate a soapy-water moat.

Good luck!

[Critters2]

14. I had ants last spring. Tried everything. This finally did the trick:

[bicentennial_baby]

15. What about kitteh?

[Critters2]

18. The kitties weren't interested in it. I did have to keep the beagle

out of the room where it was for a while. It doesn't actually leak out chemicals. But the ants do carry the stuff back to their nest. And it smells sweet, hence the beagle interest. But the cats paid no attention at all. Maybe there's something wrong with my cats. Not the first reason to think so :)

[Scooter24]

16. Are you living in a house?

If so and you don't have any outside animals, I'd consider doing a perimeter treatment with something like Amdro or Terro in dust or granules. If your in an apt, then maybe liquid bait would help :)

[ScreamingMeemie]

17. Ortho Home Defense---Perimeter &Indoor Insect Killer.

Safe for pets. We've used it for years and it controls ants for 6 months once applied. Never ever had a problem cat (ours is 15) or dog (6) wise.

[mike_c]

19. first, try to find out where they're coming from....

Small ants, indoors. I can't tell from your profile where you're located so I don't know whether Argentine ants are a likely possibility (Linepithema humile, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_ant). Here in norcal that's the most likely, also in the southeast although maybe not quite as sure a thing.

Anyway, first thing's first. Find out where they're coming from. If they're coming in from outdoors, it's foraging workers looking for food. Sometimes you can solve the problem simply by eliminating a dependable food source that they're finding reliably.

Do you see them anywhere else but in the spot you mentioned in the OP? Following ant trails in the kitchen or bathroom? Do you live at ground level or above ground in a multistory building? Watch for colonies in potted plants and in electrical appliances. Yes, electrical appliances. You'll see foraging workers coming and going. If there's no evidence of an indoor colony then I'd recommend finding their trail into the house-- just follow the workers coming and going. You can make the trail more dense by putting a dish of sugar water somewhere along it, but be warned that will draw LOTS of ants while the treat is present, LOL. If the colony is in a potted plant, etc then you know what to do. If you end up using a toxic bait to control them you'll want to put it close to the colony or along established foraging trails to maximize their access to it.

I have argentine ant colonies here. Sometimes they live in my plants and once I had a long lasting colony in a coffee maker, and of course they're everywhere outdoors. I use boric acid and sugar solution to control them when they're at low density-- see the link above for a recipe-- and Grant's Ant Stakes when they occasionally become a real pain. Of course, it sounds like my threshold is higher than yours-- I didn't deal with the colony in the coffee maker until they were wreaking havoc in stored food in my kitchen.

http://www.amazon.com/Grants-Ant-Stakes-GRANT-STAKES/dp/B000AYG03C

I have cats and they've never shown any interest in either Grants or boric acid. You only put boric acid out dropwise anyway. The Grant's stakes contain a toxic bait in small metal containers on plastic stakes-- just lay them flat on the ant trails indoors and push into the ground outdoors. Pets cannot get into them and they last for several weeks in my experience.

Hope this helps.

[bicentennial_baby]

20. Thanks! We're in Eastern MA, on the 5th floor

They're those super common tiny brown ants that I've seen my whole life, on and off. Not the bigger black ones, not carpenters.

But, I want them out! x(

[mike_c]

21. OK then there's no point in trying to control them outdoors...

...and they're not the supercolony argentine ants. Grants or boric acid will work well indoors so if they're bothering you, that's what I'd do. If the colony is in a potted plant on the balcony or something, just stick a Grants stake right into the pot. Otherwise, locate the trail and lay a stake or two along the trail-- it will almost certainly be along an outside wall or baseboard-- or put some boric acid and sugar soln on a piece of waxed paper and lay/pin it along the trail. If you use boric acid, keep it topped up-- the ants will carry it off at a surprising rate. Either bait takes a few days to a couple of weeks to work-- that's what gives it time to be carried to the nest and kill the queen. Grants works faster.

If there's no conspicuous trail, they probably aren't coming in frequently enough to bother with. If your weather just warmed it's probably just early season foragers that will go somewhere else when they don't have to work so hard to find food.

[bicentennial_baby]

22. Thank you so much!

:pals:

[RebelOne]

23. I have this device that you plug into an outlet

that is supposed to repel rats and mice. I used to have an ant problem, but since I've had that thing I haven't seen any bugs. I guess it does a good job on all pests. I don't remember the name of it because it is at home and I am at work. But I bought it at QVC several years ago. It's not the Riddex repeller. That has terrible reviews.