Help me get rid of ants

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Forum -> Household Management -> Cleaning & Laundry

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amother

Ecru

Sun, Jul 03 2016, 11:22 pm

Ants all over my kitchen and bathroom. please help me get rid of them without chemicals since I have little kids. I live in a building and won't get exterminator from landlord. So, I want to try doing myself before calling exterminator. All advice needed please asap!!!!

ra_mom

Sun, Jul 03 2016, 11:31 pm

If you can use chemical gel in that corner, combat makes a great one that really works. Use in conjunction with their standard black box product.

If it needs to be natural, buy damascus earth, in food grade only, and sprinkle the powder outside at each entrance, as well as anywhere inside where you feel you need it.

amother

Ecru

Sun, Jul 03 2016, 11:37 pm

Thanks. Though I have no idea where they are coming from. Its on my kitchen floor, windows, walls and in my bathroom. Any home remedies? anything I can do now? I want to do something before I can get to store for combat in the morning.

greenfire

Sun, Jul 03 2016, 11:45 pm

natural remedy would be vinegar - spray around circumference of kitchen and bathroom, including windowsills [leave soaked cotton balls in corners or particularly busy areas]

amother

Ecru

Sun, Jul 03 2016, 11:53 pm

great thanks greenfire to the rescue. I'm running to get vinegar. I spray and leave it to dry? or wash it down after? does it kill them or I need something stronger eventually.

greenfire

Sun, Jul 03 2016, 11:58 pm

spray it and leave it - they don't like it and won't come back

do this at least once a week ...

amother

Ecru

Mon, Jul 04 2016, 12:15 am

Thanks loads. I hope they will vanish.. I'm so grossed out by them

rachel6543

Mon, Jul 04 2016, 1:28 am

I had an ant infestation 2 years ago. Ick!! Ick!!

You can kill ants with soapy water. Prepare to use lots of paper towels to wipe them up.

Make sure no food or water left out. Keep everything clean! clean up crumbs and make sure all food in sealed containers.

You can use Terro bait traps to kill ants. (comes in orange box, can buy from Home Depot, Amazon...etc). It's pretty safe to use, it's made from borax. But it can take a few weeks for them to fully work. It solved my ant problem, but took a few weeks. I liked how this was safer to use than chemicals.

joyful mom

Mon, Jul 04 2016, 3:14 am

Ground cinnamon powder is what helped me. Follow the trail of ants to find the place / hole /opening from where they are coming from and pour cinnamon there to block the hole. This should help to stop them from still coming from that place as they don't like or can't go through the cinnamon. Good luck!!

blossoming

Mon, Jul 04 2016, 1:32 pm

my friend posted this, didn't try it but many others said it works like magic!

Non-toxic roach solution for getting rid of ants and cockroach's:

Ingredients:
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1 cup flour
250 g boric acid
1/4 tsp salt
6 tsp of milk
Sugar - for getting rid of ants

Mix everything together until it is pie crust consistency. Roll into balls, and place the balls on top of baking paper, wherever you have roaches, but WHERE LITTLE KIDS CAN'T REACH THEM.

Boric acid is as toxic for a person as laundry detergent, yet extremely toxic for roaches. So -- use disposables to make the "dough" and wash your hands well when finished.

They die three ways:

First of all when they eat them, and secondly they bring it back to the nest and share it with their family and friends. Thirdly, once they die, their friends eat them and then they get poisoned. It seems to take about 2 days to start killing them.

We only see them in our kitchen area and so we could have done with making about 1/4 of the amount and putting one golf ball sized cookie in strategic places. The smell of the onions and flour attracts them in no time at all. We put them behind the oven and inside a cabinet under the sink which is easy to lock up, and clean up when done.

Librarian

Mon, Jul 04 2016, 10:54 pm

I had this problem a number of years ago and my friend told me to pour some bleach around the area the ants seemed to be emerging from. It worked beautifully they never came back!

gp2.0

Mon, Jul 04 2016, 11:05 pm

Diatomaceous earth is the BEST. It gets rid of the ants within hours and they don't come back. It's a loose white powder, so it looks messy, but I got good at doing a thin line along the edges of where they enter. I tried it as a last resort after everything else, now I don't bother with anything else. I had crazy smart ants though, when I closed up one hole, they just made or found another. Now they're smart enough to spread the message that if they come into my house, they'll die. *evil*

gp2.0

Mon, Jul 04 2016, 11:09 pm

amother wrote:

You can figure out where they're coming in from by watching the ants for a few minutes. When you see an ant carrying a crumb, he's headed back home. Watch where he goes and you'll have the entry point.

wantavaca

Tue, Jul 05 2016, 8:55 am

I like the vinager idea to keep them away.
I never understood why it's ok to kill bugs.

cnc

Tue, Jul 05 2016, 9:07 am

BTW Boric acid is toxic around humans as well so use it with caution if there are little kids around

shacn

Tue, Jul 05 2016, 9:24 am

Vinegar didn't help for me and neither did cinnamon. I sprayed RAID wherever I saw the ants were coming from and that stopped it indefinitely. You can spray it at night and wipe it in the morning. Really a problem solver for me.

gp2.0

Tue, Jul 05 2016, 10:25 am

wantavaca wrote:

I like the vinager idea to keep them away.
I never understood why it's ok to kill bugs.

Probably because nothing else works. I tried all these other tricks. Except poison cuz with little kids I don't want to risk that.

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