How to get rid of ants? ~ Now tons of RED

[eggs4sale]

We have good ol' piss ants here. The little red ones that will swarm up your legs and bite you all over before you even notice you're standing in them. They came into the store room and got the bag of dog food. I made a barrier of DE, and they just went around it, or through the areas that were merely dusted. The berm of DE only seemed to bother them in the way that I would not like to walk through a 3-foot-tall berm of flour, and would rather walk around.

I had ants in the garden and dusted them with DE. They laughed at me.

I haven't tried much else in the way of natural products, but for fire ants, my husband used to put Amdro on the mound. But we now have free-range chickens. Amdro smells awful, but they might eat it.

For ants that come into the house, I pour a small amount of Green Light at the entry point and watch them roll around writhing in agony, bwah ha ha!

 

[Carolyn]

I tried all the natural methods for ants--nothing worked. Had to go to to Terro gel and drops took care of it. Same at my mothers house, Terro was the only thing that worked.

 

[gardenmom]

To kill regular black ants that come inside the house, create a barrier of salt along their trail and if possible at the point of entry/exit. I just had the same problem last week; it took 2 days to vanish them.

 

[xpc]

I had the same problem and tried just about everything mentioned in this thread but nothing stopped them. I tired a bleach solution and it only kept them at bay for a couple of days, ammonia worked a little better but were back in a week. keeping the counter spotless didn't seem to help either but looked nice, for a while anyways.

From your posts this is not for you but what finally worked for me was the fact that I am doing extensive house remodeling, I re-dry walled every room top to bottom, filled all cracks with spray foam and caulk - they still snuck in around the untrimmed kitchen window, when I installed the window trim I caulked both under it and around the edges and have not seen an ant in months now.

 

[Dace]

Well I tried nearly everything and nothing seemed to phase these little buggers!
Finally we dumped a cupful of DE on all the ant holes we found in the yard....lo and behold no more ants! Co-inky-dink? Perhaps ,but I am happy!

 

[dragonlaurel]

Well I tried nearly everything and nothing seemed to phase these little buggers!
Finally we dumped a cupful of DE on all the ant holes we found in the yard....lo and behold no more ants! Co-inky-dink? Perhaps ,but I am happy!

Glad it worked out! - People that aren't happy with DE are usually expecting an immediate knock down. That's not what it does. The powder gets in the crevices of their shell and irritates/ scratches their bodies. Think fiberglass in your skin for a comparison.
It's our way of bugging them.

 

[oregonchick]

I had the little balck sugar ants before and used peppermint oil and sometimes fresh whole peppermint leaves and they would stay away. They always came back because the moble home park we lived in was VERY infested. I have since used it where I live now and it got RID of the same ants in my bathroom for good. I also had a whole brand new Bob's Red Mill bag of 10 grain cereal that got weavels in it (crying/ sobbing) so I tried the peppermint oil on the outside of the bag and they went away and never came back!

 

[HannaLee]

I have had success with a homemade treatment. I blogged about it here:

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Mommaofmany/406294/

 

[detali]

I have read that many of you recommend Borax to get rid of ants. It's not Borax you need but Boric Acid.

 

[kcsunshine]

I think I read where Cinnamon sprinkled around where they are coming in would keep them out.