A few weeks ago I was hospitalized for a bit over a week. I left for the hospital quickly because it was a emergency. Long story short, I left some food out and ants came by the time I came back.
I keep killing them but they come back quickly. How do I get rid of them and kill them at the source?
tea tree oil and water. blast their trail to the source.
Combat, or similar bait stations. They’ll take the bait back to the colony, and once the queen dies they’ll disperse.
Windex. Kills the ants and cleans the pheromones too.
This, plus lines of poison to disrupt whatever path their taking in. Also, if you drink coffee, coffee grinds around the house.
In Taiwan this is amazing. in general, products based on boric acid are fantastic, their hives get obliterated.
PS: hospitalized… Malaysia 2.0 ?
You are killing workers. Its like smashing cars on the highway and expecting the ford factory to stopmanufacturing new cars.
You need to kill the nest.
I have one solution for you. 100% effective. Safe for pets and kids, amd virtually anything. But takes a week and can be thought of as cruel as to how they die.
Boric acid.
It looks like table salt so dont let the word acid make you uneasy.
Ants generally have 2 phases of nutrient searching: protiens and sugars.
Mix some of this boric acid (salt like) in a tiny bit of water. Add some to aprotein source, i use expired canned cat food. The remaining add some sugar to. Place in dishes, i use bottle caps from larger plastic botles going to be recycled. Place in areas the ants travel.
They eat, take it back. Die a horrible death and get cannabalized inside their nest spreading the boric acid around. Kills almost all of them. It eventually get to the males and reproductive females and the colony is dead.
Nothing toxic needed. Virtually no time spent. And safe for your family. Plus its heap and you dont need to use a bunch of uneeded plastic crap like combat or raid type gimmicks.
Ps. Many an traps use boric acid. But not all.
How do I do this if I have cats? Is boric acid harmful to cats?
Thats why i mention it. It is regarded as safer (ER) for pets and kids. Have used it for over a decade here with many pets and no issues. If you have pet crickets or ant farma, maybe a problem.
But common sense goes a long way. I fill bottle caps, not bowls, of laced bait. So there isnt a lot that can be eaten and kts diluted lots with the protein or sugar mix. I also place it somewhere not easily accessed. Like in a cupboard, under the fridge etc.
So in those simple ways ants will clearly find it and die, cats not.
That said, if you read cat enthusiast websites, where organic water is standard, you will find some bad stories. Again. Common sense, many dont aeem to exercise it. Dont leave a bag of it open next to the food dish. I use maybe a total of 2 grams for my entire house, spread through 10 or so traps. So its so minute i would say it safe…but there is minor toxicity of pure boric acid on animals.
I had some issues with my kidney. Not a good time.
Geez, wouldn’t have guessed from what you said. All well?
Yes. Just some dietary changes. Apparently kidney can influence potassium in your body. Potassium is necessary for muscle contractions. Low potassium causes me not to be able to move. They thought it might be ALS, so that was scary.
Glad it turned out well. I guess there’s no potassium in pasta and pizza
Haha yeah. Also eating massive amounts of carbs is hard on the kidney. Did not know that. A serious diet change with a lot carbs like pasta, pizza, and bread seems to have triggered it with some genetic precondition.
Hopefully a diet change doesnt mean no more pizza… Hope its all an easy change.
No, but I probably shouldn’t eat a large panino for breakfast, 500g of pasta for lunch and a pizza for dinner plus maybe another panino for late night snack. Too much carbs.