• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.

Ants are trying to invade my kitchen and I have no idea where they are coming in from.

maxxpower

maxxpower

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,950
California
I despise summer for many reasons, one of them being ants fucking trying to come into your house uninvited. I can typically find where their trail beings but these ants just seem to be coming from every angle. Do bug spray foggers help with ants?

Sidenote: Yes, I've been killing these ants with my finger, has anyone ever noticed that they smell kinda minty when you squish them with your fingers?
 
Brass Body Dave

Brass Body Dave

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
16,568
Call an exterminator, and keep your shit clean. If you're smelling a sort of menthol smell, they're a particular type of ant. Pay a professional.
 
Schlep

Schlep

Member
Oct 29, 2017
1,772
Had this last year, and had to get pest control out. Unlikely you'll be able to handle it on your own if they're coming from multiple places.
 
ElectricBlanketFire

ElectricBlanketFire

What year is this?
Member
Oct 25, 2017
31,833
These work like a charm:

91Sl%2BI74ypL._AC_SX522_.jpg
 
Z-Beat

Z-Beat

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
31,842
Just call a professional. If you can't find a line then it may be too big for you to contain on your own
 
Ricker

Ricker

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,983
Beautiful Province of Quebec.
Not much you can do really...It happens to me every year at this time or a little earlier and lasts about 1 week...ant traps in corners,inside your kitchen pantries and lots of squashing...clear bread crumbs and stuff like that right away...it mostly happens in the kitchen for me.
 
Joshua

Joshua

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,711
I had some ant invasions this summer already and instead of clearing them out I got a few ant traps and put them directly in their paths. They were ALL over these traps in no time and I couldn't find a single ant within 12 hours.
 
nsilvias

nsilvias

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,722
keep your windows closed if you dont need them open. i always have ants come in if i leave them open too long and am handling food in that area during that time
 
Shudouken

Shudouken

Member
Jun 19, 2019
793
I got some sort of liquid solution that said they carry it back to the nest and share it with other ants, then die from poison there.
 
Gravidee

Gravidee

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,357
In order to find where the ants are coming from, you must first think like an ant. Become the ant!
 
Br3wnor

Br3wnor

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,982
Ricker said:
Not much you can do really...It happens to me every year at this time or a little earlier and lasts about 1 week...ant traps in corners,inside your kitchen pantries and lots of squashing...clear bread crumbs and stuff like that right away...it mostly happens in the kitchen for me.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Pretty much. Just laid my traps today, mostly does the trick, main thing is just not letting any type of crumbs or anything linger. Like my wife must have dropped a hit of chocolate ice cream last night that I didn't see and this morning there was just a fucking line going the whole kitchen floor to it, ants were feasting all night.
 
EN1GMA

EN1GMA

Avenger
Nov 7, 2017
3,271
Look outside your house around the foundation. Most likely you have one or more ant nests outside and they can slip through the tiniest of cracks.

ter_us-t1806-1.fw

Place several of these near the nest or around the foundation of your house. They are weather proof and work. Takes a bit of time to get going but eventually it will wipe out the nest.
 
carlos

carlos

Member
Oct 25, 2017
429
m.youtube.com

Follow Him Home...

Space Ghost = Best Super Hero Ever."It must be one of those immortal, repeatng, frankenants.""I think it's just another, different ant.""A second ant? No, no...
m.youtube.com m.youtube.com
 

MickeyShaban

User requested temporary ban
Member
Nov 11, 2019
203
If they are tiny black ants, you have food somewhere exposed. Could be dog food too, which was in my case. Just clean the area daily until gone or use the above mentioned stuff.

I did not need an exterminator.
 

Deleted member 60582

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 12, 2019
2,152
If they're Odorous House Ants the Terro bait should work. Place it around the sinks, coffee pot, toaster, etc. anything that is warm and has access to a water source. You could also apply some Borax powder under the sink where the pipes meet the wall and in other cracks and crevices they might be coming in through. Walk outside the kitchen and look in the weepholes between bricks and you'll probably see a line of them going in and out, and you can split one of those Terro traps open and drip some of the liquid nearby or in the weephole itself. It might take a little while, but it'll work.
 
Matticers

Matticers

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,190
Terro works well, like others have said. Get some of that, set it down, stop squishing them and let it do it's thing. They'll bring it back to the colony and kill them off that way. Even if you don't see where they're getting in from, just leave it in the area you normally see them at.
 

Skulldead

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,450
Create or Tame a spider army


or you should call a exterminator before thing get way worse in no time.
 
Graefellsom

Graefellsom

Avenger
Oct 28, 2017
1,625
A few years ago I had a stream of them coming in from the garden, marching to the kitchen. I vacuumed up lots of the fuckers. I poured viniger(I think) at the doors to throw their scent off.For some reason I can't remember if I resorted to pouring a little bit of water into their entrance in the garden though.


doesn't squishing ants send out a scent that summons ants to the location of their death like wasps and bees?
 
jett

jett

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,653
Been waging chemical warfare on some fucking ants for a couple of weeks. A few days ago I finally found out where they were popping out from and sprayed the shit out of them. That seems to have stopped them from now. Good luck OP.
 
C.Mongler

C.Mongler

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
3,880
Washington, DC
ElectricBlanketFire said:
These work like a charm:

91Sl%2BI74ypL._AC_SX522_.jpg
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Was coming to post these, though I hear there's different kinds of ants that go for different traps, so look at alternatives if these don't do the trick.

Put a few of these things out along the paths you see the ants on. Don't fuck with the ants by squishing them or spraying them or anything or it might make them change course; for traps you kind of have to accept your ant problem for a week. After the first day or two you might actually have more ants. This is fine, that means they think they've found a fuckin' goldmine in these traps and they're sending all the whole hive to collect the loot. After day 4 or 5 you should start to see less and less of them. By day 7-10, you should have wiped out their nest and have no more ants!
 
inner-G

inner-G

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
14,473
PNW
Smash them but leave their carcasses laying there as reminders to other ants that may think of invading.
 

SRG01

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,014
You also have to outcompete the food source they're going for, so putting out traps alone won't work. Clean up your place and remove any sources of food.
 
AlanMandragoran

AlanMandragoran

Member
Jan 1, 2020
11
maxxpower said:
These ants do hace a menthol smell. Are they some kind of special ants?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
If they are tiny black ants with an odor, they are usually argentine ants. They can have giant colonies so they are a challenge to get rid of. Check the foundations of your place too, they are going back and forth to an outside colony maybe a few yards away. Ortho Home Defense is what I reccomend to people who don't want to sign up for pest control and what your views on pesticides are. You may also look into EvoVia EC (green alternative)

I've worked in pest control for two and half years now, if that means anything)
 
BadAss2961

BadAss2961

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,069
4QLX8lb.jpg


Sprinkle some of this shit around the house and the results are near instant (like the next day or two) every season.

They can't resist bringing it back to the queen.
 
skeptem

skeptem

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,745
I feel you OP. New house, and I've never had it this bad.

BadAss2961 said:
4QLX8lb.jpg


Sprinkle some of this shit around the house and the results are near instant (like the next day or two) every season.

They can't resist bringing it back to the queen.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
So I do this and it's worked at my old house. Just moved to a new one, and these things must have underground tunnels into the basement or something. Going to call a local guy I know, would rather pay him $100 than continuing to spend money on poison and traps that aren't working.

colute said:
Exterminators no , don't worth the money to call them , DIY
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I'd say if depends. I work with a lot of exterminators for work and maintaining multiple buildings. Some of the house call folks will charge you hundreds of dollars for what amounts to something you can get at Home depot. Others will help you identify sources and help remediate the problem so it doesn't happen again.
 
mhayes86

mhayes86

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,246
Maryland
+1 for the Terro Liquid Bait Traps.

They've worked quite well for me, but be aware that there will be a ton of ants for a few days until it starts killing them off.
 
ShOcKwAvE

ShOcKwAvE

Member
Oct 27, 2017
514
Carlsbad, CA
My recent ant infestation was due to a rainy few days where the ants were just driven from their normal "nest" or whatever it's called. They found an entrance to my garage and then somehow made a route to a hole on the other side. Basically just ants moving back and forth through these holes. Lots of them.

I put down a bunch of bait traps. They blew through them all and while many ants died, evidenced by the corpses all along their route, the living ants just moved all the dead bodies and kept coming through.

I decided to get some ant/pest spray and drenched the areas around the holes. That did the trick.
 

SRG01

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,014
ShOcKwAvE said:
My recent ant infestation was due to a rainy few days where the ants were just driven from their normal "nest" or whatever it's called. They found an entrance to my garage and then somehow made a route to a hole on the other side. Basically just ants moving back and forth through these holes. Lots of them.

I put down a bunch of bait traps. They blew through them all and while many ants died, evidenced by the corpses all along their route, the living ants just moved all the dead bodies and kept coming through.

I decided to get some ant/pest spray and drenched the areas around the holes. That did the trick.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Some ants have multiple queens so it's super hard to get rid of them using bait alone, unfortunately :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.