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

[By-Tor]

for prevention if you are worried about pets or kids, spray salt-water at the entrance points.

[z28dreams]

Last summer out our rental home we couldn't get rid of the ants to save our lives.

Landlord started sending the exterminator 2x a month instead of 1x and it helped a bit, but didn't completely solve the problem.

Most of the stuff on the internet didn't work for us ( one recommended scattering bay leaves around where they enter because they hate the smell. The next day I found like 20 ants sitting on the bay leaf and none anywhere else. Ya. ).

[Annulus]

[ QUOTE ]
I had some of these in my kitchen last year, I just put out 4 raid ant bait things http://www.killsbugsdead.com/icp_ant.asp like the 3rd or 4th on that page and I haven't had any problems since.. I think they cost me 5 bucks or something like that at walmart.

[/ QUOTE ]

i heard that bait is the way to go because the ants take this stuff back to their colonies and eventually over a few weeks should kill all the ants, at least in theory. im going to try this before i spend a few hundred dollars on professionals. thanks alot.

[I.Rowboat]

My wife HATES HATES HATES ants. After trying all of the usual remedies (bagging all food in the cabinets and pantry in Ziplocs, making sure the kitchen was spotless after use, putting out Grants' ant stakes, etc.) I eventually decided to just call in Orkin. Problem solved. It took about 12 weeks to completely resolve things, but that was two years ago, and we haven't had an ant flare up since. We also have two small kids, so we made sure they didn't use anything toxic to humans.

Cost was around $800 for the first year, during which they come out often to get things under control, then every other month for maintenance. Second year has just been maintenance, and was a lot less. Not cheap but worth it for us; YMMV.

[chopstick]

You want a mix of boric acid and sugar water. If you don't want to make it yourself, use Terro which is a commercial version that you can buy at Home Depot.

Note how many people in the Lifehacker thread say "I tried a, b, and c, then I tried Terro and it was awesome". There is a reason they are saying that. Worked well for me also.

[Rhone]

[ QUOTE ]
Saw this on Lifehacker recently:

Get rid of ants with baby powder

[/ QUOTE ]

This works!! I was surprised, but it completely took care of our problem. Now, only thing is that we could see exactly where they were coming in from. There is a door in the kitchen leading to the back yard, and a sprinkling of this stuff across the door frame worked like a charm.

[React1oN]

[ QUOTE ]
Saw this on Lifehacker recently:

Get rid of ants with baby powder

[/ QUOTE ]I didn't read the link, but, I have used this with success, putting a lot of powder on/around entrances you see.

[Sigurd]

Find out where they are getting into the house, and make a small barrier of cinnamon. Nothing says "I'm a hotshot baller!" like pouring spicies on your floor..

I have done this with great success.

[woodguy]

Doktor Doom

I had a bit of an ant problem last year.

Find where the little bastards live and cover it with this stuff.

$25/can, but it was the 4th ant killer I'd tried (tried everything that you can get at Home Depot etc, that says Ant Killer on it....none of them work)

Had this recommended to me by a a professional gardener...works awesome, but you have to find the nest, dig it up and soak it.

Regards,
Woodguy

[Annulus]

thanks for all the suggestions. i ended up trying the 'raid ant bait', mainly cuz it got good reviews online and its cat safe. hope this [censored] works. im also thinking about trying that terron stuff from home depot.