Ants...

[chellebee]

We have ants. Ew.

We're renting a place that has 1980's windows that are badly needing replaced because the seals are shot. The ants have started coming in through the slider. We had been putting vinegar around the area, but it's not cutting it. I got a semi-natural spray and that helped...but also not good enough. Today I found a couple crawling into the floorboards in our BATHROOM. Every time the sun comes out, the ants start pouring in.

School me on getting an exterminator. I am pregnant and have a toddler. It sounds like a noxious thing to do, but if it really needs to happen (and maybe if it is safe if I stay away long enough?) I will do it. The landlord has already offered to send one out. Other ideas? I'm already keeping my floors as clean as possible, removing any ants I find, and spraying the point of entrance (it's a lemon balm based spray).

[mrsteapot]

When we lived in San Diego we had a terrible time with the little black ants, what finally did it for us was a mix of sugar, borax and water boiled to make a syrup then poured over cotton balls in a jelly jar and placed in their path. They would swarm over it and take it back and kill the whole hill. It worked great. I don't have the recipe, because we are moving and it is packed, but I'm sure you could google or bing it. I always tried to set it out of the way of my boys, but it wasn't too big of a problem.

[Chicky2]

Needs to be less than 5% borax from what I've read. Reason is so that they don't die before they take it back to the queen. You can also sprinkle cornmeal around. When they eat it and drink water they swell up and die.

[luv-my-boys]

swear by tero ant baits. LOVE THEM!! We had a massive ant problem this past winter because it was warmer and wetter than usual. We literally woke up to thousands of ants coming in from invisible cracks everywhere, setting up camp in my houseplants and attacking my fridge and pantry. Someone on here suggested Terro ant baits and I went out and bought several as a last ditch effort and voila overnight they were almost totally gone. We foudn them at the grocery store right next to the raid (yuk!) and they are in an orange pkg.

[ellairiesmom]

jumping on this thread...just sent DH out to get us the baits mentioned.

i hosted book club dinner last night & one of the gals (a couple glasses of wine into the night) grabbed the italian dressing bottle on the table & started to shake it not realizing the cap was off. AHHHHH-UGGGGHHH-after I had cleaned. ALL. DAY. lol

this morning when i woke up & walked out into the dining room, there were spots all over that we missed, & tiny, tiny, ants crawling. maybe only 20 of them. we cleaned but now i am still seeing these tiny ants coming from what appears to be where the wall meets the floorboard. ick!!!

hoping these baits will do the trick!! thx!!!

[bender]

You can also get a powder or granule bait that you can sprinkle around the exterior of the house. It works in the same way of the ants taking the food back to the colony to kill them off, except it's outside the house so there is less worry of a kiddo ingesting it.

[A&A]

Ants HATE lavender. So buy some lavender plants or dried lavender for the bathroom.

[Grace and Granola]

Last week we had ants in our bathroom of all places and I couldn't tell where they were coming from. I came onto MDC to find the solution and here's what I did. Cinnamon--I sprinkled cinnamon at the doorway so they wouldn't leave the bathroom. Apparently they hate cinnamon, so you could sprinkle cinnamon along the doorway they're coming in. Then I used vinegar to mop the floor. I did this 3-4 times before I didn't see them any more. Since you know where they are coming in your house, I would also do the borax solution so they will take it back to the source.

[Vancouver Mommy]

I personally wouldn't get an exterminator for typical kitchen ants. Carpenter ants would be another story entirely. We are in BC and ants appear in the summer months and then leave when the weather gets cool and I assume it's the same where you live. I would try the bait traps and make sure that your kitchen and garbage area are clean of anything that would attract them like food scraps or crumbs.