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Ants, ants, and more ants
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Posted by michele_1 (My Page) on Thu, Feb 15, 07 at 5:55
| Yes, I have even seen a few ants in February! This entire area MS zone 7 is over run with ants. No, not fire ants, but many other kinds of ants. Last summer I got eaten alive while gardening.
I put out bait traps, because I hate to use pesticides that might harm the wild birds!!! But it didn't help enough, let's put it that way.
Any ideas. Other than getting an ant eater on loan from the zoo. I wish!
All the other insects seem to stay in check. Except the ants! I wonder why that is. Does anyone know?!
Why does the rest of nature seem to stay in balance around here except for the ants. It's not just my neigborhood, this whole area has a real ant problem.
Sometimes it just seems that granules or bait traps just move them around. You might make them abandon one nest only to start two or three more.
What can I do??!! I hate getting ant bitten, it's awful! |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Ants, ants, and more ants
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| If you are using the ant BAIT granules correctly, then you should be able to get the ants under control. Amdro, one of the most effective brands, is one that I recommend quite often. But it must be FRESH when you apply it. It has a very short shelf life, especially once opened. A tiny bit of Amdro does the job, and when applied carefully will not disturb the ants into packing their bags and moving. If you sprinkle a bit near the mound entrance, you can literally stand there and watch the ants take it down into the nest. (That's what I do, so that birds don't get into it.) In a very few minutes, it will disappear from the surface of the soil. |
RE: Ants, ants, and more ants
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| I recently moved to NC and i keep finding these small ants coming out of cabinets behind them and behind stove. I sprayed and took out everything on cabinets and cleaned with bleach and sprayed. I dont know what to do. there driving me nuts. |
RE: Ants, ants, and more ants
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| Angel it's been a month since you asked the question, but if you are still around I can tell you there are bait stations for the little ants that live in the house that are effective in keeping them away for a while, but I've found that spraying the counters and cabinents with orange oil has completely eliminated them for me. I buy the pure orange oil at a garden center and dilute it. The kind you buy already mixed on the grocery store shelves may not be strong enough. |
RE: Ants, ants, and more ants
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I live in NJ & we got the annual little kitchen ants a few weeks ago. My solution is to mix 20 Mule Team Borax (laundry shelf of supermarket) with sugar & sprinkle where the backsplash meet the counter top (their highway). I had also tried the bait stations but they don't work like this does. You have to be careful not to put the borax mix where dogs or kids will find it--poison to us, too.
Last year we got rid of them in a novel & accidental way---we had not used the oven for weeks as it had been quite hot. Then we turned it on to bake something and a few minutes later, there was a large mound of tiny ants on the counter next to the stove, frantically milling about & carrying larvae & eggs! They had made their nest in the space between the stove wall & the inside of the oven. I don't like having them in my kitchen but I felt terrible about roasting them & their babies! (So I sprayed the whole pile with Fantastik & that killed them all instantly.) |
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