Ants...

[alison]

Our new place has ants! They don't come out in crazy numbers, but at any given time I can count at least 10-15 at once. I think they're coming through a vent in the kitchen. They're small--maybe 1/4", and reddish brown. Is this bad? Should i call some sort of pest control or continue with trying to bait them with poison? I hope hope hope these aren't carpenter ants.......

Thanks!

Pest control. Now. The sooner you get them, the better.

[MarissaNicole]

I'm no expert but I think the carpenter ants are the big brown/black ones. We had little red/brown ones too that showed up from our insect inspection. Guy said to buy diazanone granuals but we couldn't find them. The guy at the hardware store suggested bug be gone max by ORTHO and it seems to have done the trick. We only used a fraction of the $20 bag.

With a little one however you may want to ask about more natural alternatives (either at the hardware store or from a professional like orkin).

Why don't you try a non-toxic method first, since they're just ants. What I have done that's worked well is to spray perfume in the areas where they are coming out of the wall. This disrupts their ability to use their scent to find their way back. This has worked pretty well in the times we've had ants.

[MissCrabette]

I'm with Jenn on this one. To me all these DIY methods seem temporary and they bring back memories of the Caribbean that make me shudder. I'd gladly outsource this.

[alison]

Argh! I left the house and came back to not a single ant in sight. Do I still call...?

Argh! I left the house and came back to not a single ant in sight. Do I still call...?

Yes. They'll be back. They don't just disappear. Unless you *happened* to find the entryway into your home, they'll be back in (likely w/rain, which your new area isn't prone to at all, right? ). If you're worried about the strong chemicals, try to find a more eco friendly service - in your uber-crunchy PNW, I'm sure they're all over.

[MarissaNicole]

Yes they will be back...they most likely are coming in from the outside and just because you don't see them doesn't mean their not there. We only saw ours every couple of days.... now we haven't seen any since.

They're definitely not carpenter ants, so you can try easy methods first... Get a few of those little brown ant poisons at a drugstore/hardware/grocery and put them in the ant path and wait a week. Sometimes that's all it takes. You can still call pest control and pay the big bucks if it persists, but for small house ants the poison traps work nicely, I've found.

[MDPhDWife]

We've got the same problem, only in the summer though. I've always used those little black poision baits because they'll take it back to the rest of the colony. It's worked for us and Wal Mart sells a pack of 4 for under $5. Good luck, ants suck.

[MarissaNicole]

We've got the same problem, only in the summer though. I've always used those little black poision baits because they'll take it back to the rest of the colony. It's worked for us and Wal Mart sells a pack of 4 for under $5. Good luck, ants suck.

Those baits worked in our last apartment but weren't enough at our current home... but yes try those first!

[peggyfromwastate]

We always get ants too, and torrential rains which seem to bring them out. DH sprays the perimeter of our house 2-3 times a year, starting in March. There is a spray-thing that they sell at Home Depot or wherever, it's like roundup for ants. He sprays around the foundation. We use the *traps* inside the house when we see ants. We also have used the non-toxic spray that *kills on the spot* and it seems to work well, and keeps them away for long enough that they eat the bait and die. Every year the ants come at us from a different place.

When we first had ant problems way back, we called the pest people and all they did was put some of the ant baits around the house. I was not very impressed...

We've got the same problem, only in the summer though. I've always used those little black poision baits because they'll take it back to the rest of the colony. It's worked for us and Wal Mart sells a pack of 4 for under $5. Good luck, ants suck.

My problem with those is when you've got a teeny-tiny crawling / waddling toddler around, those baits look FUN.

[Vishenka69]

No advice on the ants but a good pest control guy is worth his weight in gold.

[alison]

The ants didn't give two shits about the baits, so we called Orkin Man, and he came today and baited them. Looks like we have a nest somewhere... The number of ants has gone down significantly.

Unfortunately, since we're in a townhouse, we need to convince our neighbors to pay for pest control too to make sure they don't come through the walls. It's about $800/year for them to come out every two months for one house. I'm willing to pay for our house and the neighbors' in order to get rid of these. They're so gross when you have a highway of ants going through your kitchen.

The Orkin guy is coming next week again to look. You get the same person each time, which is good, because he's hawt.