What's the best way to get ants out of your house?

Question

I noticed ants coming in to my house! I've vacuumed and cleaned the floors and counters with bleach! What else can I do?

Answer 1

Buy some Borax powder soap (Grocery store) pour a pile on a paper towel and sprinkle sugar around the pile of Borax.  I would do it where you know they are.  The ants will be attracted to the sugar and will pick up some of the Borax and take it back to the nest.  This will kill them.  This even works outside but if it rains you would have to re-do it.

Answer 2

They are coming in for food and water.  Find out where they are coming in, and work to close the holes up.  Use caulk or toothpicks to fill the holes. They are persistent and will try to eliminate the blockage, or chew through it,so you will have to be on your toes and watch for them. Spray the outside of the house as well as the inside. If you have a pier and beam foundation or a basement, you will have to find the ant mound.  It might be in wood, or a small hole in concrete or stone gaps.  They will not necessarily have an above ground mound. You will have to treat that mound with a bait taken into the nest that will kill the queen.

Scrub the area daily to erase the scent trail they leave for the other ants to follow.  I found them eating the caulk in my walls, and heard some chewing noises once, followed the sound and discovered fire ants eating my foamed insulation out of the walls!  Just a little trail of the buggers hauling out the foam to their nest!  They can be hard to eradicate if well established, so be persistent.

Answer 3

I found wear they were coming from and sucked the ants with a vacuum cleaner and i haven't had a problem with them ever since.

Answer 4

I just had the same problem with tiny Thief Ants. The worst thing you can do is to spray or kill the ants, which is instinctive for us to do. Why kill and make them unwelcome when all they will most likely do is move on to a different part of your house and then one day, probably quite soon, they will come back. I think baiting is the best thing. Make the ants welcome. Feed and comfort them. Provide fresh food daily. You want them to create a trail they can follow. And most likely they won’t go any where else to search for food at least in that area. Why go searching when you have a fresh buffet waiting for you. See what they like most and give it to them. I used boric acid. 1st I mixed it with honey, and then after some research, I found out that Thief Ants like fatty foods. So I mixed some butter with boric acid in a plastic cup. Melted it in a metal table spoon. Mixed it up real good and offered the delight to the ants. The tiny critters loved it. Next day I noticed that I had some raid ant traps laying around from the past. I tore one up, mixed a bit of the contents with butter and good size of boric acid, cooked it for a minute or two and they loved it. You need very little of this stuff, and don’t go crazy on boric acid, you want ants to like what they eat. If they are not eating it, then give them a different mixture. Just a few drops at a time, depending on ant size. And I don’t know why people keep saying that ants are scared and will not walk over boric acid. Yes, if you put a mound of that stuff in the middle of their trail, then like any other creature they will walk around it. Sprinkle some very fine mist over their trail and on top of them. I think it would help.

Four days later and there is not a single one left. Don't know what happened. I can only guess that they are all dead. Other wise I would see at least one or two.

Answer 5

Three steps, works EVERY time for me.

#1 - Do not kill any ants yet. Leave them alone so you can find their POINT of ENTRY. You need to find this for the rest of the method to work. Watch them, but don't disturb them. Soon you will see ants enter/leave your home and you will have the info you need.

#2 - Once the entry point is located, grab a good can of insect killer. I use RAID "Crawling Insect" spray. It is fizzing for cracks and its repellent for 8 hours or more with a good chance of killing even hours later. Spray the area around the point of entry thoroughly. If you have kids or pets erect a barricade so you can really wet this area. Remember you want to a) kill ants that are present. b) leave enough residue that other ants will think twice before trying to enter that way.

#3 - Once the point of entry is sprayed, proceed to KILL every ANT in your house. No new ants will be entering, so in a short time they should all be dead. Do not leave survivors.

Once you are finished, you will have eliminated ONE point of entry for ants in your house. In my experience, they will never use this point again. However, they will find a new point of entry if one is available. Work on eliminating places ants can get into your home. There are many web pages with this info.

Good luck!

Answer 6

Use a mix of cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle it here and there. The ants will come and pick up the sugar, along with the cinnamon, and take it back to their queen. Ants can’t digest cinnamon and once the queen dies from not being able to digest the cinnamon the colony will die without her

Answer 7

I sprayed bleach on my front door step,but you might want to get a ant spray, calk the cracks around your windows,that will help.