I have tiny flying ants ONLY at night! How do I get rid of them?

Question

I spend countless hours in the daytime trying to find where these little boggers are coming in and have had no success. Why all of a sudden do I have them and has anyone ever seen these? I am 41 years old and it's the first time I have seen anything like this here in this aea....Missouri! I want them gone! Any suggestions????

Answer 1

You probably have a nest of them nearby or in your home. Once a year the ant colony will produce winged ants who are capable of reproducing. these are the kings and queens, and they take their "nuptial" flight usually during the summer to mate and make new colonies. I don't blame you for wanting them gone!

You could waste a lot of money trying to kill them with sticky traps and bombing, etc. But there are two very easy (and very affordable) ways that have proven to work.

#1 Peppermint! If you think they are coming in from outside, pick up some peppermint oil and use around openings in your home (windows, doorways, cracks, etc). Ants hate peppermint, and this will keep them from coming in at night. And it only costs 5 or 6 dollars! (Make sure to wash your hands after handling peppermint oil as it is mildly abrasive).

#2 Poison! If your flying ants are "tiny" (as you say), the worker ants are even tinier... so tiny in fact, you may not even notice them crawling around on your floors. This is especially likely if you have dark floors. These kind of ants are usually attracted to sugar and grease. If you think the nest might be in your house, you want to make sure you kill the whole colony or else the same problem will arise again this time next year. For this, you need poison. The best thing is to mix 3 parts boric acid (looks like powdered sugar) with 1 part confectioner's sugar and put dishes of it around on the floor for the crawling worker ants to find and bring back to the colony. Boric acid is odorless, so the sugar is needed to attract the ants. All ants who eat the poison will die, and since ants are carnivores, they will also eat the dead ants, in turn poisoning themselves. Boric acid is also called boracic acid, orthoboric acid or Acidum Boricum and a pound of it only costs about 5 dollars.

Please note: be very careful with any kids or pets around these products! You may have to take extra measures to ensure you don't harm anyone if you have young ones or furry creatures around. After your problem is gone, caulk all the openings in your home to keep critters out for good!

Side note: Are you sure they are ants? Flying termites swarm at night as well. There are three key differences between winged termites and flying ants:

1. Wings: Winged termites have equal length wings. Flying ants have one set of wings slightly longer than the other.

2. Body: Termites have a head and a straight body. They will almost look like a tiny sausage with wings. Ants have three parts, a head, a tiny thorax and a large abdomen.

3. Antennae: Termites have straight antennae and ants have a sharp bend in their antennae.

If you have termites, you want to call an exterminator before the problem gets out of hand. If they are ants, follow the advice above. Hope this helps!!

Answer 2

Fog your home. Place ant spikes around your home every ten to fifteen feet or so.

I use Raid foggers twice per year which kills everything that crawls. You have to remain gone for four hours after you start them off.

The ant spikes come six or eight per pack. When inserted into the ground they look like little white disks (about 1 1/2) inch diameter. The ants take the poison inside the disk home and kill off the colony.