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ants

suenmike32

suenmike32

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
679
Reaction score
35
Location
Albany, NY
Resorts Owned
MOW
We live in upstate NY. So far this year we have had a total of about 5 black ants in the house. (over the pas month). Each one in a different area.
My wife is paranoid and ready to spend (whatever it takes) to rid ourselves of this plague.
Remember....I said 5 black ants!
I've been using Home depots "Home Defense" as well as just purchasing "Amdro", and now she wants me to go to Agway and purchase more stuff (that a friend told her about.
Can somebody give me some support here? Ants are a fact of life in the summer....aren't they?
Remember....I said 5 black ants! (This is over the past month!).
Can someone tell me how or why people freak-out when an ant gets in the house?:crash:
 
Because we don't like ants. Where there are five ants, we ladies figure there will be more. Personally, I won't live in a house with any sort of bugs, insects, vermin, etc. They aren't "a fact of life in the summer."

So, my friend, what's it going to be? Spend a few dollars to make your wife feel more secure, or listen to her (rightfully, IMHO) complain about it? Only you know what your pain threshold is...

Fern
 
The 5 you've seen were probably scouts, out looking for something good to take back to the nest (or whatever it's called) and before they called in the troops. Ants are very organized and intelligent, so I don't think I'd be worrying too much about 5. Sometimes all it takes is a crumb and depending on the time of year ... I use Home Defense in FL and don't have an ant problem, so you should be fine.

Our cats stay outside on our porch when we're at work and I need to leave their dried food on the table otherwise the ants find it.
 
I think it would be helpful if the people responding will say if they are male or female if their username is not obvious, because I think it is going to come down to the YUCK factor. You know, ladies say "YUCK, get them out of here," and men say, "Its only five ants."

JMHO

Fern
 
OK, I'm female and I wouldn't freak out about ants. But don't get me started on mice. :ignore: :eek: :eek:

Ant traps should be sufficient. I don't like insecticide spray. It's too easy to contaminate something that will go in my or my children's mouths.
 
I also say YUCK!!! I don't like any insects in my house. I heard that if you but a small plate of baking soda/icing sugar mix in a plate on the floor (in their path), the worker ant we bring the mixture back to the queen and then KABOUM!!! It will make them explode.
Good luck,
Sandra
 
I usually get ants (medium black) every spring coming into the kitchen from my sliding door to the backyard. I have a small hammer which I covered with paper towel and hammered the little guys everytime I saw one until they just stopped coming.

One year I got really tiny weeny ants marching in a column from my kitchen electrical fixture on the wall to the kitchen counter. These ones creeped me out. I could not get rid of them by various methods that I tried. Called an exterminator. Problem solved.

I am not too upset with the medium ants. I think they are going to get in because of the sliding door. There are probably many small cracks around the door that they manage to widen and get in. This year I saw a couple of the medium ants. Killed them and the army did not advance into my kitchen.:cheer:

Good luck.
 
We have those little black that have a weird smell. They have been really bad this year, in the kitchen and bathrooms since fall. We do have regular pest treatment, outside only, and I asked them to spray outside and they have been better, but not gone, since.. I wash them off with vinegar on a paper towel. Vinegar confuses their scent trail and is likely to get rid of them, at least temporarily. Putting cinnamon around will keep them away, they won't cross it. I'm 59, female and don't freak out about most bugs, except a few big ones.
Liz
 
A few carpenter ants around during the day means they are scouts from a nearby nest that return to the nest at night. It could be in a neighbors house, a tree stump, a wooden fence, a rotten tree stump nearby or any other source of wood.

If you were to see them at night and/or in larger numbers, then it would be likely that the nest is in your home or very close to it. At this point calling an exterminator isnt going to do much except cost you $$.
 
I don't like them either...they don't scare me, I just don't want them in my house!
Connie
 
Yuck, we have had several carpenter ant scouts here. Hope the others got the message, cause these didn't return home. And our house is made of wood, we live near trees, and they are big big big.
 
Fern,
Trust me..."Amdro" isn't free. Home Defense (although relatively inexpensive isn't free. The Scott's lawn treatment for sure...isn't free. You're missing the point..I'm not opposed to spending to alleviate the problem. I was just sounding out to see if anyone else has it.
I'm thinking Silvib is probably correct in that an occasional scout is going to try and find goodies and tell the rest of the gang.
The house is immaculate....thats what probably drives my bride crazy.
I'm just not ready to bring in an exterminator for 5...did I say FIVE stinking ants!:doh:

Fern Modena said:
Because we don't like ants. Where there are five ants, we ladies figure there will be more. Personally, I won't live in a house with any sort of bugs, insects, vermin, etc. They aren't "a fact of life in the summer."

So, my friend, what's it going to be? Spend a few dollars to make your wife feel more secure, or listen to her (rightfully, IMHO) complain about it? Only you know what your pain threshold is...

Fern
Click to expand...
 
Hey, Mike, don't attack the messenger. You were looking for validation that your position (and not your wife's) is the correct one. I didn't give you that. Get over it. You've already made your mind up, plain and simple. Be glad you don't live on an ant hill, a place where there are subterranean yellow jackets, bee hives, etc. Over the years I've lived in all of them.

Now I live in Nevada. Where I live there are no flying insects, believe it or not.

Fern
 
Fern there never was an attack.
Additionally...I haven't arbitrarily made my mind up. Actually I just purchased additional product to try and stem the flow of scouts...(all 5 that is).
It seems to me that you've made your mind up (that bride is correct), because you don't like creepy crawley's either. Trust me...neither do I.
I'm trying to make sense of something that I think is a natural phenomena without getting paranoid. It was a simple question looking for other tugger's experiences.
By the way...NY has its share of bees, bats, snakes etc...but I'm not planning on going anywhere except to my timeshares.
Have a good day:)
 
five ants over the course of a month isn't something I'd get excited about. In the spring we get our annual ant traps to catch the scouts and that is that. I'm always looking for the hills outside to destroy their colonies.

The big creepy spider that was in our mud room last night? Can't handle those quite as well but it happens.

We live in a house built in the 40s, added onto and remodelled several times. Creepies will get in. best we can do is spray inside and out and kill what we see. For us, yes, they are a fact of life. We have a dog, a wooded lot and a DH that doesn't always close doors completely. We will never be completely bug-free so we make a token effort. Getting to 'guaranteed always bug free' would be a lot of work that we won't go to and that guarantee part will never be guaranteed!

Everyone has their own ideas about bug thresholds. I can tolerate a few but not spiders.
 
I'm female and 5 ants don't send me reeling. Now if they were bigger and still only 5 in number, that would be another story - DH would need to come to the rescue.
 
I've had good luck with Home Defense spray. I live in the woods and see my share of ants. Look for any rotting wood on or around your house if they are carpenter ants. Eliminate or move the rotting wood (firewood pile, etc.).

I've also heard of using a pine based cleaner for counter tops to keep the small type ants in check. It worked at a timeshare in FL. :D
 
It only takes one...

crawling around in the sensor of your smoke detector to make you break out the spray. It took me three times to figure out what was happening.
 
Slightly off the subject but....

Has anyone got the tiny red bugs in their yard? They are smaller than ants ( the size of the period at the end of this sentence) and don't seem to bite or bother us, but are all over our patio this year. If you squash them they leave a red smear on your hand. Does anyone know what they are and how to get rid of them?

BTW, I agree that 5 ants in a month is probably not a major cause for alarm- would expect many more before it signals a problem. You will get bugs in your house no matter what you do- they can sneak in through the tiniest holes and cracks. They only are an issue if you get an infestation.
 
We've had periodic invasions of ants in our kitchen. I don't appreciate them, but what freaks me out is when we can't tell where they're coming from...or what they're after. Corn meal seems to be a pretty good deterrent, if you can figure out from whence they came, but with only 5, and at various times, that's a real challenge. Wishing you success in your quest. Jean
 
Last edited:
tlwmkw said:
Has anyone got the tiny red bugs in their yard? They are smaller than ants ( the size of the period at the end of this sentence) and don't seem to bite or bother us, but are all over our patio this year. If you squash them they leave a red smear on your hand. Does anyone know what they are and how to get rid of them?.
Click to expand...


Someone had recently told me that they are chiggers. We have them in South Carolina, but I've never known what they were. If they attach themselves to your skin, they are supposed to cause intense itching.

I've got a sure thing to kill the ants. Living in the South, we have our home sprayed quarterly for all kinds of insects. But, it seems that these tiny black ants are immune. They don't get into food, but are looking for water. They come in through the electrical outlets and march back and forth along the backsplash to the kitchen sink (no where else). They come by the hundreds (no lie). I use TERRO ant killer. I buy it at Lowes and it is a clear liquid that comes in a tiny bottle. I bend a small post it note and put a large drop of this liquid on it and stick it on the wall next to the outlet they are coming in and also along their "traffic pattern". They flock to it immediately (and it's gross to watch how many - but don't be tempted to smush them), gobble it up and take it back to the nests. By the next day, I don't see a one.
 
I don't think tlwmkw has chiggers, as he says they don't bother him. I've gotten into chiggers, also called red bugs, several times and they are irritating (no pun intended). They are related to ticks but are almost microscopic. They burrow into the skin in places that stay moist, behind the knees, armpits, crotch, etc. The only cheap way to get rid of them is to daub each spot with fingernail polish to smother them. In the case of a bad attack (like mine), I used hair spray on the infected areas. Thankfully it was behind the knees and not the crotch area.
 
tlwmkw said:
Has anyone got the tiny red bugs in their yard? They are smaller than ants ( the size of the period at the end of this sentence) and don't seem to bite or bother us, but are all over our patio this year. If you squash them they leave a red smear on your hand. Does anyone know what they are and how to get rid of them?
Click to expand...

Probably red spider mites. I squashed one today myself. Check with your local garden extension (county) to see what they recommend for your area.
 
suenmike32 said:
...
My wife is paranoid and ready to spend (whatever it takes) to rid ourselves of this plague.
Remember....I said 5 black ants!
Click to expand...

Better not take her to see the new Indiana Jones movie.:D

Five don't bother me but it alerts me to watch for more. Ants come into my basement from the crawl space (I think) under the front addition. I put out the ant traps that contain poison. They take it back to the nest and the problem goes away for several months to a year.
 
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