Someone enlighten me here! We're paying hundreds to eliminate ants from our household. They're not in the house yet, but building and hovering around outside. Can I really use Dawn to keep them at bey? You all must know also that ants are only at bey as much as your neighbors efforts. They commune between households and it's not a one-time kill. So what do you recommend for the regular use of Dawn?

I read that Ants leave a little wee wee scent trail for other ants in the colony to follow to the food source. If you clean that scent trail they will zig zag and walk in larger and larger circular areas to try to find the lost scent. Clean the trail all the way back to where they enter a home is a good thing !!

Soap works well. But you have to keep doing it for a while until they give up trying to locate their once established food source and stumble onto another tasty treat location. Like maybe some well placed tasty ant poison to take home and reduce the colony.

I am glad to hear that the Dawn worked for you.

If you don't mind, I would like to give a similar Whoo-Whoo for the Terro liquid ant baits in the pre-filled bait stations.

I moved into an old house which turned out to have an ant problem. I kept finding them in the kitchen even after a thorough cleaning, including moving the stove and scrubbing it inside and out. I also noticed ants in the bathroom located at the other end of the house on another floor. Not a lot, just two ants in the bathtub every morning. First I tried to be scrupulously clean in the kitchen but that didn't work, neither did various bug sprays.

So I bought a package of Terro and followed the directions on the package. I located the spot in the kitchen (on the counter) where the ant trail entered the house. I placed all six bait stations in a semicircle on the counter after cutting them open as directed. I left them there for 10 days. In the first days, I watched a steady stream of ants come and go, and then the numbers decreased, with none by day eight. On day ten, I carefully picked up the bait traps and placed in the garbage.

It has been over three months and I have not seen one ant in my house. Even the ants that were scouting the upstairs bathroom disappeared. Terro is an impressive product.

The great thing about the Terro bait, besides the fact that it works, is that you aren't spraying poison in your house. The Terro ant bait is a combination of Borax and sweet syrup.

Here is a link that might be useful: Terro ant bait stations

Borax ant powder is at 99cent stores but It leaves a white powder around inside or outside, not sure what it would do to plants but it isn't pretty to look at but is safe for someone with allergies like me!! I haven't had any luck with ant stations by Antrol?? I just spray an unscented ant spray around all door entrances after I clean them on outside & inside & that has cut them down to almost zero. You can use a bit of clear glue if you actually see a hole they are coming in from. OH, Borax used to be mixed with water for an eyewash for irritated eyes so it is not toxic but would read the label about pets & kids. "Victor" is a great ant control but hard to find & I think it's chemicals. Bro. uses it in TX & sprays around outside of house couple of times a yr is all.

Another vote for Terro (on sale at Target now by the way). I have a darker granite on my counters and it was really unnerving when you would see all of these ants scatter from seeminly nowhere. This year, I found the trail in was my patio door. I bought a terro ant stake and placed it right outside the door. Not one ant all season!! It worked great and I highly recommend it.

Terro bait traps are the ONLY thing that's ever worked for me to get rid of ants, inside and out.

Deanna

I just bought Terro 3 days ago after having several 'ant events' over the past month. Seems to be something we experience every summer. I put two of the little 'patches' up in my Garden window (kitchen) but I'm racking my brain trying to come up with other places to put them where the dogs won't have access to them. Someone suggested behind doors but I'm worried about doing that. I would love to get some down to ground level tho.

A comment on Sunnyca suggestion on boric acid for ants. You can use the eye wash as a spray rather than using the crystals. If one of your pets is sensitive cleaning their paws may give them trouble. I have used the eyewash not only for ants but a couple of years ago 1993 when we had fleas real bad. If worried about the concentration or if leave as dust on hard surfaces wipe with a damp cloth or mop.

Do not use directly on your animals.

Borax is actually toxic, although it has had some uses which would seem to imply that is not the case and it is sometimes suggested as a more enviro friendly alternative to other things. It's complicated and I don't fully understand it so I won't try to explain, I'll just say it's best to do some research before deciding whether it's the best thing to use for any particular purpose.

I also use ant bait traps -- I can't imagine them bothering anyone with allergies since they are pretty odorless. Leave em out and let the ants go at em -- they take the poison back to the nest with them.

Borax is toxic, so is dishwashing liquid and table salt. So is water in sufficient quantity.

I would think that borax in a proper bait is okay, but sprinkling borax randomly around is not. Like I said, do some research.

I normally are over in the garden section but stopped in the other day to see what is here. I find it curious all the comments that substances mention are toxic. Why would they not be toxic since they kill?

I would like to know of some non toxic ways to get rid of ants? Please do not mention corn meal or corn gulten because when taken back to the ants home they become moldy and the mold produces a toxin.

I hope this is not to off topic.

Maifleur, what do you think of the OP's approach using Dawn dishwashing liquid - do you consider that toxic?

Completely non-toxic would be blocking their entry into the house, keeping a scrupulously clean house, and smashing the scout ants that come in.

You could try the picnic approach of putting food outside away from the house to distract them, but in the long run that would create new colonies, I imagine.

Diatomaceous earth works on cockroaches - I wonder if it works on ants?

Of course toxins are in Dawn. My post was a tongue in cheek concerning the toxic products. I was wanting to see what popped into the "horrors it is toxic" posters minds.

I do like the idea of blocking the entry but I think not building the house so you would not worry about the ants coming in would be better:))

I have the big black ants this year, for the first time. The small brown ones were easy, any brand of ant trap worked on them. But these new black ones donÂt seem to like the same things. DonÂt seem to go for sweet food. I do find them in the garbage can so I know they are eating something. ItÂs not getting much use when you canÂt put food in it! (the kids forget, though) We are having to bag up all food and prep waste and carry it outside to the garage (where, interestingly, there are no antsÂgo figure.)

But all the ant poisons I find mention, "works on sweet eating ants". What do you do if they are NOT sweet eating ants?!?

Don't try this if you have any pets or anything.

tiny black ants invaded my bathroom. So me and my friend literally hosed down the bathroom with bleach. The ants then stopped appearing in the bathroom, but some ha escaped into my room. I noticed there were certain places where they stayed, and I looked on the ground by my bed and saw at least 30 ants hanging out down there. So I moved my bed and I vacuumed where they hung out. I Got rid of 80% of them. The rest of the ants (only about 10-13 more ants) Were crawling in the same places everyday. So I took a towel and wiped down where they were crawling. I see no more ants so far, and it's rainy season. Next we are going to shampoo the carpet to get rid of their scent trails. If you do it frequently (like 3 times a day) they might give up on trying to find the scent trail. This completely uses soap and bleach, if you aren't ok with the toxins then I rwcommend you not to use it.