Dealing With an Ant Invasion?

Here are some of the DIY ant control techniques suggested by our neighbors.

Kill Them Strategy

1. Cream of Wheat

This technique involves sprinkling dry Cream of Wheat, right out of the box, on the anthill or as close to it as possible.

The theory is that ants eat it and it dehydrates them and kills them.

Effectiveness: This technique may not be that effective. See here.

2. Terro and Advion

Terro liquid bait stations seem to work best. Follow the ant trail to find the nest (usually in the ground.) Put ant baits around the nest and trail. It will take a few days to work.

Advion Ant Gel might be even more effective than Terro. It comes in a handy syringe so you can inject its thick gel into corners and cracks that the ants are traveling in.

Effectiveness: Takes a few days to work. But if there are other ways to get into the house, ants will come back. (See Keep-them-out-of-the-house strategy below)

Termidor (Fibronil)

See Spray section below

Keep Them Out of the House Strategy

You don’t necessarily need to wipe out the ants (probably an impossible goal), just keep them out of your house. Here are a few steps to achieve that:

1. Clear out the vegetation immediately next to your home so you can see the base of the house on all sides.
2. try to figure out where the ants are coming into the house by following their trail. One suggestion is to put a dollop of honey where the ants are traveling (inside the house) and wait an hour or so. Then follow the ant trail all the way to where they are coming in from.
3. block their entry:
   • use ant spray (see suggestions below) along the base of the house where the ants were coming in.
   • used a thin line of dish soap where the ants are coming in from. The ants can’t cross that line. They eventually find other ways to get in, and you continue the process of putting down thin lines of dish soap. Eventually they give up and go somewhere else.
4. kill the remaining ants in the house and use household cleaner inside the house along their path and any spots where they were coming in
5. Seal off the points of entry using a silicon sealant.

Suggested Sprays

Natural and Non-Toxic

• Orange Oil
• Ant Away Natural Spray

Poison/Toxic

• Window Cleaner
• Termidor is a slow acting poison that social insects spread throughout their nest by contact. Seems pretty effective. See this YouTube, wiki (Fipronil). But Fipronil is toxic to bees and should not be applied to vegetation when bees are foraging.
• Home made spray:
  • 3 parts sugar
  • 1 part borax
  • 14 parts water

General Advice

1. Always investigate where the ants are coming from and going to — generally, ants are the predator and termites and their larvae are the prey. 
2. Once the path into the house is removed, the ants often will re-route and likely won’t bother you again for a while. I often have to do this once every winter – it seems the ants start changing routes with the weather change and sometimes wander into the house. It costs me a couple hours of work and a few bucks (and a bit of swearing).

Professional Services

If you cannot be bothered to do it yourself, here are some recommended professional services used by neighbors.

• Habitat Pest Control (Pet friendly)
• Planet Orange (non toxic, pet friendly)
• Orkin