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

wrote in message
...
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

Carpenter ants are tenacious buggers to get rid of. Lets hope they are
coming in from outside then you can use carpenter ant/termite poison and
make a barrier spraying around your house. If that does not work then you
might have a colony within your house and that requires an exterminator.
Carpenter ants do not eat wood but rather build their nests in wood either
way they are as destructive as termites.

Wish you luck
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 08:37:46 -0700, "K Barrett"
wrote:

wrote in message
...
Hello all,

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


If you are sure you have CARPENTER ants - call the professionals.
We got them when an oak dropped a dead limb full of the devils on the
drive. It exploded on impact with ants scattered all over the yard
and drive. They will set up house in your hollow doors, sliding
closet doors, house siding, dead limbs in trees in the yard and move
from one to the other freely. If you wake in the night and hear
little scratchy noises or find sawdust beneath a sliding wood door -
CALL the PROS.

They are very difficult to get rid of. You need to find where they
set up house and you need to use a very lethal mix to get rid of them.

Good luck.
SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/orchids

Hi, again. Thought I would come back & share what I tried. A recipe
I hadn't found online but which several people in town suggested, was
a 50/50 mix of borax & icing sugar. Since I read that carpenter ants
don't eat solid food, I put a little water in it to make a syrup, put
a teaspoon or 2 in some little yogurt containers with holes poked
around the sides & set them near the nests I found in a concerted
hunt. I "painted" a bit from the sides to the bottom to give them a
scent trail, & covered the tops with tinfoil to keep out rain. The
ants were into it quite rapidly.
Also used some of the "Ant-B-Gon" drops, in the little red bottle. It
has a guarantee, yet!! to eliminate the colony with just a few drops.
Very skeptical... but having found an entry point in the kitchen
cupboard, I put a little puddle of the stuff on a piece of tinfoil, &
within 20 minutes there were up to 20 ants all around it like zebras
at a waterhole. They had a binge for an hour or so. We have not seen
any in the kitchen since. Outside, there is much less activity in the
colonies I found. With a 2nd round of yogurt-pot traps I made the
syrup with the Ant-B-Gon drops, & the one trap in particular was
completely full of them in no time. I think it takes a couple of
refreshings of the traps before you get them all, but they do appear
to take the bait. Not sure how well it works if you don't put it
right at the nest -- it might kill the ants too quickly for them to
take any back to the nest.
There is a new(?) Raid product which is an outdoor nest-eliminator...
a spray can with a long tube that you stick down the holes; it sprays
foam into the nest. This appeared to work very well on another nest,
before I got into the borax.
And, having found some suspicious places where they might be getting
into the bedroom around the baseboard, I spent rather a lot of time
blowing cream of tartar into the crevices with a straw. Supposedly
they won't cross it. Haven't seen any there either.
I think the lull (?) in our invasion is the result of a combination of
all these things.
Not sure why the other person who posted recently hasn't had success
with the borax in the greenhouse, but if you haven't tried preparing
the stuff this way, you might want to try some of the above before you
get into toxic spray stuff.
Hope that will help someone with future ant problems.

Alison

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.
K Barrett

Obsessive compulsive!! Surely not!! Doesn't everybody rinse their
recyclables before putting them out??

I do!!

Always have!!

At least twice!!

Sometimes thrice....or more!!

And I am normal!!

I am sure I am normal!!

Did I say I was normal??

I am sure I did!!

If not, I had better say it again, I am normal!!

Certainly not obsussive compelsive!!

I'm not!!

Honest I'm not!!

I think!!

Tony

"emntee" wrote in message
...
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.
K Barrett

Obsessive compulsive!! Surely not!! Doesn't everybody rinse their
recyclables before putting them out??

I do!!

Always have!!

At least twice!!

Sometimes thrice....or more!!

And I am normal!!

I am sure I am normal!!

Did I say I was normal??

I am sure I did!!

If not, I had better say it again, I am normal!!

Certainly not obsussive compelsive!!

I'm not!!

Honest I'm not!!

I think!!

Tony


[blinkblinkblink] Good to hear from you Tony! [twitch]

K