Small brown ants

Hi All, our kitchen counter is covered with these tiny brown ants, efforts to control them have failed including vinegar, bleach, ant traps
and constant cleaning, what else?
Geo 🇺🇸

 

Cleaning wont kill them, time to get some sprays and bait traps and get rid of them!

 

We have ant traps, not effective, any particular product?

 

It has been years since I used this but it worked really good.

https://www.terro.com/terro-liquid-ant-killer

 

Hey Baldwin
I was going to post about Terro but you've beaten me to it.
______
I do have info to add though:

You may experience the ant problem temporarily getting WAY WORSE with the Terro.

RELAX. This is ok. It's because the Terro is working. They're all swarming in to eat that stuff and take it home, where they will unknowingly poison the rest of their colony. It may take a few days. Be patient and don't be alarmed if it looks like Terro has made the issue worse.

 

We are using Terro , maybe need more
Geo 🇺🇸

 

Terro liquid ant bait is good, but consider trying the gel baits that come in plastic syringe type applicators. They are usually protein based as opposed to carb based. Use both, see if you get a feel for what the want. Different times of year the ants want one over the other, so we have to accommodate them. I think they are training us!

When baiting, don't use anything that could be repellent as that will work against the baiting strategy. Bleach, cleaners, sprays, etc. There are some insecticides that are non-repellent, but not over the counter.

Also, realize that the baits are very low in toxicity and take time for the forager ants to take the food back to the colony and spread it around. If it was too toxic, the foragers would die before they accomplished this. That's what spraying, especially with the aero's does.

Not using enough bait, or replacing eaten/old bait is a common mistake. They want fresh food now. Be patient and persistent, just like the ants. It's not unusual for them to seem to disappear, but come back later. That's not a failure, just keep the baiting strategy going.

 

Hi, still have these ants , one thing we noticed is they are hard shell difficult to kill and they appear where there is no food, ie in the middle of our hardwood floor, and all over a granite counter, they seem to appear out of the blue.
Geo 🇺🇸

 

What is underneath the hardwood floor? Slab, Crawl space, Basement?

"still have these ants", does that mean that they never went away?

What baits have you tried? Did they ever appear to be taking the bait?

 

Hi, basement under hardwood, we are using Terro, they are taking the bait in one location, they just to appear, no real path, they never really left.
Geo 🇺🇸

 

Good sign that they are taking the bait in one location, at least. Keep the bait fresh and available. Bait in the basement too, as close to immediately underneath the ant locations as you can get.

I would try the gel type baits soon, as suggested earlier. Different bait matrix could be more appealing to them.

 

Neighbor suggests these are water ants?
Geo 🇺🇸

 

I never heard of a water ant. Insects are called different names in different geographic areas, but I've never heard of that one.

 

Good morning, ants appear to be gone, the product that worked the best, at least here was , Combat gel in a syringe, squeezed a bit on a trail they seemed to swarm to it ,and , BINGO ! 5 days and haven’t seen an ant
Geo 🇺🇸

 

Thanks for the update! Don't be surprised if you see a re-emergence in a week to a month or so. That's how it sometimes works, especially if it's a large colony. Keep fresh bait in place meanwhile. I would continue baiting on top of the basement wall in the area under the kitchen.
Placing bait on small squares of wax paper can assist in removing old bait easier and keeping area clean if desired.

 

Thanks, you know the wife will be watching for sure.
Geo 🇺🇸