how do i get rid of these friggin ants in my apartment?

[jonathan_matos5]

short of burning the place to the ground , which is guaranteed to work, what do i do?

[Rattman]

Oh man... there are SO MANY "natural" ant, cockroach and mice repellants that you can get for very little cost and minimal side effects for you, the occupant. Certain plants, and spices are absolutely horrendous for ants.. Just Google 'natural ant repellant' or use Yahoo Search.. I know you'll get some good info

[ryco]

What Rattman sez
Also, a lot of times ants will be attracted to water, so make sure you don't have any leaking pipes or fixtures under the sink.

[jonathan_matos5]

i put some boric acid near where i saw them entering. hopefully it will work. i dont have any pets or kids so i sprayed some raid on the ants i saw already inside.

[Gard]

I've tried all the "natural" ideas, spices, etc. None of it works IME, especially on pharoah ants (the little tiny guys, my grandma used to call 'em P!$$ ants...I think 'cuz they PI$$ed her off! ). Boric acid didn't work on 'em either...

The best I've found so far are liquit baits that I got at Lowe's made by a company called Terro. They come in an orange box. They just plain WORK. Nothing else has. They're not nasty or smelly, and as long as you don't handle them and forget to wash your hands they're safe (I have pre-teen daughters, I'm not worried about these in the house).

[Lalabadie]

Originally Posted by Gard

I've tried all the "natural" ideas, spices, etc. None of it works IME, especially on pharoah ants (the little tiny guys, my grandma used to call 'em P!$$ ants...I think 'cuz they PI$$ed her off! ). Boric acid didn't work on 'em either...

The best I've found so far are liquit baits that I got at Lowe's made by a company called Terro. They come in an orange box. They just plain WORK. Nothing else has. They're not nasty or smelly, and as long as you don't handle them and forget to wash your hands they're safe (I have pre-teen daughters, I'm not worried about these in the house).

+1 on the gel, I've used it for several buildings on a camp I worked for, and it works wonders. You put it on key locations, and the ants feed on them before sharing it with others. 24 to 48 hours later you'll have to clean a lot of dead ants though.

[spade2you]

Where I live, there are sugar ants and carpenter ants. The sugar ants are attracted to sources of food. Carpenter ants like wet wood. Remove the source and get some good sprays n' stuff.

[fdeck]

Carpenter ants also like sugar. I made a syrup of 2 cups water and 1/2 cup sugar, to which I add 1 tablespoon boric acid when the syrup is cooled. This is from the book Tiny Game Hunting which is a guide to natural pest control.

The ants love this bait. It is only mildly toxic, which lets them carry it back to the nest and poison the queen.

Obviously you have to consider appropriate strategies if your house has kids or animals.

For carpenter ants, finding and closing the port of entry into your house is vital.

[Spector_Ray]

Spectracide makes some really good insecticides. These can be had at your local Stuff Mart and home improvement stores.

http://www.spectracide.com/ProductCa...KillerAerosol/

[eedre]

Originally Posted by Gard

I've tried all the "natural" ideas, spices, etc. None of it works IME, especially on pharoah ants (the little tiny guys, my grandma used to call 'em P!$$ ants...I think 'cuz they PI$$ed her off! ). Boric acid didn't work on 'em either...

The best I've found so far are liquit baits that I got at Lowe's made by a company called Terro. They come in an orange box. They just plain WORK. Nothing else has. They're not nasty or smelly, and as long as you don't handle them and forget to wash your hands they're safe (I have pre-teen daughters, I'm not worried about these in the house).

I always laugh when I visit my parents... my grandma puts bay leaves all over the place to fend off the ants

[artistanbul]

cyrup with boric acid worked for me.

[Rakie]

Seriously, I feed the ants outside during summer.... LOL. I know where they live, and where they come from. I've lived here a LONG time...

The total cost for me for all of summer is about an 8 pack of hot dogs, a tiny chunk or two of w/e we BBQ during summer and soda on the lawn away from my window...

Works like a charm, they have no reason to go further, and I have a lot of animals ants like to eat (Tarantulas, Scorpions, Lizards, etc etc...) i've had problems losing some very expensive, very rare animals to common little black ants.

[peterbright]

Nuke em!

[BadB]

Propane torch. User assumes full liability.

[fate]

+1 for Terro. Stuff works awesome. Takes about two days and no more ants...... You will crap when you see how many ants are lined up to dine on that stuff.......

[Rattman]

Kool thread.. ha ha ha! nobody gets flamed... no one that is ..except the differant kind of ants.. Nice to see useful info we can all benefit from.

[Stumbo]

Some ants like grease. Any little bit of food will provide it. Some want water.
I used to manage apartments and when people moved out we used use several insecticide spray bombs on the place, then paint everything including the inside of all the cabinets and drawers in the kitchen (water based paint), caulk around the tub and along the floor where the tub meets the tile and make sure there were no leaks anywhere in the apartment.

Otherwise for long term residents, we asked them to clean everything real well, check and fixed any leaks and the we provided ant baits or gel.

Living at my home, if we water more outside and keep some garbage in the trash can, the ants usually find it and don't come inside. I recently used the ant baits as well with success.,

[ahkiatt]

Get an anteater.

[playinpearls]

Vegetable oil. It doesn't kill them, but it will stop them from going anywhere you don't wan them to. It messes up their antenna and they wont cross the smallest amount...you could create a little path, straight into your poison trap...

[mothmonsterman]

http://www.terro.com/

trust me this stuff is badass, try not to get the prefilled the original stuff works better.