ants everywhere?!
 

ok so, iv got large black ants everywhere! urgh its that fricken time of the year again :/

anyone know any 'pet safe' ways to kill and get ride of them,? i havnt had a dog in a while so the two ways i usually take care of them won't work this time as the poison is bad for dogs same as vinegar :?

any and all help is appreciated.

I believe I have seen some products like what you want that are pet safe and friendly. You could go online and google pet safe ant killers. Just a suggestion. Hope you get rid of them safely for your pet. What I hate about this time of year is the Wasps and Hornets and Bees that like to hang around our back and front porches and make their nests. I am afraid to even open the doors for fear they will fly in or I would get stung. Scares me to death!!

I sprinkle food grade diatomaceous earth around my house and in my house my doorways and windows this time of year, when the bugs are starting to come out. It's people and pet safe. It doesn't work fast like the toxic sprays, as it takes a few days, but it does work.

Target and Home Depot carry EcoSmart Pesticides that can even be used around birds. They work great and are not harmful to pets or children.

I had ants coming from the kitchen window area. I sprayed raid on the siding parts around wall/window frame area. Didn't have to worry about furbutts getting hurt. I also heard having basil or was it another herb... if you keep it around the area, ants don't like them.

dogs
 

I hate ant season. I put the grants ants things up on the window where the dogs cannot get to them. Those work pretty good. Can't use anything on the ground, those little lickers will get to it. Hope you can just get rid of all smells in the kitchen, do not leave dog food out and ants should disappear.

urgh! yes! them too, luckily they haven't gotten in the house, just the ants. plus i can take out the nest and that usually gets ride of them but with ants if you don't kill each and every one of them than they just keep doubling than coming back.

yeah... im a clean freak. every surface gets wiped with anti bacterial wipes (twice a day and after meals) floors get swept one a day and moped once every other day- all food put away when not in use(i don't even leave butter out) and all pet's foods are in separate(labeled) air tight storage containers that are only open long enough to fill food bowls or refill the container. i don't even let people wear shoes inside!

so yeah its not like im feeding the ants, so im not sure why they are even in my house ! :/

You could try cornstarch mixed with a bit of sugar. The sugar attracts the ants, they take the granules of the mixture back to their hive(?)nest(?) and the cornstarch causes them to implode. The ants can't break down the cornstarch.

thanks everyone for the suggestions :)

i guess i'll be making a trip to the store :)

I guess I will go look for this Turbo-Ant this weekend as I always get ants in just one area of my kitchen every year. I will put this up on the counter around where they seem to come in. Hopefully I will get a jump on them this year so my babies don't have to deal with them.

I just use Amdro Fire Ant Killer...it wont hurt your pets, you hardly use any at all to wipe out an entire mound, you spread it at night and it is gone the next morning, I throw it all over my yard and around the foundation of my home, especially at the weep holes where these critters come in.....I use a broadcast spreader to get it all over my yard, and I have NO ant issues, inside my house or outside! And this comes from someone who is NOT a neat freak.....wish I was, but I do not have time to be doing multiple wiping all day long....I do use Clorox in my kitchen to wipe down my counter tops....I have hot soap water + a little Clorox, in the sink all day long.....I wipe up spills when they occur, and when the "kitchen closes" at night, we do the dishes, wipe down countertops, sweep my kitchen floor, clean the sink with Ajax, and we are done! I free feed, so I have kibble out 24/7 on the kitchen floor, with no ant issue.....We have cleaning day on Mondays/Tuesdays....I vacumn/mop the floors once a week.....I put roach bait motels in my cabinets in the kitchen.....my dogs dont play in those areas, so they dont get to them at all, behind the pots and pans, etc.....

Dangers in my home are things left on end tables by people's recliners/sofa! And peoples purses that are dropped onto the floor close where they sit!

I googled for "turbo-ant" but didn't see anything?... I'm starting to see ants out on the patio so I want to start preparing...

I have a very old house. It was build in 1900, so of course, I have ants! Ants everywhere. In the cupboard, on the counter, on the stove and in the bathroom!

I use a bait that you put on a small cardboard square and they come and take it away. I keep the squares with the bait well out of canine reach (inside cupboards, on top of counters, etc) wherever I see ant activity. They come in droves for the first little while to take the bait and then it destroys the colony. It works like a charm.

I hope you can find a good solution. Ants are seriously the worst. They give me the heeby jeebies so bad! I keep tarantulas...so it's hard to give me heeby jeebies.

I use those ant baits inside the house but I'm looking for something for outside as well... Now that I have a backyard the furries can run around in, I'd like to stay top of the game and prepare it so it'll be furrie friendly and void of pests like ticks/ants/etc...

I am too fed up with these creepy ants. I have tried many DIY methods, but every time they return back. This time I am thinking of contacting a pest control company, as recommended by my aunt termite inspection Davis and would let them try out their methods.

I tried few DIY and never had much luck either. Short term at the very best. I heard Daitomaceous Earth was very effective so I'm going to give that a try. Well.. as soon as I know it won't rain for a week.

You can use this both inside/outside of the house. But remember to get the FOOD GRADE.

ok so heres a new one I tried this week I got it from the internet. Take pop corn and grind it up fine like corn meal ( dont know if corn meal in the bag work the same ) and put a pile on the ant hill outside. I have used it on two ant hills and in a day or two the ant hill was dead. I am going to try this a few more time to make sure it wasn't a fluke .

We have major ant problems right now & I was researching...if there's any scientific proof, that cornmeal (or anything corn), kills ants? Couldn't find anything!

It's all over the internet, that cornmeal kills ants...one blogger said it takes 2 weeks. Gosh, IDKnow if I want ants from all over the yard moving into the house in those 2 weeks.:eek: What if they don't die LOL.

I did run into this: Grits, Ants and Fire Ants: The Truth!

There are many myths concerning fireant (or ant) mound elimination or colony elimination. None of the foods (grits, oatmeal, etc.) will cause any type of internal problems with an ant. They do not get fatal flatulence; they do not blow up --it just does not work that way!

In the first place, adult ants cannot digest solid foods.
Worker ants can be seen going back to their colony with either a swollen belly (from liquid foods) or carrying a solid piece of food. Solids are fed to ant larvae in the nursery; larvae digest the solids and immediately regurgitate the nutrients back to the adult worker ants. These ants, in turn, feed other ants in the colony. On the average, each worker ant will feed 10 other ants. This unique transfer of nutrients insures that any poisons or bad foods are filtered out before reaching the queen and the workers around her.

Second, ants love corn!
Many farmers have severely damaged their machinery while running into or over large fireant mounds in the fields. Thousands of pounds of grain products are tossed into the trash by home owners each year, because ants invaded the containers in which grains are stored.

Ants love corn and it does not kill them!
The myth with grits (and other grains) began when the general public discovered that small grains of ground corn (in essence, grits!) are the carrier in many ant baits. The carrier is just that -- the product on which the attractant (soybean oil, etc.) and the pesticide (Hydramethylnon, etc.) are placed. The carrier is just the vehicle with which we disperse granular pesticides and baits.

When people dump grits or other such objects onto an ant mound, the ants do not appreciate the door of their home being disturbed. They then build another door (mound) to their colony, deserting the one covered with grains. Ants have many uses for their mound (incubating young, etc.) and do not appreciate it when you dump things on top! When all is said and done, the colony did not even move (as most people believe), it just built another doorway to the colony.

This is good to remember when using an ant bait: do not dump the product on top of the ant mound or nest. Instead, broadcast your baits around the mound and in other areas where ants are seen foraging for food.

Did a little more digging & found this, thought it was very interesting.

The 7MSN Ranch: Evidence-based ant eradication

The 7MSN Ranch: The jury is still out

I already had food grade DE (diatomaceous earth), so sprinkled it around the areas on the counter where they've been making an appearance...we'll see if it really works.

Wish I knew where the ant colony was, then I'd be dumping this stuff into the ant hole w/ a long straw.:D