Ants love my kitchen for some reason—how to eradicate?
August 15, 2023 2:49 PM Subscribe
I have ants come in my kitchen sink, on the counters, and even on the island right opposite of the sink. I've tried cleaning and Clorox'ing, but the ants come back, especially if there's food crumbs. It's driving me crazy.
My apartment is pretty modern (built ~10-12 years ago) and nice. I have a balcony, where I suspect might be where the ants are coming in from (glass sliding door). I have granite countertops, and the kitchen/dining area (island) are regularly cleaned. Maybe not perfectly, but clean enough.
Unfortunately, I see a herd of ants when food is accidentally left out overnight, and no matter how hard I clean it, even with Clorox (which I thought would be chemically repulsive to ants), they keep coming back. Sometimes even without food crumbs visually present, they come back.
It's frustrating and driving me crazy. How do I put a stop to it? I didn't have the same problem at my previous apartment in the same community, which was on the 2nd floor (mine is ground level). I'm not fortrightly anal about making sure each and every crumb is cleaned, but I do try my best to keep my place clean.
Thanks!
My apartment is pretty modern (built ~10-12 years ago) and nice. I have a balcony, where I suspect might be where the ants are coming in from (glass sliding door). I have granite countertops, and the kitchen/dining area (island) are regularly cleaned. Maybe not perfectly, but clean enough.
Unfortunately, I see a herd of ants when food is accidentally left out overnight, and no matter how hard I clean it, even with Clorox (which I thought would be chemically repulsive to ants), they keep coming back. Sometimes even without food crumbs visually present, they come back.
It's frustrating and driving me crazy. How do I put a stop to it? I didn't have the same problem at my previous apartment in the same community, which was on the 2nd floor (mine is ground level). I'm not fortrightly anal about making sure each and every crumb is cleaned, but I do try my best to keep my place clean.
Thanks!
I had a similar problem. The slightest bit of food or water that I missed wiping off the countertops would draw a trail of kitchen ants.
I found placing boric acid ant traps strategically along the countertop edges has worked for me, so far.
Nothing else so far has seemed to work — they will even come through the electrical outlets, where I can't use insulation foam. But I haven't seen any ants since placing the traps.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 2:54 PM on August 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
I found placing boric acid ant traps strategically along the countertop edges has worked for me, so far.
Nothing else so far has seemed to work — they will even come through the electrical outlets, where I can't use insulation foam. But I haven't seen any ants since placing the traps.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 2:54 PM on August 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
Clean the entire trail that the ants are following back to the door, and a little outside if possible. Scout ants look for food and then leave markers for the rest to follow. If you're just cleaning the countertops, the troops are marching right back in using the same marked path.
posted by JoeZydeco at 2:58 PM on August 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by JoeZydeco at 2:58 PM on August 15, 2023 [3 favorites]
Every other spring we'd get ants in our old place. I didn't have luck with the bait stations. This product worked great though:
Combat Indoor and Outdoor Ant Killing Gel, 27 Gram
Leave some blobs along their trails, they'll slurp it up, bring it back to the colony and then they'll all disappear. Usually worked really quickly, like a day or two. Not good if you have pets though.
posted by rouftop at 3:01 PM on August 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
Combat Indoor and Outdoor Ant Killing Gel, 27 Gram
Leave some blobs along their trails, they'll slurp it up, bring it back to the colony and then they'll all disappear. Usually worked really quickly, like a day or two. Not good if you have pets though.
posted by rouftop at 3:01 PM on August 15, 2023 [2 favorites]
Ask your building manager to apply some pest control. They likely need to go around the outside of the building. Barring that, get yourself some Terro gel traps. Those are the only consumer-grade ant traps that work. Don't be alarmed if you see lots of them swarm the traps. They'll then take it back to their home and kill all their friends.
posted by hydra77 at 3:09 PM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by hydra77 at 3:09 PM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
No need to clean with bleach, Windex does the job. Hitting 'em with it freezes them all, and cuts the chemical trails they leave behind; wipe 'em up and maybe locate their entry point, and seal with caulk, problem solved. Difficulty is finding that entry point, may be at some cabinet or counter edge you can't get to.
In my experience Combat traps don't have much effect. Terro is great at killing off Argentine ant colonies, at least for a while. The Argentine is attracted to sweet things but now I'm finding even smaller ants which seem to care only about greasy foods.
Also get some Boric Acid, although it's more for roaches. Still, dust it around any dry, horizontal surfaces where you see ants. It's the killer in Terro the ants take back and feed to their queen, ideally. Trouble with the Argentine (cue scary music) -- they can have multiple queens, and overlapping colonies.
And yeah, lean on your apartment management. They should get commercial-grade insecticides applied around the outside of your building.
posted by Rash at 3:20 PM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
In my experience Combat traps don't have much effect. Terro is great at killing off Argentine ant colonies, at least for a while. The Argentine is attracted to sweet things but now I'm finding even smaller ants which seem to care only about greasy foods.
Also get some Boric Acid, although it's more for roaches. Still, dust it around any dry, horizontal surfaces where you see ants. It's the killer in Terro the ants take back and feed to their queen, ideally. Trouble with the Argentine (cue scary music) -- they can have multiple queens, and overlapping colonies.
And yeah, lean on your apartment management. They should get commercial-grade insecticides applied around the outside of your building.
posted by Rash at 3:20 PM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
The terro boric acid traps linked by Diskeater work. I use them all the time and they keep ants to a minimum during warm weather for probably 30 days and then I have to replace the traps. Very rarely, some ants will not go for the terro and I switch to the Combat product linked by rouftop. Putting a couple of traps in my kitchen near the entry points is like 95% effective and I don't feel like having someone spray harsher stuff for the extra 5%.
posted by Mid at 3:30 PM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Mid at 3:30 PM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
in my experience the ants were coming for water, and what worked was to eliminate standing water and use an ant trap so the ant colony would learn to go elsewhere.
posted by zippy at 4:20 PM on August 15, 2023
posted by zippy at 4:20 PM on August 15, 2023
I found Revenge brand the most effective ant-killing product, but there are a few mentioned here I haven't tried.
posted by FencingGal at 4:26 PM on August 15, 2023
posted by FencingGal at 4:26 PM on August 15, 2023
The ants might not be coming from outside. I had the same issue in an apartment once. I thought I would be extra clean and put everything away immediately and the ants even went into the dishwasher. Eventually they even starting coming for water in the bathroom.
Turns out the ants had a nest in the walls. The apartment manager hired a pest company that came and sprayed in the walls and then all was good.
posted by LizBoBiz at 5:46 PM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
Turns out the ants had a nest in the walls. The apartment manager hired a pest company that came and sprayed in the walls and then all was good.
posted by LizBoBiz at 5:46 PM on August 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I've fought ants columns by repeatedly erasing their tracks and cleaning surfaces with white vinegar. It took a little time but they just stopped coming inside.
posted by nicolin at 1:11 AM on August 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by nicolin at 1:11 AM on August 16, 2023 [1 favorite]
If you can buy one of the store-bought brands and it works for you, that is probably easiest and best.
If it doesn't, you'll probably find yourself scouring the internet and there you will mostly see recipes for sugar water + boric acid.
This DOES work. It has the advantages that it is very inexpensive, easy to make, and lesser toxic to humans, pets, etc.
However, most recipes you see have w-a-y too much boric acid. Ants don't really like boric acid - in fact they will actively avoid it, and certainly will avoid eating it. That's why just scattering boric acid around - which does seem pretty effective for, say, roaches - doesn't seem to do much at all for ants.
So the trick with boric acid recipes is, you need very, very little boric acid. (That makes it even better from the poison-to-pets-and-humans standpoint.) BUT . . . you'll have to keep presenting it to the ants for quite a long time, like weeks to even a couple of months, to really kill the entire colony. (That is true for the boric acid commercial products as well.)
This article has about the best/most complete information I've found.
Upshot of that: What seems to work best is water plus 10% sugar and 0.25%-1% boric acid (all by weight). Higher percentages of boric acid make the bait less attractive to the ants - that is, they will eat less of the 1% solution than 0.5% or 0.25%. But of course the 1% solution has more of the poison, so it becomes something of a wash. But if your ants aren't attracted to your bait, maybe try another mixture with a lower percentage of boric acid.
A recipe for 10% sugar/1% boric acid would be something like: 1 cup water, 1.5 tablespoons sugar, 3/4 teaspoon boric acid. If you want less than 1% boric acid, you could try 1/2 teaspoon, 1/4 teaspoon, or even a little less than that (0.25% boric acid would be 3/16 teaspoon - basically a scant 1/4 teaspoon would be close enough).
Making bait stations with this, best luck I've had is something like plastic berry containers - the ones that have lids that close and slits to allow ventilation. Dunk a couple of cotton balls in your sugar/boric acid solution and plop them in the container, then close the lid and place them in the areas where you see the ants. When the ants drink them dry (or they just dry up) you can drip some more of the sugar/boric acid mixture on them until they are saturated again.
If all goes well you will see a noticeable reduction in the ants within maybe a week but to really kill the colony you have to keep after it for about 4 to as many as 10 weeks.
Keep in mind the 1% solution is not nearly enough to kill the ants. But that is part of the point - they slurp it up and survey long enough take it back to the colony, leaving their little trail to return to their mother lode of sugar and lead all their friends to it as well. Only over a period of time as the boric acid builds up back at the colony, and they keep eating it over a period of a few days, does it build up enough to actually kill them.
If the ants don't like your bait, you can experiment with lower percentages of boric acid (they are definitely repelled by a too-high amount of boric acid) and also higher amounts of sugar, or lower amounts of sugar (ants like/need water and sometimes they are mostly seeking that). Some ants like fat and for them you can make a similar mixture using shortening as the base. Some like protein and there some people suggest a peanut butter base for them. Here is an example of a shortening-based recipe (though note it probably has w-a-y too much boron - shoot for 1% or less by weight, which for their recipe would likely be about 1/4 teaspoon rather than the 1 tablespoon borax they suggest, and if you're using boric acid, even less than that, maybe about 1/8 teaspoon. But in general, try it and the ants aren't attracted to your bait try again with say 1/2 the boron compound you used the first time).
posted by flug at 1:15 AM on August 16, 2023
If it doesn't, you'll probably find yourself scouring the internet and there you will mostly see recipes for sugar water + boric acid.
This DOES work. It has the advantages that it is very inexpensive, easy to make, and lesser toxic to humans, pets, etc.
However, most recipes you see have w-a-y too much boric acid. Ants don't really like boric acid - in fact they will actively avoid it, and certainly will avoid eating it. That's why just scattering boric acid around - which does seem pretty effective for, say, roaches - doesn't seem to do much at all for ants.
So the trick with boric acid recipes is, you need very, very little boric acid. (That makes it even better from the poison-to-pets-and-humans standpoint.) BUT . . . you'll have to keep presenting it to the ants for quite a long time, like weeks to even a couple of months, to really kill the entire colony. (That is true for the boric acid commercial products as well.)
This article has about the best/most complete information I've found.
Upshot of that: What seems to work best is water plus 10% sugar and 0.25%-1% boric acid (all by weight). Higher percentages of boric acid make the bait less attractive to the ants - that is, they will eat less of the 1% solution than 0.5% or 0.25%. But of course the 1% solution has more of the poison, so it becomes something of a wash. But if your ants aren't attracted to your bait, maybe try another mixture with a lower percentage of boric acid.
A recipe for 10% sugar/1% boric acid would be something like: 1 cup water, 1.5 tablespoons sugar, 3/4 teaspoon boric acid. If you want less than 1% boric acid, you could try 1/2 teaspoon, 1/4 teaspoon, or even a little less than that (0.25% boric acid would be 3/16 teaspoon - basically a scant 1/4 teaspoon would be close enough).
Making bait stations with this, best luck I've had is something like plastic berry containers - the ones that have lids that close and slits to allow ventilation. Dunk a couple of cotton balls in your sugar/boric acid solution and plop them in the container, then close the lid and place them in the areas where you see the ants. When the ants drink them dry (or they just dry up) you can drip some more of the sugar/boric acid mixture on them until they are saturated again.
If all goes well you will see a noticeable reduction in the ants within maybe a week but to really kill the colony you have to keep after it for about 4 to as many as 10 weeks.
Keep in mind the 1% solution is not nearly enough to kill the ants. But that is part of the point - they slurp it up and survey long enough take it back to the colony, leaving their little trail to return to their mother lode of sugar and lead all their friends to it as well. Only over a period of time as the boric acid builds up back at the colony, and they keep eating it over a period of a few days, does it build up enough to actually kill them.
If the ants don't like your bait, you can experiment with lower percentages of boric acid (they are definitely repelled by a too-high amount of boric acid) and also higher amounts of sugar, or lower amounts of sugar (ants like/need water and sometimes they are mostly seeking that). Some ants like fat and for them you can make a similar mixture using shortening as the base. Some like protein and there some people suggest a peanut butter base for them. Here is an example of a shortening-based recipe (though note it probably has w-a-y too much boron - shoot for 1% or less by weight, which for their recipe would likely be about 1/4 teaspoon rather than the 1 tablespoon borax they suggest, and if you're using boric acid, even less than that, maybe about 1/8 teaspoon. But in general, try it and the ants aren't attracted to your bait try again with say 1/2 the boron compound you used the first time).
posted by flug at 1:15 AM on August 16, 2023
So the trick with boric acid recipes is, you need very, very little boric acid.
The trick for me is finding boric acid (and I imagine when available, it's only in 50-gallon drums or something). The only forms I see it in over-the-counter is as an ingredient in the syrup of Terro products; and the roach powders marketed under names like Roach-Prufe, Hot Shot Maxattrax and Mr.Cucaracha, which come in these big white plastic cylinders. Where do you buy pure boric acid? The war on drugs has made shopping for chemicals difficult in the US.
posted by Rash at 9:25 AM on August 16, 2023
The trick for me is finding boric acid (and I imagine when available, it's only in 50-gallon drums or something). The only forms I see it in over-the-counter is as an ingredient in the syrup of Terro products; and the roach powders marketed under names like Roach-Prufe, Hot Shot Maxattrax and Mr.Cucaracha, which come in these big white plastic cylinders. Where do you buy pure boric acid? The war on drugs has made shopping for chemicals difficult in the US.
posted by Rash at 9:25 AM on August 16, 2023
Nthing the Terro ant baits, though I do recommend letting your building manager know that you've been seeing this problem especially if it continues after using the baits and cleaning the trails. We had recurring issues with ants in our kitchen and it wasn't really resolved until we contracted a pest control service.
posted by Aleyn at 1:55 PM on August 16, 2023
posted by Aleyn at 1:55 PM on August 16, 2023
Optigard ant has made my space ant-free, for the first time in years. I've tried boric acid and Terra traps for years, with a moderate amount of success. But Optigard is the only thing that has gotten rid of them long-term.
posted by answergrape at 7:31 AM on August 18, 2023
posted by answergrape at 7:31 AM on August 18, 2023
Response by poster: So belated, but thank you for all the helpful suggestions!
posted by dubious_dude at 1:52 PM on August 29, 2023
posted by dubious_dude at 1:52 PM on August 29, 2023
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It is possible to DIY a solution by soaking cotton balls in borax and a simple syrup mixture but the ant traps are cheap and easy to use.
posted by Diskeater at 2:54 PM on August 15, 2023 [5 favorites]