how should I kill the ants in my kitchen?

Question

I am in UK and the ants are small and harmless. I have small children so I am concerned about poisons.

Answer 1

We use to have the same problem,we bought several ant traps. They are little round traps that have gel inside them that attacks the ants.When they go inside they get coated in poison which they carry on themselves back to the nest and it kills the lot of them, including the queen.You can buy the traps from alot of places, we got ours from homebase. Put the traps out of the way of young children,ie back of the floor cupboards etc! Hope that helps! :)

Answer 2

If you're worried about placing poison in the house, then walk around the outside of your house and find where the ants are entering it. Buy Raid or some other exterior poison, and spray around the entire house, but especially where the ants are entering the house. This will probably be somewhere near a concrete foundation or concrete patio.

Besides this and hiring an exterminator, then the only other option is using poison in your house. Most over the counter poisons are safe for children unless directly exposed to high amounts of it. There are certain types of poisons that don't require you to spray them. You set a small box out, and the ants are attracted to the "bait", and actually return to their nest (or whatever you call it) with it, infecting the entire colony. This could probably be set somewhere safe from your children. Hope this helped.

Answer 3

If you kill them when you see them others will keep coming back. Usually when you see them inside the house they are scouts looking for food, watch where they go. Buy NIPPON ant gel (it's in a small tube) where the ants are walking put a very small amount on a piece of paper the ants eat it and carry it back to the nest which eventually kills the eggs and the ants. Put it inside something like a match box sleeve to keep it away from your children. This method works OK for me.

Answer 4

Good old Nippon.

You can get a thick gel version that comes with two small plastic covered saucers. You put the Nippon in the covered discs and leave in where the ants hang around at night. You then pick it up first thing in the morning before your children are up and around.

We used it for 2 weeks and the ants have never been back (and we had tonnes of them!).

Answer 5

Ants won't cross cinnamon. They will however commit suicide so that other ants can crawl over their bodies. It does work and I have driven away those large colonies of ants by constantly aggravating them with cinnamon. You may want to close everything up and then spray around your windows and doors outside. . .and around the base of your house. Keep your kids away for a bit and it should be OK. I just buy those spray cans of poison that lasts for weeks and the ants leave. Do be careful with your children especially babies. They can get in their bed and do a lot of biting.

Answer 6

I suggest a product called Terro. It *IS* a poison, but you only use about a centimeter or two size circle of it in each location. It can easily be put in inaccessible (by the kids) places.

It is actually a bait. Ants eat it, then take it back to their colony, and it eventually kills them all off. I've never seen an ant that didn't *LOVE* this stuff.

Good luck.

Answer 7

We had some ants that were not deterred by ANY means...vinegar, soap interupting their trail, any commercial sprays - nothing worked - they always came back.... until my sister got really fed up with the ant problem and out of anger, took the pepper mace on her keychain and sprayed one. We laughed because it writhed around for a bit and then went running off. We NEVER saw another ant again. LOL! I have never heard of that anywhere else, but it sure worked for some reason!

Answer 8

"skin so soft" by Avon. It works as a barrier, so you put it on a cotton ball and run it around your counters, sink, window sills, trash can, threshold of your door...anywhere ants would cross to get to your kitchen. THEY WILL NOT CRAWL OVER THE SKIN SO SOFT. and the good thing is that it is safe for kids and pets! I used to have an ant problem and I have two dogs. I use this stuff and everyone is happy except for the ants :-)

Answer 9

Leave out several opened packets of Equal (artificial sweetner) that contains aspertaine. The ants will eat it and carry it back to the nest and all will be gone in a few days. By the way, the only way Equal will kill humans is if you are hit by the truck carrying them to the store. :) Dawn B

Answer 10

You mix equal parts of Borax (a laundry product in powder form in the laundry soap aisle) with white sugar. Mix in a little water. The ants will eat it and take it back to their nest. It causes them to swell up and die. Since they will clean out the dish and take it all back, all of the ants will eventually die. This is the best non-toxic way to irradicate ants.