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Ants in my Pants (And everywhere else)

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MyGodItsFullofStars Since: Feb, 2011
#1: Mar 24th 2012 at 2:55:36 PM

My house is getting overrun with ants! At first it was one or two scouts, but now it seems that no matter how much poison I throw at them, they pull a tusken raider on me and come back in greater numbers. There were even a few crawling on my face when I woke up this morning!

I don't know what they want, nor how to get them to go away. I've cleaned every last inch of my house, so there's no crumbs or little snacks around that would attract them. They seem mostly interested in areas where I splashed water, like around my shower, so my guess is maybe they are going after the invisible salt crystals left behind by evaporation (the scary thing is that means the ants that were on my face were after my tears...), but it isn't like I can really do anything about that.

What should I do?

Zyxzy Embrace the mindscrew from Salem, OR Since: Jan, 2001
tendollarlameo Remarkably Unremarkable Since: Aug, 2010
Remarkably Unremarkable
#4: Mar 24th 2012 at 2:57:38 PM

Beat up their dad, that'll teach them.

MyGodItsFullofStars Since: Feb, 2011
#5: Mar 24th 2012 at 2:59:23 PM

Well they seem to be coming from underground burrows. I live in the basement level of an apartment complex, so they find ways to sneak in through the walls, but I haven't located their burrows. I asked the apartment manager to put down some poisoned bait, but since we don't know where the damn things are nesting, its kind of a spray and pray situation.

I'm just glad they are black ants and not fire ants. Doesn't mean I like them in my house, crawling on my face while I'm asleep, though.

Steventheman Cmdr. of His Supremacy's Armed Forces from Wales Since: Feb, 2011
Cmdr. of His Supremacy's Armed Forces
#6: Mar 24th 2012 at 3:01:52 PM
Clarste One Winged Egret Since: Jun, 2009 Relationship Status: Non-Canon
One Winged Egret
#7: Mar 24th 2012 at 4:09:47 PM

A) Wipe out their scent trails. Soap and water will do the trick. It won't stop them forever but it'll delay them.

B) Block their entrance points. Usually they'll come through a window or a door, but there can also be cracks in your walls. Whatever the case, find those point and block them. I find that a line of bleach powder will create an impassable wall (of poison).

C) Uh... I can't think of a third thing but if I don't have one then dividing the first two points into A and B seems pointless.

edited 24th Mar '12 4:10:26 PM by Clarste

Erock Proud Canadian from Toronto Since: Jul, 2009
Proud Canadian
#8: Mar 24th 2012 at 4:11:51 PM

ANNNTTTTTSSSS

If you don't like a single Frank Ocean song, you have no soul.
Blackmoon Since: May, 2009
#9: Mar 24th 2012 at 4:29:45 PM

To follow up on what Clarste said, for next year, you can slow their progress by killing or removing all ants that you see as soon as you start seeing them, just so they don't setting scent trails all over your house.

But yeah, for now, exterminator.

RainbowMatt Prettiest Pony :3 from the cave of unspeakable naughtiness Since: Oct, 2011 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
Prettiest Pony :3
#10: Mar 24th 2012 at 4:46:40 PM

I live right off a park with woods to one side and I get ants where I live too. Lowes (and i suppose a lot of other places) Lowes is just where we get the stuff) has like this powder you spread around the outside of your house that kills them and also like a large black syringe that shoots out this gold colored goop that tasts sweet to them and they take it back to the nest and it kills the queen. (you shoot that stuff out onto a piece of cardboard and just leave it sit)

Devypu's~ Big Pony :3
MyGodItsFullofStars Since: Feb, 2011
#11: Mar 24th 2012 at 5:18:59 PM

I've managed to slow them down by spraying raid across their scent trails, but it seems like it only takes them a few hours to establish new ones. I'll try wiping my kitchen counters down with soapy water and taking my mop to the bathroom again, though that didn't really deter them the last time.

LoniJay from Australia Since: Dec, 2009 Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
#12: Mar 24th 2012 at 6:02:10 PM

If you have surface spray, you could try leaving a line of it around all the walls in your house?

Kinda like circling your house with salt so the undead can't get in.

Be not afraid...
RainbowMatt Prettiest Pony :3 from the cave of unspeakable naughtiness Since: Oct, 2011 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
Prettiest Pony :3
#13: Mar 24th 2012 at 6:24:50 PM

Go get the stuffs I suggested! Works like a charm. I promise!

Devypu's~ Big Pony :3
cutewithoutthe Góðberit Norðling Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Star-crossed
#15: Mar 25th 2012 at 11:35:02 AM

We once had a colony of ghost ants living in a picture frame that hung on our wall. Had us mystified for a long time until somebody bumped the it accidentally. Vinegar is quite effective at messing up their scent trails, if you can stand the smell yourself. Besides that, you either have to find their colony and kill it or just seal off their entry points and hope for the best.

edited 25th Mar '12 11:35:22 AM by EdwardsGrizzly

<><
Loid from Eastern Standard Time Since: Jun, 2011
#16: Mar 25th 2012 at 2:00:40 PM

We need Annebeeche. She destroyed ants like it was nothing.

"Dr. Strangeloid, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Cleanlink" - thespacephantom
MyGodItsFullofStars Since: Feb, 2011
#19: Mar 25th 2012 at 2:54:26 PM

[up]Those guys are kind of cool looking. Did they really smell like dead bodies when you crushed them?

Mukora Uniocular from a place Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: I made a point to burn all of the photographs
Uniocular
#20: Mar 25th 2012 at 3:41:18 PM

@Loid: But what about the viking ants?

"It's so hard to be humble, knowing how great I am."
Mort08 Pirate AND writer! from Oklahoma Since: Feb, 2011 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
Pirate AND writer!
#21: Mar 25th 2012 at 3:54:00 PM

And here I've been thinking I was the only one. My family has to deal with these guys every spring. We've found that spraying window cleaner on them works like a charm.

Looking for some stories?
#22: Mar 25th 2012 at 7:33:25 PM

[up][up][up] They have a distinctive smell, but never having smelled a dead body I can't say...

<><
Talby Since: Jun, 2009
#23: Mar 26th 2012 at 1:46:04 AM

Nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Steventheman Cmdr. of His Supremacy's Armed Forces from Wales Since: Feb, 2011
Cmdr. of His Supremacy's Armed Forces
#24: Mar 26th 2012 at 10:30:21 AM

I say you nuke that site from orbit.

FIMFiction Account MLPMST Page
InverurieJones '80s TV Action Hero from North of the Wall. Since: Jan, 2010 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
'80s TV Action Hero
#25: Mar 26th 2012 at 10:31:53 AM

Study them. Learn their language and their culture.

That's how I gained my rudimentary control of bumble bees.

'All he needs is for somebody to throw handgrenades at him for the rest of his life...'

Total posts: 27
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