First cockroaches, mice and rats, then moths, now my apartment is swarming with giant ants. Actually two kinds of ants. Initially I’d awake in the morning to solid lines of giant (over 1 cm long) black ants making their way from one corner of the apartment to the other. So we bought little ant traps where they eat the poison and die. But the traps were too small, so we bought bigger versions of the same thing. Some ate the poison, so we woke to armies of giant ants hauling away the dead. Then we found a few holes they came and went from, so we plugged those up and sprayed raid around the periphery followed by another poison.
But the big ants don’t seem to have lessened and now they are accompanied by thousands of smaller ants with wings. There are so many of the damn things that the place would be uninhabitable for Jainists – one can’t walk across the apartment without stepping on ants.
What the hell can I do? Would a fog poison help? Or is time for a professional? The problem I think is that they live in the walls of this old building (I’ve discovered insect eaten wood at the baseboard) and have apparently just experienced a phenomenal population explosion. Obviously I am an evil man and will be punished next with frogs and locusts, but can anyone help me with this scourge?
Ants one cm long? Them’s some big ants! They sound like more like the kind you find outdoors than house-type ants. As for the winged ones, there’s nothing much you can do – they’re seasonal and they do indeed get everywhere. But it gets worse. Those flying termites (or whatever they are) will soon lose their wings, so they too will be crawling around everywhere, while your marauding uber-ants will no doubt be calling in reinforcements to haul away the thousands of shed termite wings.
Isn’t nature fun?
I thought I was the only one, I am a bit relieved now, though I still hate these things. I have them too. They are about 2cm long, very thin and black with unopened wings. I went to take my laundry inside the other day and my clothes were covered in these things. It’s the first time I have seen these since living here. Maybe something to do with that earthquake we had this morning??? Seems my problem isn’t as bad as yours, but I suggest you buy even more ant traps and spread them out. Their is one kind that works great, but they are for smaller ants, however we haven’t had an ant problem in a year after using them once, so it may work for you. Give me your fax number by private message and I will fax you the box cover so you know which brand to buy.
get “Contact” if you haven’t… has worked great for me several times. The ants will swarm all over it and carry the stuff back to the nest, killing the queen, ending your problem. The little ones turned my living room into the insect version of the Long Island Expressway more than once but this stuff has beat them back when nothing else would.
My mother in law used to bring these from Taiwan–they were no more than a couple inches square, made of plastic, with what looked like little beads inside. You had to be careful not to move them around too much or let the kids get hold of them because the beads came out pretty easily.
Right now my ant problem isn’t too bad but I find ants on the kitchen counter and on the wastebin. Vinegar and water (in a spray bottle) seems to repel them. Also works nicely as a disinfectant for your countertops and cutting board before going to bed at night.
[quote=“braxtonhicks”]can I pick up these little ant traps at Watson’s?
My mother in law used to bring these from Taiwan–they were no more than a couple inches square, made of plastic, with what looked like little beads inside. You had to be careful not to move them around too much or let the kids get hold of them because the beads came out pretty easily.
Right now my ant problem isn’t too bad but I find ants on the kitchen counter and on the wastebin. Vinegar and water (in a spray bottle) seems to repel them. Also works nicely as a disinfectant for your countertops and cutting board before going to bed at night.[/quote]
That sounds like the stuff I got at the Welcome store. I don’t have the big ants but you put that little box down and it doesn’t kill the ants. They just start running around like they are crazy or something and then they stop coming to that area. It must mess with their heads.
I tried the square black plastic with a round poison trap on top and that seemed to have no effect. I think the big ants can’t fit inside.
I tried the rectangular yellow or green boxes with a little packet of poison that you open and put inside. The holes seem to be too small for big ants, so I left the lids open and I think they enjoyed the taste of the stuff. But still their numbers haven’t lessened.
I made a trail of liquid ant poison along the base of the walls and they definitely like the taste of that. Many corpses are lying beside the trail with ants’ heads submerged in the liquid. But still their numbers haven’t lessened.
These ants seem to be extraordinarily smart. When I come home they’re everywhere, but when they see me they scatter. By bedtime it’s mostly just corpses littering the floor. But at night they take over. By the time I rise in the morning the place is criss-crossed with their strategic paths. Nothing random or haphazard about it. So I plugged the holes where they came and went. But, so far they’ve outsmarted me.
So rather than merely bombard them with poison, I’ve decided I must fight smarter. So for my next strategy, this weekend I’ll pull everything away from the walls and run a bead of caulk around the entire periphery of the apartment, blocking all conceivable entrances, and then blast them with poison ant fog, if there is such a thing. I’ll also use vinegar in the kitchen (thanks for the tip) though they’re just as happy in the living room or the bedrooms.
MT, I can’t believe that you didn’t try diplomacy first! You haven’t even attempted to reason with these ants, or to reach some mutually beneficial settlement that would respect both your rights and the rights of the ants. For all we know, your dwelling may have at one time displaced the ants from their rightful home, and they are merely trying to take back what once was theirs. But no, you just go in like a cowboy, guns a blazing! Now you’re contemplating the use of chemical weapons.
Hell, I have an agreement with the roaches in my place. They are to stay on the floor and only come out when the lights go off at night. By morning, they are back in their places and I have enjoyment of my house.
Those fuckers, roaches, can fly, high. We live in a modern building and have had no sign of them until recently, when we started leaving open the screen door to the balcony for our poodle to pee.
Only female roaches can fly. That said you better get them, else they lay their eggs everywhere. No matter how high up you live, I found them everywhere (including on the 51st floor).
Seems you tried the one I was telling you about by PM, it is not contact by the way, the one I was referring to was Agro I think…
The other day when I had the problem I decided it was time to clean my balcony. I first used a some regular Clorox bleach, rinsed it and then used some concentrated Lysol and then rinsed it. Went out this afternoon to take my laundry inside, and didn’t see one! I guess they must have been living in the holes in my balcony floor, I bet the clorox did them in. Or should I knock on wood as they may return… I suggest if you have white floors use some clorox on them, it will get rid of their scented tracks and may keep them from comming back.
Good idea. I will use Clorox too. Even if it doesn’t reduce the ants at least it’ll make the floors clean which always excites the old lady. As for you Tiger, I’m hardly launching a pre-emptive defensive strike. They invaded my palace. But I will liberate them in the end.
I thought MT was better than that. Removing the indigenous specimens from their enviroment and resorting to chemical weapons and forcing them out of their rightful homes to smaller less productive spaces. Will there be no ALO(Ant Liberation Front)? Who will stand up for those poor mistreated ants in the face of unilateral American aggression?
I think this will help him. He’ll start agreeing with Tigerman and then we’ll see long posts going back and forth between MT and Rascal.
The little fliying ones with white wings are called Bai Yi, my wife said they come from the wood (termites?). In thirteen years in Taiwan this is the first time that I have ever seen them. Its wierd that they are popping up all over town… and I assume you do not alllive up in Tien Mu.
We had one. Swatted it out of mid air with a rolled up Taipei Times (finally good for something) Great White Hunter that I am. Another one showed up a few minutes later. Another mid air swat (Damn I’m good). Had me wishing I had a slo mo movie camera that could film this micro action. Imagine the point of contat blood and white wings imploding in mid air, T…Times text on pulp flasing by … any way a few minutes later another… it was like they were toying with me, waiting until i was distracted then making a break for the bread cabinent, gold stash … or oh my god! no, my green, leafy bud!
There gone. Chou 5 Bai yi 0. I hope they do not come back.
