any recommendations for ants in the yard?
my driveway is covered with them, and so is the backyard.
i've put out ant traps and sprayed but i still feel overtridden with them...
and i have to be careful of what i use in the yard because i don't want to contaminate my vegetable garden.

Also got that at Duane Reed and it seems to have done the trick.

I've used cinnamon and it worked within 24 hours. No more ants.

From http://greenbabyguide.com

Barriers: Sprinkle or spray these in ant walkways or areas where they enter your home. Their odors disrupt the scent trails ants create for each other.

* White or yellow chalk (ants will not cross a chalk line)
* Cucumber peelings
* Red chili or dry mustard mixed with a bit of water
* Lemon juice
* White vinegar or half strength cider vinegar
* Orange based environmental cleaning products
* Cloves
* Coffee grounds
* Cinnamon
* Baking Soda
* Baby powder
* Black pepper
* Mint Leaves
* Mint tea bags

Ant traps: You?ll need..

* Borax
* Sugar
* A sticky substance such as mint jelly or peanut butter

Mix the substances together thoroughly. Spread the mixture on a cracker and place out of the way of children in a cupboard or on a countertop. When the ants get the food, they?ll also get the poison.

http://www.domyownpestcontrol.com/demon-wp-insecticide-p-74.html


Cypermethrin based insecticide. Been using it for years. The stuff is very effective on ants and cockroaches.

bought a natural ant killer from duane reade called eco smart.

works like a charm...made with cinnamon and rosemary oil...sprayed it along the baseboard molding and wiped it down, sort of pushing the liquid into the crack under the molding and floor....so far so good.

peppermint works good too, but this stuff seems to be better.

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X 2, Terro is the truth Got rid of an invasion within 2 days after trying every household remedy for 2 weeks.

Orange Guard!

I bought it thinking it wouldn't work that well, but was trying to find a pet-safe alternative to Raid. It works so much better than Raid. It eliminates any ants i see coming in immediately, and when it starts to warm up, I use it as a preventative treatment around the windowsills and usual entry spots for ants. I don't want to jinx myself, but last year while using it preventatively, I didn't see an ant.

I bought it at Whole Foods in Tribeca but I think some hardware stores carry it too.

I've mentioned this before in another thread, but wipe the areas you see the ants originate from and their path with peppermint essential oil. They hate it, it's totally natural, and it leaves your house smelling minty fresh. My ants show up every spring, attracted by the japanese maple outside of my window. I just wipe down my windowsills and floors with the oil after the first day, and they don't come back.

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Keep us informed if a delicious pizza appears.

So weird. An ant just crawled across my desk as I was reading this. I'm gonna switch over to the "Best Pizza in JC" thread and see what happens...

This is the only product I have ever found that actually works. Put it on counter tops or under baseboard along the ants "path".

I've heard two solutions for ant invasions in the past year that I've been meaning to try:
1. Cornstarch: ants cannot digest corn, they bring it back to the nest, feast, screw up their systems, and hopefully die off. (Cornmeal and cornbread mix might also work.)
2. Chalk: draw a line in sidewalk chalk where they are coming in and according to my last issue of Readymade, they won't cross it.
Would like to hear if you beat 'em!

With the nice weather comes an annual pest--ants!

There are hundreds of them crawling all over our front stoop and smaller numbers have been showing up in the kitchen. We do our best to keep things clean and not leave any food or crumbs out, but the little buggers are still all over the place.

Have you found any good means of keeping them at bay? The baited traps don't seem to work that well on the tiny ants. RAID spray kills them quickly, but the stuff is toxic and I don't like to use it near our pets and plants.

I suppose they'll run their course within a month or so anyway, but it would certainly be nice if we could keep them out of the house until then.

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Did it get rid of the ants? You might have to use some dishwashing liquid to clean up the the residue but thats the least of your worries.

I am too much of a newbie to cut and paste this comment in such a way as to be cool, but I read this and wanted to comment. Here is the part of the post I am responding to:

6. Mix together one-third cup of molasses, six tablespoons of sugar, and six tablespoons of active dry yeast into a smooth paste. Use the mixture to coat strips of cardboard. Keep out of reach of pets and small children. You can leave mixture on a saucer outside anthill and they?ll eat it and die!

And I say, if I was an Ant, I think I would love to eat this and would be encouraged to move right in and keep eating whatever else you left out for me. Is the yeast going to make me explode and die? Hmmm. I sort of doubt it, I think the six tablespoons of sugar and all that molasses will encourage me to stay in your kitchen for the long haul. Hey, maybe I'm wrong but you can't argue with all that sugar.

I've had ants since the spring began, as I did last year. I think they are attracted by a nearby Japanese maple. Last week, we rubbed down the windowsills and floors where we saw them with undiluted Peppermint oil, and I haven't seen them since. Apparently, they can't stand the smell, and it's better than having nasty chemicals around. They find their way into your house by following the trail that previous ants left. I think the peppermint short circuits that scent. Can't hurt to give it a try, and it leaves the house smelling great.

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The problem I have found with those gels is that they leave residue behind and are hard to clean up. I still have residue on my wall from 4 years ago when I used the gel. It turned a nasty brown color over time.

I get a wave of Ants every Spring but I quash the infestation quickly. Keeping pantry items in sealed containers as mentioned above is a good idea to avoid any kind of critters.

I use a combination approach of persticides as different kinds of Ants are drawn to different things. Generally speaking some are drawn to fatty things, others to sugary things. So I get several different types of Ant Baits; some solid, some liquid, different brands and scatter them around.

The big Carpenter Ants are a different story. As I remember, they usually use leaves and wood to feed a colony of fungus which is what thy actually eat. It seems odd to find them indoors coz that's not usually their thing but there are specific pesticides for them as well.

Use Combat Gel around the area where they are comming into your home. You can find it at PathMark, Shoprite and A&P. Combat Gel is the best product I have ever used.


http://combatbugs.com/roach-products/combat-ant-killing-gel-ants/

The only solution for us, and we have tried them all, is a mixture of boric acid, sugar, and hot water. Pour it in plastic bottle caps and leave them in high ant-traffic areas. They bring the toxic sugar-acid home, so it really cleans up. As a bonus, some drown right in the mixture. The amount of acid to use depends on the ants' resiliency, so you can experiment with that, and I should note that we bought our liquid boric acid from a supermarket pharmacy.

They're never completely gone as our ants have multiple queens, multiplying quickly, but this solution has controlled the infestation to the point that they're no longer a bother.

I normally don't kill bugs, but it's a matter of survival! Good luck.

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Since they are much bigger they might be carpenter ants - they don't eat the bait I recommended for the tiny ants - they are harder to kill - I heard that a product by Bayer (yes the aspirin people) works well - though I have never needed it - your landlord might want to check to see if there is any damp wood - or wood getting in touch with soil - carpenter ants are not as destructive as termites but still....

Not to mention your landlord is gonna lose his tenants unless you all have rent deals from heaven...

BTW: this stuff is not cheap - might look on ebay...



There is stuff you can also mix and spray on the outside of buildings but the problem with city buildings are you can't often get to all sides - I also don't like any sprays - baits are the way to go - you want to find and destroy the whole colony if possible - baits can do that....

Don't use any kind of ant spray. That will only kill the ants that you see. Use bait stations, but don't kill the ants that you see walking in and out. Let them bring the bait back to the nest and kill the entire colony. Bait stations usually work within a day or two.

I have found that for tiny ants:




Either or both work in just one day....
The tins are better - if you have kids or pets.

Or you can always just talk to them and ask them to leave!

Never actually had an ant problem here, but my anti-ant paranoia habits from more tropical environments might be why.

Ants are going to send scouts out and there's nothing you can do to stop this. They leave a scent trail to find their way back. If they find something good, they follow that scent trail and leave a different scent to tell the other ants something good lies that way.

Seal up all your food perfectly. Double-bag everything. Triple-bag sugar. Always, all year long. If something spills in the pantry, clean it completely. But it should be impossible for a spill like that if you're double-bagging everything. (An unsealed bag doesn't count at all).

Don't leave dirty dishes out overnight. Mop the kitchen floor regularly, even when it seems clean. (a drop of something sweet that dries is delicious to an ant)

Get a garbage can that closes (the foot pedal to open type). Take the garbage out before going to bed or leaving for work.

You want the scouts to find nothing.

Spray huge amounts (and varied kinds) of poison around the perimeter of the residence. Extra around their points of ingress. This will discourage the scouts, but it won't ever fully stop them. Re-poison regularly.

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+1000! I used the Terro Liquid Ant Traps last summer after nothing else worked and it is no exaggeration by Saradove, gone the next day.

I used to get ants every spring in my old apartment on Jersey Avenue ... and the only thing that really worked was:

Senoret Terro Ant Killer

Put this stuff down & your ants are gone the next day.

We had an ant problem two years ago in our condo. I found the point of entry and put an extensive live of cinnamon in and around that point. I vacuumed up all the stragglers that were already in the apartment. They didn't survive that tornadic effect in these new vacuum cleaners. The cinnamon worked within 24 hours and I never saw an ant again (knock on wood). I even left the cinnamon there for quite some time to the point that I forgot about it and only found it about 6 months later while doing some extensive vacuuming. (Before someone comments about my lack of cleaning, the point of entry was under a night table and underneath our baseboard heaters in a corner, so not like an area that gets vacuumed all that often)

Anyhow, I found this website
http://doubledanger.com/living-green/ ... s-for-organic-ant-control

Here's what they recommend -

10 Ways To Kill Ants? Organically

1. Baking soda is poisonous to ants, spinkle it around your plants to ensure ants will stay away.

2. Flour & Baby Powder will keep ants from reaching your plants, ants will not cross the powder - so circle your plants with it.

3. You can use coffee grounds, chili powder, cinnamon, peppermint or black pepper. All deter ants and if you pour coffee grounds directly on an anthill, they will eat the coffee grounds and implode.

4. Grits, instant rice & cream of wheat can be sprinkled around plants. The ant will eat a piece of whichever you sprinkle, drink water and the grain expands and kills the ant.

5. Fill a spray bottle with 1 part vinegar and 1 part water and spray on plants. The acid in vinegar will kills ants.

6. Mix together one-third cup of molasses, six tablespoons of sugar, and six tablespoons of active dry yeast into a smooth paste. Use the mixture to coat strips of cardboard. Keep out of reach of pets and small children. You can leave mixture on a saucer outside anthill and they?ll eat it and die!

7. Fold contact paper in half, with the sticky side out and make a circle around base of plant. The ants get stuck on the paper - problem solved.

8. Cut off the bottom of a paper cup and cut a slit up the side of the cup and coat outside with vaseline and place around base of plant. You can also use packing tape.

9. Mix one cup of borax, two-thirds a cup sugar and one cup water. Dip cotton balls in the solution and place in areas near your anthill Ants will leave the plants alone and ingest the sweet mixture. The borax kills the ants.

10. Diatomaceous Earth is a commonly sold organic pesticide that will destroy the insects outer skeletons, causing the pests to die from dehydration.

Hi, I've used the perimeter ant spray that you can buy at home depot. The general idea is that you spray around your house and that keeps them out. Most of the time the ants don't actually live inside the building, but rather have nests outdoors and come in looking for food. If you live in an apartment building, try to determine where the ants are coming in through (usually where the floor meets the wall) and spray there. It works pretty well but you'll have to kill the ants already inside yourself.

We've tried red pepper. It works, but you have to use a lot. Once you sweep it up, the ants will return within a few days, so you have to keep it out...looks pretty strange, but it's effective.

Would also be happy to read any possible solutions .... fellow long-time ant infestation sufferer here .... For years and years, I would get heavy infestation in my apartment during the summer. However, this year ... I actually had a small group in my kitchen and bathroom all winter long. First time I saw them in the winter!! And my apartment is not a warm place in the winter ... They travel this route through a spot in my kitchen I haven't found (the area they come out of is so full of cracks - forget about it - old apartment building) to a spot in my bathroom. I fill the spot in the bathroom, but they always find another crack in the wall or tile to use. I've filled 3 bathroom spots already. I know it sounds crazy that I had ants in the winter, but I did.