I've been invaded by what I call 'sugar ants' and they are really getting on my nerves. Does anybody have an effective means of getting rid of them?

I googled this and all the methods they recommend are "Greenie-Approved". They suggest tracking them back to their source of getting inside and using some of the most idiotic methods of repelling them. short of taking them to a carnival as a means of distracting them.

Had some odd ants invade my garage last year, found out that different ants require different methods/bait/poison to remove them.

First thing is get a positive ID.

Advion ant bait gel. Get it off Amazon. Comes in a syringe.

Squirt a bit next to the trail and the little bastatges will make a left turn and bury their heads in it. Within a few hours there will be thousands there eating it and taking it back to the nest. The next day they'll all be gone.

It's the only thing I've found to be effective.

My neighbors toy poodle is an ant eater...funny as heck to watch.

Link
http://www.earthworkshealth.com/

YouTube Video; Link


Dust your counters and floors, in kitchen area with this Food Grade (fresh water) Diatomaceous Earth, (safe around kids and pets)!


Phil

Product called Tempo. Use around your foundation to create a barrier say once every 3 weeks. Pet safe when it dries.

I bought a lawn chemical made by Bayer that goes in your broadcast spreader and walked around my house in circles with the first ring 3X's, then just kept going until it was gone. We had ants all over our kitcken all the time all of a sudden and they seemed to be coming from the cracks/seams in our patio pavers as evidenced by the mounds of earth.

I watered the patio to dissolve the chemical into the cracks and it stopped the ants cold.

I've had a real problem with them this year. It started when there was two foot of snow on the ground.

After the snow melted, I poured borax on all the ant hills I could find around the house. It took a couple of applications, but I no longer have ants and all the hills appear to be inactive.

Micky what you need to do is find yourself some of these ants to wage war on your sugar ants....

If they are in your house they are there getting something... food usually...

So find out what they are after and clean and seal up everything so there is no residue for them to detect and no reason for them to be there...they won't waste their resources for no reason.

You may occasionally see a few scouts...single ants walking around, but don't kill the scouts.

They will return to the nest on their own and report nothing of interest.

If you see a trail of ants...don't just kill them.

First find the target, the food scrap, or whatever they are into, and remove it. Very shortly they will transmit the information back to the nest and all the workers down the line will withdraw cleaning up their mess behind them as they leave.

They have constant two-way communication up and down the line. If you kill or remove the workers near the food source or in between, the workers farther back up the chain don't get the message to withdraw and keep on coming.

If you do need an insecticide, just a squirt of dish washing detergent in a water bottle is very effective and doesn't leave a nasty smell, but killing the ants at the end of the line usually makes things worse.

Lemon juice on the countertops eats their little legs off.

this is a most interesting theory or application of natural law. without food, why would the ants waste their time? so, to go further, if possums and coyotes, and feral cats are coming to the edge of the chain link fence to eat food scraps, who could possibly blame them?

I had the same problem this year of them coming into house. Think they were searching for water.

I tries the soap spray didn't work for me and that got me to go get some repel permanone and gave squirt of it where they were entering house.

It worked. All I can say bout that. Haven't returned
Did have to vacuum up my trophies

Gloryoski! Sounds like just what I need. Thanks, Steve.

I'm afraid they'd kill one of my dogs, Sheridan.

Do they look like these Crazy ants? I know they have them in Houston and the colonies are huge.

Try the gel. If that doesn't do it, find some Termidor.

I had them a couple years ago and went straight for the Termidor. Sprayed around the foundation, it takes care of all the ants.

As mentioned, don't go smushin' the ants. The lil bastids will raise new queens when stressed and the colony will split and multiply your problem.

Crazy ants are a whole 'nuther pain in the azz.

Sugar ants, or pizz ants, are the little tiny sob's that smell kinda sickly sweet when smushed. They usually travel in lines.

These are the kind I have. Little bitty black ants.

Pizz- aints is the proper term.- MadMooner

Termidor is the best. Active ingredient is Fipronil. Its Very effective on any kind of ants. I have been a pest control tech for the last 21 years. Just be sure to read the label and follow the directions.

Terro Ant Killer still works pretty good on sweet ant. It used to work better back when it had arsenic in it.


Mike

Amazingly, it is rare to see any kind of bug, ant or whatever here in Korea. The place is lush with greenery but I do not see the little critters.

they're being added to stews and such.

same reason you don't see stray dogs and cats

glad I could help Ed, no need to thank me

Malathion is your bugless friend, not only will it rid you of your ants but it will rid you of all the other nasty little critters that like to inhabit yard and home.

Used properly it is very safe.

I had some carpenter ants in my house. I made up a 50/50 mixture of baking soda and icing sugar and put some where I was seeing them the most. In three days they were gone and that was over a year ago.
I'm not sure it will work with other types of ants, but it's worth a try.

Is "icing sugar" just powdered sugar??

Yep

Friend of mine (an almond farmer) uses a bait that is basically a course corn meal infused with sugar.
Supposedly the ants are attracted to the sugar and eat it, but can't digest the corn, plugs them up & they die, since it takes some time to work it kills the queen too.

Can't be that hard to make at home.

This could be an old wives tail but........
I also worked with a guy that had Rosemary (the herb) planted all around his house, said ants don't like it and will stay away.

Friend of mine (an almond farmer) uses a bait that is basically a course corn meal infused with sugar.
Supposedly the ants are attracted to the sugar and eat it, but can't digest the corn, plugs them up & they die, since it takes some time to work it kills the queen too.

Can't be that hard to make at home.

This could be an old wives tail but........
I also worked with a guy that had Rosemary (the herb) planted all around his house, said ants don't like it and will stay away.