How to Get Rid of House Ants - What Worked For Me

Ahhh, springtime!  Early signs of spring in our area include crocuses and daffodils blooming, leaves starting to emerge, more birds singing and butterflies flying.....and....ants finding their way into our kitchen again.

In early spring we start seeing ants in our kitchen in search of any food crumbs we may have neglected to clean up.   These are mostly carpenter ants, but we occasionally see smaller ants as well.

I also start seeing springtime ants in the studio space where I work.  These are much smaller ants than what we have in our house, but they're not any more welcome than the carpenter ants.

Each year I've tried different methods of getting rid of the ants in both locations, but without much success.   The studio ants eventually disappear without my help (our landlord sprays around the perimeter of the building when he gets too many ant complaints from tenants), but the carpenter ants in our house are unwelcome guests for longer during the spring and summer.

This year, I've FINALLY  found a solution that seems to be working at both locations.

We've tried a few different methods over the past years for eliminating ants in our house.   These are mostly carpenter ants which are about 1/2 " long.  

We think these carpenter ants are coming in from outside since we haven't seen or heard evidence that they're living in our walls, but we hadn't been able to figure out where they're getting in.  We've caulked around areas that look questionable, and dusted the outside perimeter of the house with diatomaceous earth (used for controlling ants and other insect pests).   We've tried Raid ant baits both inside and outside of the house.  

We were still getting ants in the kitchen during the spring and summer.

First I tried Terro Liquid Ant Baits in my work studio.   I bought one package of 6 pre-filled trays, and placed two along the wall where I was seeing the small ants....then I went home.

Later that day when I returned, there was a steady stream of small ants to the first tray, and a few who had made it past the first to the second tray.   These ants thought they had hit the mother lode of sweet goodness for themselves and their colony!   They continued to feed heavily from the trays for about a day, and the next day just a few stragglers were left.   The day after that I only saw a couple ants, and I haven't seen any since.

Wow!  Amazing!    Now to try this at home!  Does this work with carpenter ants?

Ants that like food crumbs in our house, especially sweet food, are drawn to the Terro Liquid Ant Baits, which are filled with a sweetened syrupy liquid formula with borax which is a slow-acting poison for ants.   Ants take this tasty treat back to share with the rest of their colony, including the queen, who is then also poisoned.   No more worker ants, no more queen, no more ant colony!

Eating borax causes a build-up of gas in the ants.   They can't get rid of the gas, and they die.  Ants die 2 to 4 days after eating the bait.

We saw results in two days.   People with heavier or more numerous ant infestations have said it takes longer for them to see results.