Sugar ants - do they ever stop?!

[HomelessDiver]

Ok, I've tried a few things found on the internet - this about to drive me up a wall.

Here on Boracay, we have these tiny little crazy ants that people keep calling 'sugar ants'. They swarm within minutes of anything edible being found, an empty bottle of Sprite brings about a hundred in 90 seconds flat.

These jokers live in the walls, in the furniture, in the grout under floor-tiles. They're coming out of a tiny pinhole in an otherwise solid concrete wall. In my last house on the hill, they burrowed so much in a vacant room, the floor tiles actually came up in the corner.

And they're not like normal ants, these guys just tend to roam all over the place... only forming lines when someone found some goodies. Really small and light brown, almost seem to have a translucent abdomen but they're too small for me to checkout in detail. I thought they were termites for the longest until everyone told me different.

I've tried using Baygon, the longterm, persistent agent stuff that will kill a large roach 3 or 4 weeks after the area was sprayed. These guys leave and come back later the same day, and that stuffs just too poisonous for me to be breathing every few days.

I tried cleaning the area in pure white vinegar, which is normally a natural ant repellent, no luck. In fact they seem to be more active now, almost like I opened the express lane at a toll booth.

Cleaned in bleach, soaked the area in alcohol/glycerin, glass cleaner - nothing keeps these guys away. I cant even tell what they're going after this morning: from a pinhole in the ceiling down to a crack inside a shelf. I presume they're burrowing a new area to live. I tried tossing talc powder to no effect. Theres even a 'chalk' posion just for ants that only causes them to find that tiny opening in the line, and keep on marching.

[Chugger]

Ok, I've tried a few things found on the internet - this about to drive me up a wall.

Here on Boracay, we have these tiny little crazy ants that people keep calling 'sugar ants'. They swarm within minutes of anything edible being found, an empty bottle of Sprite brings about a hundred in 90 seconds flat.

These jokers live in the walls, in the furniture, in the grout under floor-tiles. They're coming out of a tiny pinhole in an otherwise solid concrete wall. In my last house on the hill, they burrowed so much in a vacant room, the floor tiles actually came up in the corner.

And they're not like normal ants, these guys just tend to roam all over the place... only forming lines when someone found some goodies. Really small and light brown, almost seem to have a translucent abdomen but they're too small for me to checkout in detail. I thought they were termites for the longest until everyone told me different.

I've tried using Baygon, the longterm, persistent agent stuff that will kill a large roach 3 or 4 weeks after the area was sprayed. These guys leave and come back later the same day, and that stuffs just too poisonous for me to be breathing every few days.

I tried cleaning the area in pure white vinegar, which is normally a natural ant repellent, no luck. In fact they seem to be more active now, almost like I opened the express lane at a toll booth.

Cleaned in bleach, soaked the area in alcohol/glycerin, glass cleaner - nothing keeps these guys away. I cant even tell what they're going after this morning: from a pinhole in the ceiling down to a crack inside a shelf. I presume they're burrowing a new area to live. I tried tossing talc powder to no effect. Theres even a 'chalk' posion just for ants that only causes them to find that tiny opening in the line, and keep on marching.

Sounds like you have an issue with pharaoh ants. We get them pretty good in Florida and from my understanding they are all over the world. They are next to impossible to eliminate. Your best best is to control with ant traps and limit the amount of "sweet" stuff you leave out! They are active little buggers aren't they? If you have a sense of humor you could always look at them as your own little ant farm. :)

[HomelessDiver]

oh hell, i just looked that up... sure nuf', its them. I'm off to find some boric acid now!

[jupitermermaid]

I'll vouch for the boric acid. You can place a fine line of it around the perimeter of the outside of your house so they don't come inside. If already inside, place it around the areas where they track (usually the baseboards, under the fridge and counters). They will injest it and DIE! One nice thing with boric acid is that it is not dangerous or poisionous to pets or children (just don't try to feed it to them to test it out). Much cheaper than hiring a pest control company.

[Belmont]

I live in a northern latitude and I have a recurring problem with ants in the spring.
When the weather warms up they come inside and they forage on the kitchen counter and even a speck of bread crumb attracts their attention, after a while there are a hundred around it.

I have purchased boric acid mixed in a thick syrup, just a few bucks.

I leave a few drops on a piece of aluminum paper in a corner on the kitchen counter. They bring this nice stuff to feed the queen and the other workers in the nest.

After three days they are all dead, I'm free of those pests for the summer.

Boric acid in a sweet syrup, it does the job.

[redrover]

Ant wars, you too? They are insane when the get a mind to. Like one borg mind thing. And in the tropics, there is no off season, nothing dies over the winter! Our islands have nick names, mine is The Bug Island.

Found the Master Bath Gang squatting in the top couple pieces of tissue of generic, fancy brand, whatever, unscented, no lotion Kleenex. After trying to just discard the box, they liked the new one just as much. At the moment I think (or hope) I've finally directed enough attention and time to keeping them out, can't remember when last I blew my nose and screamed G** Da** ANTS! It did take 6 months of serious attention (a lot of bait stations there for a month.

The Night Standers I finally discovered were holed up in the clock radio. Found that out when it quit working, tried a DIY repair and set an entire city population scurrying all over me. Bagged the radio, drenched it in insecticide and made a emergency Transfer Station deposit.

Then there is the kitchen, the cracks as you mention. Nothing more frightening than following them back to where they come from and finding it on the other side of the house.

My experience is to avoid annihilation Kill Kill KILL all you can see, except when overcome with passion. It works, but only for so long, they will march a mile to get around it. And I'm not really up to spraying the entire house or bombing every 3 months, I'm sensitive to the poisions.
Same with dry boric acid and Dichotomous Earth, they just go around it inside the house. Works well to keep the roaches and gigantic Centipedes from coming in thru doors and around concrete perimeter or at least they are dead when I see one.

Nothing seems to do much for the rest of the house on pilings. The Terminex guy never did more than what I can do either, not worth the $. I can slow down the new introductions, but the masses of Sweet Ants are already there.

I favor the enticing Big Bad Wolf scenario. Make little tiny foil boxes a bit bigger than a sugar cube. Put in a sugar cube, drench with Terro (http://www.terro.com/products.php?product=liquid_ant_killer) and keep them dosed every month or so. This seems to work the best. They live long enough take the poison home to mamma and feed it to the rest of them.

If the ants are incoming! as in a new cell moves in, place a lot of stations where they are coming to. In my kitchen they seem to live behind the cabinets and the ceiling beams so I leave the bait on the counter. The foil keeps the poison from getting into things or spilling. Also easy to see and remember to dose. Can move the little foil boxes out of the way when necessary but always keep some out, in out of the way places like behind the Toaster Oven.
Once under control, here any way, the secret is to keep the bait out for the new seekers to find. Now I don't have to clean so religiously. J (Like that really helped anyway.) Just never assume they are all gone, never to return. You just haven't seen them yet.

[Theunis]

Good luck with your ant problem HomelessDiver!!

I saw a program on Discovery Channel a while back about the Fire-ants in the US. I think it was called "the ant that eats America" or something. Those are horrible little buggers!

[deeper thoughts]

We use terro and it works pretty well

[Sasquatch]

I've found that these ants won't cross a line of Dawn dishwasing liquid.

[DennisS]

I use Ortho Ant-B-Gone. I'm in Florida and every once in awhile the ants pop up and are everywhere. If they're coming in a line to some goodie, I just sprinkle this stuff across the path in a few places. They stop coming and just disappear. It says the active ingredient is permethrin .25%, inert ingredients 99.75%. I'd recommend looking for something with permethrin in it.

[HomelessDiver]

i tried pemrethin, doesnt seem to work on these guys for some reason.

I searched for hours yesterday for some boric acid and no-one had a clue what I was talking about. Even the pharmacies, where its supposed to be one of the most common old-skool disinfectants. They dont have Terro here but the main ingrediant is Borax, from which boric acid is made.

Boric acid (not found) ---> Borax works a long time by causing slow dehydration b4 they know it ---> borax is in most soldering pastes as a flux ---> which I just happen to have a small tin of that someone sent me for free when I ordered a soldering iron from eBay a year ago.

I smeared some on the wall across the trail about 30 minutes ago and they went from a straight line to a 3ft dia gaggle looking like a group of **confused people**. We'll see how this turns out.

[Belmont]

You won't find boric acid in a pharmacy because it is poisonous when used as a disinfectant or cleaning agent for home use. Children are mostly affected and it would be absorbed trough the skin, baby diapers were often washed with boric acid added in the laundry.

Check with a lab supply house, I don't know if it's a controlled item.