Ant invasion

12 years ago

We have a rental property in another state. The tenant called up a couple months ago and said there were termites in the house. We called a local pest control company, they went out to assess the situation and said there were some ant colonies in the walls and in the trees in our backyard and the yard of our neighbor. They recommended a 4-part extermination procedure that took 2 hours and cost nearly $600.

The ants got worse. Kids can't sleep in their rooms because of the infestation. We called the company back, they said the ants would increasingly come out of the walls, but they'd die and/or they'd take poison out to the colonies in the trees and kill everything. Said it'd take 2-3 weeks to gradually reduce the numbers. (Really???)

After 3 weeks, still hordes of ants crawling out of the walls, and few of them dying. So we called the pest control company to come back again and do some warranty work.

It's been a week. Tenant says it's no better. Kids still sleeping in the living room, ants coming in through drains and cracks in floor, only about 1/3 of them dying.

What gives? Is this pest control company a complete crock? What do we need to do to fix this?

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Comments (5)

randy427
12 years ago
I'd call another pest control company.
daburke
12 years ago
It does take some time for the Ants to be gone. In the mean time, AND TO keep the tenant happy. Suggest to her to get some corn meal, if she could put some in a coffee grinder to make it as fine as possible. You could offer to send her one that she can keep, people love free stuff! Place the fine corn meal in the area's where there are ants and also out side near/on the nests.The ant will take the corn meal back to the nest, feed themselves and the queen. Once injested, it expands with water and they explode/ die. So I'm told, but it did work for me here in Mass like a charm. It did take a few dustings of corn meal, but there gone. Ask the exterminator what their food source is? so you can remove it. Share the info with your tenant. As a land lord myself I always tell tenants what is attracting the bugs, via an e-mail. It's then up to them to take note and clean up the area. Should they ever complain to a town health dept, I have proof I did my part. Good Luck
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ionized_gw
12 years ago
Eat corn meal, explode and die. I almost exploded from laughing so hard about that.
tim45z10
12 years ago
For the Argentine ant in Ca. I use 1 cup water 1/3 cup sugar 1t boric acid. Bring it to a boil and place in out of the way places. They take it back to the nest and it kills the entire colony.
barbcollins
12 years ago
We use a product called Amdro Ant Block and it works great.

About $20 for a bottle at HD or Lowes.
http://www.baitisbetter.com/index.php/ant_block/

It is tiny pellets that you sprinkle around the outside of the house along the foundation. The reason it works so well is that the ants think it is food and take it back to the colony. Once the Queen eats it and dies that whole colony dies off.

We get ants in the house every spring. I put out the Ant Block and within a day they start disappearing, and a couple days later they are gone. New colonies do come back a couple times a year, but I just apply more Ant Block.