ant problem?

Question

what can i do to get rid of ants its gotten really bad i cant set my drink down for more than 10 minutes without ants swarming it and i have to vacuum like 3 times a day because they come swarm the tiniest crumbs

ya its been really dry here too >.< and thanks thats awesome ill definately go look for those tommorow

the ants i have are small black ones and wow ill have to try that, thats also kinda scary that it kills ants and people ingest it everyday wow glad i dont use that stuff lol

Answer 1

A friend of mine sent me this email...I've saved it in my folders...hope you can use the information....seems that you may need to identify the type of ant...or just do all the options.

good luck...let me [e-mail]


Subject: Ant Poison

From the June 2006 Idaho Observer:

Aspartame - The World's Best Ant Poison

contributed by Jan Jensen of WELLthy Choices

We live in the woods and carpenter ants are a huge problem. We have spent thousands of dollars with Orkin and on ant poisons trying to keep them under control but nothing has helped.

So when I read somewhere that aspartame (Nutrasweet) was actually developed as an ant poison and only changed to being considered non-poisonous after it was realized that a lot more money could be made on it as a sweetener than
as an ant poison, I decided to give it a try.

I opened two packets of aspartame sweetener, and dumped one in a corner of each of our bathrooms. That was about 2 years ago and I have not seen any carpenter ants for about 9 to 12 months. It works better than the most deadly poisons I have tried. Any time they show up again, I simply dump
another package of Nutrasweet in a corner, and they will be gone for a year or so again.

Since posting this information I have had many people tell me of their success solving ant problems with this substance, when nothing else worked.

We found later that small black ants would not eat the aspartame. It was determined that if you mixed it with apple juice, they would quickly take it back to the nest, and all would be dead within 24 hours, usually. I have found that sometimes it will kill them, and sometimes it does not. Not sure
why, may be slightly different species of ants or something.

Fire Ants: We got our first fire ant hill about 2 weeks ago. Poison did not work. We tried aspartame and the ants ignored it until we got a light rain. It was just a sprinkle, enough to moisten the Nutrasweet and ground, but not
enough to wash it away. They went crazy, hundreds of them grabbing it and taking it back into the mound. When I checked the mound 2 days later, there was no sign of the fire ants. I even dug the mound up some, and still saw none of them.

How does it Work: Aspartame is a neuropoison. It most likely kills the ants by interfering with their nervous system. It could be direct, like stopping their heart, or something more subtle like killing their sense of taste so they can't figure out what is eatable, or smell, so they can't follow their trails, or mis-identify their colonies members, so they start fighting each
other. Not sure what causes them to end up dying, just know that for many species of ants it will kill them quickly and effectively.

As with any poison I recommend wearing gloves and washing any skin areas that come in contact with this poison, and avoid getting it in your mouth, despite anything the labeling may indicate.

I suspect it will work for other insects such as yellow jackets as well, but have not tested that yet.

More information on this fantastic poison can be found at: www.dorway.com


Good luck.

Answer 2

I'm not sure what the weather is where you live, but it is REALLY dry here and the ants are just horrible!! I swear they've gotten immune to Raid ant spray. My husband is going to the co-op tomorrow to see what he can find. Home Depot or Lowe's used to carry these ant traps that looked like the "roach motels." I think they were made by Raid. They were black and worked miracles. The only ones I can find now are white and aren't worth the plastic they're made of. If you can find any of these black ones, they are definitely worth trying. I have actually seen ants crawl over sweets to get to whatever is inside the traps. They must take the poison away with them b/c there weren't alot of dead ants lying around.....the really great thing is the ants wouldn't return for a long time. Good luck!

Answer 3

We've had a terrible problem with ants too. We prefer not to use any kind of chemical or poison, as we have lots of wildlife outdoors, and pets indoors. Here's what has worked for us:

Inside on floors, before you vacuum them up, follow the ants' trail to the point of entry from outside. This was at the doors, windows, even pipes at our house. I sprinkled baby powder along the crack, opening, pipe etc... On counters, I either use the baby power again, or I run a line of white chalk (like kids use at school) around pet dishes, trash cans etc...

Outside, I find where they might be getting into the house, and again I sprinkle baby powder.

This has worked wonderfully for us. I heard about the chalk and the baby power from pet sitters, and a kid I saw on TV who was from a Buddist family who didn't want to kill anything, just deter them away.

Good luck! Please post what works for you!

Answer 4

sprinkle corn meal around and along the trails where they travel. they can't digest it and die.