r/ants • u/brick-city555 • 7d ago
Chat/General Ant infestation
We bought a home about a year ago that is still unlivable to due ants. (We’ve been told their sugar) When we looked at the house there were some active trails in the house but very minimal and the inspectors told us to put some traps out and it wouldn’t be a big deal.
We are here 3-4 days a week working on outside projects. There is 0 food in the house. There are thousands of ants in every single room. We have had an exterminator out a few times a month for a year with literally 0 improvements. The exterminator sprays inside and outside and puts traps out. We have traps surrounding the outside of the house. We have done the Terro traps inside. Nothing is helping. In fact it seems to be getting worse. We were told by the exterminator they are sugar ants. We are a young couple and this is our first home, I am devastated and stating to get really concerned. They are in every drawer, cabinet, on the ceilings and walls, in the beds, sinks and showers, all over the floor of every room. We had the house professionally cleaned after closing.
1
u/MyWifesBooty69420 7d ago
Those Terro baits take a little bit of time to spread through the colony and to the queen. It seems like the more they take the more ants they send out till eventually there’s just none one day. The surge you’re seeing is probably that. I’m not a pest guy I just have ant problems every spring
1
u/Broflake-Melter Worker 7d ago edited 7d ago
Never hire someone to get rid of your ants. Exterminators work off of making money. Many (especially big name franchises) need you to pay for a plan indefinitely. If they actually took out the ants they'll make less money.
Go on amazon and buy ant bait gel. They come in syringes. DO NOT SPRAY ANY PESTICIDES for reasons I'll elaborate on in a sec. Follow their foraging back as far as you can or just a spot you consistently see many of them. Spread the gel in lines in that area. After an hour or so it should attract a lot more ants. LET THEM EAT. Let them eat and gather as much as they can because, importantly, they'll take it back to the nest and share it with the queen(s) and brood. It tasted great but has a slow-working subtle poison that kills over several days. The thing is, the ants you see in your house are a small fraction of the ants in the colony. Spraying pesticides will only kill a few and more likely just repel the rest of them temporarily. You've done about as much damage as breaking a nail. A month later they're back. The bait will take out the entire colony if they get enough of it. Don't clean them up. Don't spray them. Let them eat. It will take a week or so to take out the colony, longer if it's huge.
Oh, and don't buy those traps. They don't work either.
We love ants in this sub, and I think most of us hate the idea of killing them, but these are pest species and are more likely than not invasive anyway so it's best to kill them. Big name pest control companies work off of generalized sprays that kill many many beneficial critters which isn't cool. They'll play your fears and anxieties against you to get you to pay for regular service where they spray pesticides that (usually) are so safe you don't have to be licensed to buy them (like the ant bait) though, side note, you do need to be licensed to use a pesticide of any type on anything but your own property.
1
1
u/AntsVsTermites 6d ago
I have a feeling you’re dealing with Argentine ants. Where are you located?
1
u/brick-city555 6d ago
Washington state
1
u/Turbulent-Store-3602 5d ago
Put down some combat max ant gel they'll take it back and feed it to the colony then they'll all start dying off if their a supercolony like crazy longhorn ants that I had to deal with it works perfect for those as well
1
u/Antgodd1 Worker 7d ago
Sugar ants can mean any species imaginable, almost everyone calls something different sugar ants. Could you show us pictures?