Comments on: How to Get Rid of Ants

By: elliebiscuits

elliebiscuits — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:47:58 +0000

Great recommendation by Heather to contact your local Extension office. And now Extension has gone virtual – with eXtension. Look for scientific, land grant university research-backed information on fire ants and related species at
http://www.extension.org/fire+ants.

Love your blog!

By: bridgett

bridgett — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 02:20:22 +0000

Putting talc on their entry points works (put it on their trails — they’ll avoid it because it cuts up their little legs), but also disrupting their scent trails with peppermint oil also works. I’m going to try the water/soap/alcohol mix and see what happens.

By: Mom of three

Mom of three — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 14:08:01 +0000

I had “ants” for several years and tried everything. Finally one day, we realized we had termites (I think some of our ants may have been termites). We paid $1400 to have the house termite proofed (We have concrete porches, your mileage would definitely vary). Haven’t seen an ant sense. Next time we will go the exterminator route. I tried every “safe” method on the planet, and dealt with those buggers for around 5 years. I won’t do it again. If I see an ant, I will be calling my exterminator. I know that may not be the popular earth friendly view, but I don’t care. Once you’d had ants in your bed, you lose all care for the environment outside the house.

By: Angela

Angela — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 18:41:26 +0000

I have had an ant problem in my house this week also…I used straight vingar on the floor…mopping and pouring it on the areas. It worked for a short time, but they came back. I went out and got Terro…I went to there site and the mixture is strong enough to kill the ants but will not hurt animals.

By: Lesley

Lesley — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:59:46 +0000

Thanks for this, but will this work on chiggers? They’re the blight of my yard. I have Sevin, but I don’t want to use it because I don’t want to kill bees (or anything else, really). I’d love something that killed only chiggers, if you know of something.

By: CanadianCarrie

CanadianCarrie — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:08:59 +0000

I’m from Alberta too, so this should help me get rid of our ants. I absolutely hate it when I’m sitting on the couch watching tv or internetting and I feel the creepy crawly feeling of an ant on me, ick!

By: Caanan

Caanan — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:34:06 +0000

We’ve had some problems with the ants coming inside and finally found a solution. Terro (a borax solution) comes in little reservoirs that ants can get into but pets cannot, unless they chew on it, I suppose. They’re plastic, so they might be okay to put outside, but I haven’t had to explore that option. I had to go to an actual hardware store to find the orange box. It’s so great not having to worry about ants anymore.