Ants????

I have small ants in my bathroom sink only, for the second year. What to do????? TIA!!!

Try cleaning with an orange type cleaner. I can't be sure but think it's helping with some small ones that have found their way into my house.

Maybe the ones I have are immune to the orange stuff, I use it all the time. Thanks, I do appreciate your post...

Oh no....then maybe it's just my imagination. LOL Are they coming up the drain? Why not have fun and make a vinegar and baking soda volcano and see if that rinses them down.

I'm ashamed to tell you all the stuff I've tried, but every sort of product and concoction I can dream up, zero luck. Yes, I assume they are coming up the drain and I cannot stand looking at them. The only ants I've ever had were in my yard, not in my house. If you think of something, do let me know. TIA!!!! Oh, I put out stuff just for ants, and I didn't 'catch' a single one....

I recently moved into a rental house in Arlington, VA and had a similar experience with very small ants in the bathroom and in the kitchen. Tried baits and nothing worked until I bought an ant spray (either from CVS Drugstore or Home Depot...don't recall). No more ants! The product is called Hot Shot Roach & Ant Killer. It kills on contact and keeps on killing for 12 weeks. It also has a floral scent. Prior to spraying I cleaned all surfaces to ensure there was nothing sugary or greasy to draw the ants. Sprayed primarily around the floor around the sink cabinets. On their website I bought the red canister. Hope this helps.

http://www.hotshotbrand.com/ProductCategories/IndoorInsecticides/RoachAntKiller/

I have found the only thing that works for me is "Terro" ant Killer. It is a clear , sticky liquid. You put a few drops out , they swarm to it, eat it, take it back to the colony, and die. It usually takes me three days of putting it out, and then they are gone for good. I buy it at the local hardware store. Hope it woks for you.

The Terro will not work in my area, don't have a clue why, I tried it with no luck. I will try the Hot Shot and I've used it before, but these ants must be coming outta the drain pipe, I have not seen a single one on the floor or any place except the bathroom sink. Weird. I will try the Terro again, since I already have some & the Hot Shot too. Thanks to you guys for posting!!!

I'm having a similar problem in my morning room and adjacent kitchen sink. And now they're showing up elsewhere every once in a while! Tried the baits, tried instant grits (dumb idea, these ants are way too small to eat them), tried mixing borax with a little powdered sugar, nothing is working. We have some spray that's effective, but as it gives me migraines it's not a very workable solution. I will look for the Tero & the Hot Shot, but I suspect the floral scent of the latter may be problematic for me.

I think my ants are mostly living in my plant pots, so if nothing else, maybe I can get rid of them when the weather warms up. The pots will go back on the deck, and I can spray a little if I can also keep the windows open! Next year, we will definitely dose all the plants with ant spray before bringing them inside. Meanwhile, we'll just keep squashing them!

I quit house plants, but did them for years and found that, except flying bugs, the crawlers stayed with the plants and I don't remember ever seeing ants with them or in that house, built on concrete. I've been told that these ants like houses with crawl space, but not always, my son's daughter has them in her bathroom, only, the other baths do not have them. Weird. Mine seem to have disappeared, over a week, close to two weeks, and I used some cheap orange, faux pine cleaner, that I had forgotten under the sink, and they disappeared - granddaughter used it too and her bath is also clear, but we still wonder if they just left on their on and that some weather condition caused it...

Went to the LGS yesterday and bought a box of diatomaceous earth to sprinkle in my plant pots and in the corners where the ants have been hanging out. It may possibly be working!! I will keep you posted.

I'm sure I could've found the DE more cheaply at a place that sold swimming pool or restaurant supplies, but my $5 box will last me a very long time for indoor use! I'll probably stick with the bait for controlling slugs (love the names, like EscarGO!), but I may experiment with using a sprinkle of DE for that as well.

Geeze, I LOVE EscarGO, whew, ROTFLOL!!! Does the DE do something for the swimming pool??? And, that's an unusual combo, restaurant supplies/swimming pools...we have some unusual combos here too, lol!!!

DE is used in filters, so it has both food service and swimming pool applications. I think restaurants use it in filtering grease, and the food grade DE is supposed to have smaller particle size, making it even better for killing garden pests. There's another thread on using DE to control slugs, etc.

Sorry, I'm so dense, but what does DE do to the filters (clean it, I guess?), I have a pool but I've never heard of it being used. TIA!!

It is used as a mechanical filtration medium. Since diatomaceous earth is made up of very small particles (silicon "skeletons" of diatoms), if you use it as a layer in a mechanical filter, it will trap other particles (down to a very small size) as the water or oil or whatever passes through it.

I've heard you can use artificial sweetner to kill ants. I haven't tried it, but my friend said it worked for her.

Well, I've sprinkled DE along the edge of the floor, in my plant pots, and against the back of the kitchen counter where the teeny ants were congregating. They are not entirely gone, but we think their numbers are greatly reduced. :-)

Hi, I'm the office manager for my local Extension Service in Houghton County Michigan and I get the calls like this starting this time of year. For those of you where the warm weather is just beginning, ants overwinter in walls and with the onset of the warmth, they come to life and start moving around. They really want to be outside but it's just a bit too cold yet. They will go though. I have this problem (I live in the country) every year.

For you in the country where it's been warm for a while, many of our clients have had luck against ants by using bone meal or powdered charcoal in the cracks where the critters come in. Also, and this is for real....some people take a few drops of honey and mix with regular baking yeast, put the mixture on cardboard near where the ants come in. The ants think this is a feast, eat it up and.....explode! Really, I'm not making it up. You can also put a product called "Tanglefoot" around where they come it. It's a sticky substance; once they get caught on it, they can't get off. Also, plants which you can grow that repel ants are: pennyroyal, spearment, southernwood and tansy. I hope this helps.
Maureen

I came from outta town the other day, to find ants, yet again. My problem is that I don't like using toxic stuff around the kitchen. I had nothing else to use except some foam, orange, carpet cleaner. I sprayed it on them and it killed them, I couldn't believe it. Some returned, but for a quick fix in a food area, I would suggest the orange carpet foam...