Ok so I got ants - I live in the Philadelphia area and it was recently warm for a couple of days and it brought out (or brought in) the ants.

Some get in thru the window sills, so I recaulked the windows and that stops those

but - the bathroom is a another story all together- I never see them come in but I see them walking around. They really love it after my wife takes a long hot shower.

Things I know -

They don't seem interested in leaving the bathroom.
They are little tiny black - altho some are even smaller brown
my daughter doesn't like them
I put out traps along the baseboard but it doesn't discourage them
I don't have a vent in the bathroom and getting one in is not in the near future
It's an old bathroom that was poorly done by the previous owner - but overhauling the bathroom is still financially a couple of years off


Things I don't know -
Where they come in - it's an older bathroom, poorly done molding, vinyl floor that curls, vinyl baseboard that gaps away from the wall, and sink repairs - so they could be coming from anywhere

If I get Orkin - is it a final result or is Orking going to tell me that they need to come back each and every month for the rest of my life?

If I seal very hole and gap - do these ant go somewhere else in the house or make a party in the walls - or die die DIE!!!!!!

thanks

-jim

 

Call a reputable exterminator, most of them offer a warranty. And yes, periodic maintenance may be required. I think some of those little critters move in migratory fashion and this may be your year.

 

I live in Phila. and it seems every year we get different critters coming in, LOL, but Bud is right, even if you did nothing, they'll be gone eventually on their own. If you have grass and dirt under your house, bugs will get in somehow. I don't think you can seal every little nook and cranny.
If you get an exterminator, it doesn't have to be Orkin, but one visit will get those little ants and tho it wouldn't hurt to have them come around once in a while, it isn't necessary to have them come once a month.

 

we had the same problem tried all kinds of ant bait didn't work , took the medicine cabinet out and sprayed down the wall cavity they still kept coming

I went outside and found a trail of ants down the wall and around the foundation of the house to a mound

I sprayed the trail and the outside walls then back to the mound and sprayed it . ended the problem

 

most of the ants coming in thru the windows I can stop - but the bathroom is on the 2nd flr and I can't find a trail from outside - but with an enclosed porch in front and a laundry addition in the back - Shadeladie is right there is no way to laminate and seal the house - so I guess I'll look for the right Orkin guy and hope he doesn't decide to try and upsell his kid into college

-jim

 

In my area, most important thing is finding out where they're coming in and blocking it. We have ants by the millions all over the yard and no realistic hope of keeping them away from the house, and your situation could be different.

My approach is usually 1) figure out how they're coming in, 2) kill them, 3) seal off their path.

I'm not real big on pesticides when there are equally functional or better non-toxic options. For the ants in my area a 50/50 combination of powdered sugar and borax works fantastically. Ants love it, and they bring it back to the queen for her enjoyment as well. Once the queen is dead the colony dies off in fairly short order. Seems to take a week or 10 days for me.

I just put little piles of the borax mix on 3x3 inch squares of newspaper, and in short order the ants are all over it. Give it a day or so and if you couldn't find where the ants were coming in before, it'll be a lot easier once they're all marching back and forth to the borax.

Once the colony seems to be dead I seal up where they were coming in. For me it's not always practical trying to seal off where they were getting in on both the inside and outside of the house. One time all I could tell from the outside was they were getting under the vinyl siding, and I wasn't going to rip it off to find out where they were entering the house from there. (could have been through pipe opening for hose spigot, heater exhaust vent, sump discharge, or some place else.) But on the inside I could see they were coming into my kitchen through a crack under the window frame, so I caulked that up.

Most of my neighbors just have contracts with various pest control companies that come around every spring and spray down the foundation all the way around the house with pesticides. That also seems to be enough to keep them away.

 

An ant bait gets carried back to the colony where it kills off the colony. Borax is effective. A popular household bait is Terro. A couple drops on a little square of paper placed where ants are trailing works wonders. A regular perimeter residual insecticide spray along perimeter of structure and on foundation tends to keep most insect pests at bay. This can be DIY.

 

We periodically have an ant invasion and the Terro twelvepole mentioned works every time; couple of days and they're history.

 

Yikes it is shocking that so many people would spray inside and outside of your houses. I'd rather have ants all over the place than that stuff.

The little black ants around here are Argentine ants, and they don't hurt anything. If there is sugar or meat on a counter the ants will detect it and swarm all over in droves. Ants have a very good sense of smell. If they happen to come in, I just wipe down that part of the counter and they soon disappear.

Boric acid powder mixed 50/50 with sugar works well, as mentioned earlier, and it's non toxic to humans. But the ants are not much trouble and I usually don't bother with that. If they happen to be swarming a certain area, I just run some water on my hands, run my hands across the counter where they are which picks them all up, then rub my hands together again under the water. If needed, I repeat this a few times to get the majority of them, then they tend to disappear after that. If they return then I might do it again or just let them find out nothing is there and they go.

Usually they are after something, and if you wipe it up then they're gone. And they don't keep coming back if you keep wiping them away when they do.

 

Since posting the last message, I've noticed several large piles of dried up dead ants on the window sill. This was a bit frightening, as I don't use anything toxic, so I was wondering if there was something in the air. In the meantime I've been checking for spiders.

This morning when I opened the blinds there was a nice fat jumping spider sitting there on the window. Ah ha! I didn't know they killed ants, but have read they do attack and kill recluse spiders.

If you happen to see any jumping spiders around, keep in mind to give them a good welcome.

 

John do you dream in shades of green at night?

 

Isnt this the same John with the Japanese toilet?

 

Well, Yikes! I'm sure you know.