wrote in message
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Hello all,
I have not posted here in some time, but after spending two hours
wandering all over the internet looking for help for an ant problem,
it occurred to me that people had commented on having ants on their
orchids & I thought maybe someone here might have some advice. I've
searched the archives, & found several recipes, including Ray's home
remedies & a comment from Bob Walsh in 2005 about getting rid of
carpenter ants. I think this is what we have, & while they are
attracted to the sticky exudate on the orchids, there is a far worse
problem with a general house invasion.
I would like to know if anyone has had particular success with any of
these remedies, especially for carpenter ants. Since we are not sure
exactly where all the colonies are, we need some kind of bait, but
much of what I've read this evening is discouraging & suggests baits
are generally ineffective for carpenter ants as they do not eat solid
food. Also, we don't want to spray anything that the kitty will get
into. Is Borax really safe to use around pets? Is there any
alternative if I can't find it?
Thank you for any ideas -- I know the questions have been asked many
times previously & I will try some of the recipes if I can get any
Borax -- we are in a very isolated area. Just wanted to know what
people have actually done, not just heard about, that really WORKED.
Thanks!

Alison

I can't speak to carpenter ants. We have argentinian ants (IIRC). Baits
never worked at my house. My neighbors swear up and down that they worked
for them, but I think their ants just moved over to our house, *G*. Since
we stopped drinking high calorie Cokes they have stopped invading the house,
pantry, cat food and garage. I was floored. I know the little b*st*rds are
still out there because we left just a bit of icing from a cake in the
garage and they swarmed it like a scene from a sci-fi movie. They just
aren't coming in teh house anymore. We also moved the garbage cans away
from the house-side of the yard. I hate to say this because its a lot of
work, but check your recyclables to be sure they are rinsed before you put
them out. Yes, you'll feel like a crazy lady with obsessive compulsive
disorder when you do this.

They still invade the greenhouse searching for water and sweets. I killed
off the last ant trail with plain old 409. I doubt that would keep them
away forever, though. This summer I've been treating for scale, so they
haven't invaded the GH becasue there's so much other insecticide around.

K Barrett