Dead ants everywhere

May 25, 2006 12:14 PM

Why are there dead bodies all over my livingroom floor? Dead ant bodies, that is.

Last week, after the torrential rains here in New England, I awoke to find big black ants dragging their fellow ants' carcasses -- some whole, some not -- into my livingroom. At first I thought there might be a battle going on, but I see no evidence of that. All I see are bits and pieces of ant. I've put down a trap, to no avail. I don't see any other ant activity inside or outside the house that strikes me as odd.

This has died down in past few days, but it's still happening. And it's icky. I'd rather not exterminate if I don't have to, as I've got a little girl running around in bare feet. And I don't think these are carpenter ants, as I haven't seen any piles of wood dust anywhere.

What's the story here? Are they simply doing some spring cleaning?

posted by schoolgirl report to home & garden (16 comments total)

My guess would be that their nest got flooded and a lot of ants died. Then later the water went down again, and now they're cleaning up the wreckage, including the dead bodies.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 12:28 PM on May 25, 2006

I'd suggest trying to follow them. They must be coming from somewhere and going to somwhere else.
posted by cosmicbandito at 12:35 PM on May 25, 2006

I'd rather not exterminate if I don't have to, as I've got a little girl running around in bare feet.

When we had ants, we put down cayenne pepper in the areas our pets could get to, and that seemed to discourage them a lot (though not entirely) - I think they didn't like to walk through it - and has the advantage of not hurting girl feet.
posted by joannemerriam at 1:06 PM on May 25, 2006

Because you were playing the theme to The Pink Panther.

dead ant, dead ant, deadant deadant deadant ...

Good night, folks.
posted by redteam at 1:11 PM on May 25, 2006 [1 favorite]

one possibilty when finding dead ants is that they have just swarmed an what you are seeing are the males who die shortly after a swarm.

Have you seen any wings? (the wings normally fall off the drones before they die, so don't expect the dead ones to have wings attached).
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 1:23 PM on May 25, 2006

I wish I had an answer for you. We are in the same situation. Crawling babies so we can't exterminate. I've tried baby powder, bay leaves, cayenne, sealing all food, holes and cracks, making sure there is no water left anywhere yet still they come. I may just have very determined ants. I did find an old box of cough drops in my closet last year that they decimated so maybe that could have been the source of their determination to plod through the pepper and powder to their destination. Hopefully. I'll find out this summer I guess.

Be careful, these ants you speak of are going to need a new nest. The places in your house that are particularly vulnerable are the damp areas. Maybe you can follow their trail and set up a cardboad box laced with food and dirt near them so they can create their nest there. Then once they are settled you can just move the nest away from the house like miles away!
posted by any major dude at 1:24 PM on May 25, 2006 [1 favorite]

No wings to be seen. And honestly, not that many visible live ones either. One or two at a time, maybe. Mostly it's just parts, which makes it hard to follow them to their point of origin (that, and the dog keeps eating them).

If things don't clear up in the next few days, I'll try the suggested solutions (bay leaves? interesting). Thanks much, everyone.
posted by schoolgirl report at 1:42 PM on May 25, 2006

cayenne pepper

I'm pretty sure ants don't have capsaicin receptors (that result in the burning/pain sensation from hot peppers in humans), so I'm surprised that works at all. Also, babies don't like cayenne so much themselves.

If they have a defined entrance to your house, you could put down a coat of vaseline for them to stick in?
posted by metaculpa at 2:01 PM on May 25, 2006

one other thing, the bay leaves need to be fresh, not the dried kind you buy in the store.
posted by any major dude at 2:16 PM on May 25, 2006

metaculpa: I don't think they were eating the pepper, I think they just didn't like walking through it. I hadn't thought about the OP's little girl eating it either, just that it wouldn't hurt her feet. Maybe not a good idea then? We didn't have toddlers, and our rabbits weren't interested in eating the pepper.
posted by joannemerriam at 2:35 PM on May 25, 2006

If you actually want to take the ants out, the thing to use is sugar syrup with borax dissolved in it. You pour some of it on a piece of cardboard and put it where the ants are seen. They take it back and feed it to the queen, who dies. And without a queen, the nest dies. You can buy it at most hardware stores and it works really, really well. The only thing about it is that you have to be patient, because even after the queen is dead you'll still be seeing ants for 3 weeks.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 3:28 PM on May 25, 2006

God, same here in Kansas. It's a miserable season for ants all over, I guess. We tried many of the more hippy-dippy herbal solutions but the only thing that's resulted in lots of dead ants is borax, as Mr. Den Beste mentions above. Because of your particular situation, I recommend more enclosed traps like these. Still, determined little hands could get at the goo I'm sure, so either put them out of reach, or block or pen them off with something immovable to your child. Ours have been pouring through the frigging skylight in our upstairs bathroom, so we just close the door to it. Argh. Good luck!
posted by melissa may at 3:53 PM on May 25, 2006

Oh, I forgot the most important part: you mentioned putting down a trap, but that will probably not cut it. Lots and lots of traps, I'm thinking. We just took the borax goo itself, put it on lots and lots of small cardboard squares, and lined the floor and sink area with them. Dead ant, dead ant, dead ant dead ant dead ant...thank god.
posted by melissa may at 3:57 PM on May 25, 2006

Not borax, boric acid. At least, that's what's always been recommended to me--if they'll eat borax, and it kills them, who am I to argue?

However, in my experience the only thing that will keep ants out is to find out where they're coming in and block it off. Unfortunately, this is often not practical if you live in an oldish, loose place.
posted by oats at 6:04 PM on May 25, 2006

Actually, yes, borax. Also from the same faq: presumably, all those carcasses you are seeing are midden piles. So: you had some hard rains, perhaps it flooded existing nests, and the fastidious survivors hauled the carcasses out. I'm no Quincy of the ant world, though, so if an actual entomologist-type wants to dispute this version, feel free.
posted by melissa may at 7:59 PM on May 25, 2006

I dont know about what to do now, beyond what was mentioned, but since we have the same problem with ants coming up after flooding, we get the perimiter of the house sprayed (from the outside) a couple of times a year, and I think we might do the inside too. But I bet the outside might help your situation in the future, and would be less likely to affect your child. I'm pretty sure they have to be safe for human exposure. The guy said it was fine for my cats, at least.
posted by gilsonal at 9:08 PM on May 25, 2006