Big Black Ants

[Dragonsm]

With the warm weather, bugs are back out and about.

I will run across sometimes 1-3 black ants in my upstairs living room. My house is a split level (living room is on upper level) so it isn't like the living room is on the ground.

If we do find them, they tend to be on the outer wall. Could these things be crawling up the underside of my siding and finding a small "crack" to get through?

I was going to spread diazanon (sp?) outside next to the foundation however, my treatment inside has to be ALOT more cautious as I have a 14 month daughter who is all over the house.

Any help and advice is appreciated. It isn't a full blown invasion (yet) however, I would love to nip it in the bud!

Thanks,

Steve

[thedeadsea]

I have small children as well. We had those ants in our previous house and also in the cabin. Apply diaz. outside and put the small ant traps inside in areas where you are sure the little one can't get at them.

They can find their way through almost any miniscule crack so it is really tough to keep them out once they find their way in. Keeping the poision out is the best way to control them.

We have had them come in several times inside the firewood, especially ash or maple.

Steve

[titelines]

We have seem the same thing at the cabin. Not an outbreak, we just see 2-3 ants every weekend. This is a sign that the nest isn't in the house, you're just seeing the "scouts" that are looking for food sources. I've taken a few measures.

1) I'm going to spray a "barrier" outside as has been described above. now that the snow is gone, I'll be doing this shortly. I'm going to spray where the foundation meets the walls, creating a poison wall for them to walk through.

2) Cleaned house top to bottom and keeping it clean.

3) Put out the "terro" traps. They don't kill the ants, they come in and eat the stuff up and bring it back to the nest, killing the whole colony. I've put these on window ledges, under the sinks etc. where the dog couldn't get at them. If you have window screens, put them between the window and the screen.

4) Ants tend to follow scent trails. If you see them in the same spots you can spray a mixture of water/vinegar around those areas to eliminate the scent trails.

5) Look around the exterior of the house. Are there any branches etc. hanging over, or touching the house that could act as a bridge? Eliminate them.

6) Look outside. Are there any stumps or areas that the nest could be located? They'll travel up to 100 yards for food, so do a search. Look for ants outside and follow them. See if they lead you to the nest.

I'll be following his thread to see if there's anything else I can be doing. I want to stop this before they decide that the walls would be a good place to set up shop.

Hope this helps.

[thedeadsea]

4) Ants tend to follow scent trails. If you see them in the same spots you can spray a mixture of water/vinegar around those areas to eliminate the scent trails.

That's a really good one to know!

Just reading the diaz. ant killer container Supposed to put around the foundation and then water it in. Then repeat process every few weeks.

We also would put it all over the ant mounds when we found them around the yard in the past.

Steve

[fivebucks]

We've had the little ants come into the house and my wife cleaned the trails with water and vinegar and no more ants in the house. It works.

[buckeyes08]

The best thing to use is tempo. Cost up front is exspenive but last for a long time coulpe years. Not all ant will eat terro mostly sugar ants eat terro.

I would check and see if there carpenter ants and see if there in the wall?

[titelines]

Just wanted to follow up to my previous post.

We took all the preventative measures I outlined and this weekend - No ants. This is the first time in maybe two months that we haven't seen one, so I think it's working.

I also took down some dead trees and found that two of them contained large ant nests. I cut those trees into manageable length logs, lit the campfire and methodically burned all the wood. I kept the logs intact, only splitting them open when the fire was ready for more wood. This kept the ants contained and ensured that none would escape. Hopefully I got the queen(s) too.

[nofishfisherman]

I had a minor ant issue in my kitchen recently. We had the ant traps out, 1 under the sink and one tucked way behind the garbage can where the dog and cat can't get to it. These traps seemed to help some. I also washed the entire floor with a water and vinegar solution this weekend. So far so good. We'll see if it stays that way.