I’ve been feeding these ants Terro for a good 3 weeks now, and they are not slowing down. I only get ants in the house maybe once every 5 years or so. Last time was 2018 cause I wrote the date down on the box of Terro that I bought back then. They recommend replacing every two years, but some research comes up with the main ingredient of Borax, which does not diminish over time. Borax is also used in soap, toothpaste and lots of other stuff and apparently is not toxic to humans and pets in Terro, but I treat it like poison just because.

I’ve probably smashed thousands of these things in the last 3 weeks and I read that ant nests can contain 500,000 or more ants. Anyone have any suggestions to get rid of these dang things?

Pencil in photo for scale. These things are tiny.

About a year ago, I noticed some coffee grounds on the kitchen counter, then realized that they were moving. They were tiny ants, really really small.

We tried just about everything on the insect control shelf in the hardware store. No joy.

Captured some in a small jar and took the sample to a Do-It-Yourself pest control store where they recommended and sold us a can of forty dollar spray. No joy.

The ants just kept coming. It appeared that they were seeking water, as there was no food residue where they were appearing, both in the kitchen and the bathrooms.

Terro makes a bunch of different products. My wife picked up a box of the stuff pictured below, and in a few days, all signs of the ants disappeared. We have not seen one ant for more than a month, after over a year of being invaded by the damned things.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
About a year ago, I noticed some coffee grounds on the kitchen counter, then realized that they were moving. They were tiny ants, really really small.

I just looked at the Terro site and it seems like the stuff you have is the same stuff I have, but in a different kind of container. The stuff is not supposed to have an expiration date, but I’ll probably head to the local ACE tomorrow and pick up several different ones and an outdoor one to put under the kitchen window.

A pro exterminator told me Terro on purpose makes the stuff too strong. It kills the ants eating it before they have time to get back to the nest.
He used a weaker version that lasts for the trip back to kill the nest.
I have had good luck tracing the line of ants and placing the bait as close to the nest as possible

Try Advion: https://www.syngentapmp.com/pr...-ant-gel-insecticide

This has worked better than Terro for me.

Your terro is yellow, it’s not good anymore. You need fresh terro which is clear. It yellows over time and loses its effectiveness.

I had a problem with ants and tried everything from the store. Finally called a local pest guy and he mixed some stuff up that got rid of them. Me being a (mostly) DIY guy, I watched what he did and what he mixed. Turns out it was Talstar. You can get it from Amazon and I'm sure locally at a co-op. Just spray the perimeter of your house and your the interior wall of the crawlspace/basement. He ended up taking a small trowel and making a small trench along the exterior and interior of my crawlspace. Guess it creates a moat with anything that doesn't dry onto the foundation.

Anyway, that was pre-COVID and they haven't been back and I haven't had to respray. Talstar also works on many other critters like Carpenter Bees which I have used it on and the results are better than the spray stuff at Deep Homo.

I use the same bait station as V-Tail with excellent and quick results.

I've been using this Syngenta bug spray since we moved into this house and have had zero bugs. I use it on the first of every month.

It must be good stuff, Amazon is the only place I have been able to find it. The 8 oz. bottle lasts 12 to 15 months for me.

I'm right there with you. I use Terro and normally it works great. This late winter/early spring go round has been frustrating though, it seems to do the job, then a week or so later more somewhere else in the house. Tiny little ones like yours.

Terro sells the stuff without the packaging as well. You take a small square of cardboard and wrap aluminum foil around it, squirt a dot of Terro and place.

I find this a better solution than the traps because it is way cheaper and you can place tiny "traps" everywhere.

I didn't know it could go bad or even if it can. Buy a new one, put out a bunch, pick good spots, keep it up, it will work.

I also use the Andro (?) powder for all along the exterior of the house where they might be coming in. I think it is just borax as well but it is highly effective. Do not apply it when it is windy, trust me. lol

Edited: it isn't andro it is AMDRO.

Amdro is a bait specifically for fire ants. Pretty expensive. They took Mirex off the market years ago. It worked but harmed the environment according to the Government.

No. It isn't expensive unless you think 12 bucks is expensive. No. It isn't for fire ants, it kills all ants. It is highly effective, drop a bit on a mound and the mound is dead. You can find generic versions, but it isn't that expensive either way.

All you have to do is read the box, AMDRO kill all ants, it isn't "for fire ants". Thats just stupid. Ants are ants. Sugar ants, fire ants, ants.

Best thing I found is Bifen I/t. Also sold under Talstar and several other names. I buy mine at tractor supply, spray it inside and out, I’ve been using it for over a decade, no issues with reaction to people. I spray once every three months.

As someone above mentioned, it is the same stuff the pros use. The main ingredient is bifenthrin

The ants had to come in somewhere, check around the house and see if you can find a trail to a mound outside.

Along with the interior AMDRO you need to mount a defense against them coming in, find the exterior and put down a granular bait for them to take back into the mound.

There is some good information on ant pest control here at the link

Link

I've used this and it really does work!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TXFE4RI

JP

quote:

Thats just stupid. Ants are ants. Sugar ants, fire ants, ants.

^^^^^^^^^^^
Why so hostile?? The county agent who probably knows more about this stuff than a pilot told me that. It is a BAIT specifically for fire ants. Please cool it with your name calling. Thanks in advance.

I have had good luck with spraying home defense every three months or so.

The first problem I see with the OP's plan is that he is only baiting for sweet cycle. Ants also have a protein/grease cycle. They're apparently on a sweet cycle right now (i.e. the Terro bait the OP is using is sweet), but no telling when they'll switch to a protein/grease cycle. Therefore, it's best to bait for both cycles. Two options:

The easiest solution would be to switch to Terro's ant & roach since it has both sweet and protein/grease. The weakness in this is it's not refillable so if they eat all of one cycle it's worthless until they switch to the other cycle.

Switch to a prosumer system which consists of dual bait stations and add a protein/grease bait (e.g. maxforce) to one side and a sweet bait (e.g. Savitri) to the other side. The nice thing about this is it's refillable and you only refill the side they're currently eating. The downside is cost.

The second problem I see is not addressing how they're getting in the house. I used to live in Anaheim (unfondly called Antaheim due to the damn ant population), and found a 2-direction line of ants from the front door to the cat food bowl (i.e. they were on a grease/protein cycle). I vacuumed up the line of ants and then sealed the gap in the door seal they were using for entry. Next, I sprayed Ortho home defense spray along the entire exterior wall and door with approx a 12" band on the house and 12" band on the landscaping. I kept up the spraying on a regular routine, and the ants never returned.

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Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity

DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer.

I have used the one Vtail posted with great success the last few years in the kitchen, gone in a day or two

Last year they got in to my daughters room, we had a kitten in their with it's food and water. That one took about two weeks and about three traps