"SteveB" wrote in message
...

"OhioGuy" wrote in message ...
Temps here in Ohio have gone up into the upper 80's suddenly, and there
are loads of ants in our house. More specifically, there are loads and
loads of tiny 1/8" long ants, primarily in our kitchen and bathroom.
These are the ones that normally seem to be after sweets or grease.

I first noticed them in the bathroom, on the kids toothbrushes. They
use a kids toothpaste that is a very sweet gel kind with sorbitol, so I
got rid of that. It didn't stop the ants. I finally noticed they were
also congregating around the sea monkey container in the kids' room, and
I noticed then that they were going anywhere there was water.

Not only has it been hot, it has also been dry. I think that the ants
finally came out of hibernation, and have been searching for some food,
but especially water for their colony.

The trouble is, it is especially sickening to come in to the bathroom
and find ants all over your cup, your toothbrush, etc. I used to take a
drink at night with the light off, but no more. I'm afraid I'd be
drinking ants along with the water!

I've tried spraying Diazinon outside the house along the foundation,
wherever I see a little line of ants. It works a bit, for perhaps a day
at most. Maybe this is because the Diazinon is water based, and not as
strong as the old stuff I used to have.

I've also caulked wherever I see them coming in, but they always seem to
find a new place. If memory serves, their numbers will dwindle with
time, but it still doesn't help much knowing that right now.

Can anyone recommend something we could use to get rid of these buggers?
I've tried ant traps with poison, but they don't seem interested at all.

I've had some good luck with those little plastic squares that are about
two inches square. They have bait that they take back to the hive.
Pretty safe unless kids or pets eat them, so you can put them up high or
in secure places. Unless you have really stupid kids or pets.

Ant baits usually work well when the directions are adhered to, they need to
be placed along ant trails, and they don't work quickly... the workers bring
the bait back to the queen and even after the queen dies the colony workers
will survive for many weeks.