OOT please help me, ants are taking over my kitchen!

Annulus · #1 03-26-2007, 03:31 PM

I have had an ongoing problem with ants for awhile now. I own a home in a nice suburban detroit neighborhood. Even If I leave a spek of food out overnight their will be a hundred ants all over it by the morning. I try my hardest to keep things perfectly clean, but for some reason ants always are around. I have never had this problem anywhere I have lived. My mom thinks it's because I had new wood floors put in last year, and she says ants love wood. I dunno. But I am sick of it. Any OOT'ers have any helpful advice, should I call pest control? spray pesticides? By the way I do have a cat.

punkass · #2 03-26-2007, 03:33 PM

I think bug spray are just temporary fixes. Most likely you're gonna need professional help to find where the colony is.

edfurlong · #3 03-26-2007, 03:34 PM

Crush them

Annulus · #4 03-26-2007, 03:39 PM

lol. everytime i see an 'army' of ants i take a wet paper towel and wipe them all off the surface and flush them down the toilet. i realize this is just killing the 'scout' ants and their are a million of them elsewhere. is that right? anyone here well versed on ants and could explain how they work?

swede123 · #5 03-26-2007, 03:44 PM

Whenever I got a bunch of ants marching around I just spray half a can of bug spray all around the area, which seems to take care of the problem for a good while. But if you have pets around it might require calling the Orkin man. I'm sure it'll cost a bit but that way they can deal with the ant colonies wherever they are, instead of just killing off the ants that are seen in the house.

Swede

TwoOuter · #6 03-26-2007, 03:45 PM

Not sure what kind of ants you're up against but I've had good success with Grant's Ant Stakes. The ants will swarm around them for a day or two but then they're gone.

TiK · #7 03-26-2007, 03:54 PM

Saw this on Lifehacker recently:

Get rid of ants with baby powder

4_2_it · #8 03-26-2007, 03:55 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Crush them

[/ QUOTE ]

This is the 1st thing I thought of as well. We also had a pretty good MSPaint thread of the ants eventually taking over the world that my search skills seem unable to locate.

Annulus · #9 03-26-2007, 04:01 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Not sure what kind of ants you're up against but I've had good success with Grant's Ant Stakes. The ants will swarm around them for a day or two but then they're gone.

[/ QUOTE ]

this sounds promising. is this available at grocery stores? do you know if its safe for pets?

also, a co-worker said to put vinegar and water in a spray bottle and just spray the ant trails. maybe worth a try also.

SuperUberBob · #10 03-26-2007, 04:07 PM

Fumigate the house.