Ant problems

[Ambyrkatt]

I don't know if this is the right place to post this, so please move it if it's not.

We're having some ant troubles lately and I don't know what to do about them. We keep getting ants in our kitchen and I think they are going after food....in particular, the cat's food. When I find them, I've been spraying a water/dawn mixture on them and that kills them really quickly. Then I mop it up. The problem is, that this does nothing to prevent them from coming back. What do I do? We have an 18 month old DS and a cat, so pesticides aren't really an option.

We just bought this house a few months ago and as a first time home owner, I'm feeling pretty clueless.

[Naturalyst]

I just went through a big "ant problem" here. So, here's the benefit of what I learned.

If they are the larger, carpenter ants, like we had, then "bait" won't do very much. You'll have to find the nest to make a difference. Most times, the nest is outside. But, they do, sometimes, establish satellite nests in the house. Sounds silly, but you'll need to follow them to see where they go. They are most active at night (though we had more than a few trampling through during the day too). So, picture me following ants as they made there way from their "dinner" in my house, under my door threshold, into the yard ... with a flashlight. Found it! And, I found a satellite nest in the house, behind the tiles at the rim of my tub. Once I found where they lived, the rest was easy.

I put boric acid in a large plastic bottle with a tapered nozzle top (like they put on mustard of ketchup) and puffed it into the entrance/exit hole and a few feet on each side.

If yours are the smaller household ants, you might do the same with the boric acid along the baseboards and door thresholds. Orange oil deters insects too. I've sometimes painted that on my floor, along my baseboards, for insects - generally.

If they are just going for the pet food, you might try this - get one of those elevated pet bowls where the bowl fits into a 4-legged metal stand and stand the whole thing in a tray of water. I did that when I was feeding an outdoor cat. Any ants that try, drown.

Good luck.