Last week I had a black ant problem in my bathroom. Little black ants were swarming all over my bathroom counter. I tried wiping them up, but after several attempts I realized I was losing the battle. I did what any tech savvy housewife would do and asked my Facebook friends how to get rid of these ants!
I received tons of helpful advice, including the following ideas:
- Honey and Borax
- Salt sprinkled where you see them.
- Peppermint oil on a cotton ball where you see them.
- Cayenne pepper
- Homemade vinegar cleaner
- Cinnamon
- Terro Ant Liquid
- Splenda
- Melaleuca PreSpot
- Bay Leaves
Since I had a few cinnamon sticks leftover from Christmas I decided to place a few in my bathroom. A few hours later all the yucky ant friends were gone. I was surprised that it worked, but after researching it a bit I found out that ants dislike powder (I used sticks, so obviously this wasn’t the reason) and that they don’t like the smell.
I noticed that a few days later I had one or two ants back in my bathroom. I’m going to put some cinnamon powder down tonight and see if that keeps them away for a while.
Since I have little children I like to avoid using poisons unless I really have to. I love the fact that the cinnamon worked to get rid of the black ants. What works for you?
They will start going around the cinnamon. The Torro works the best. They are attracted to it, and they take it back to the rest of the ants.
Yes, Torro is the ultimate best. We are combating them like mad. Put liquid torro in a little bottle cap and place where ever they are showing up. They will eat, regurgitate and more will do the same and take back to the nest. We killed 30 in one evening doing this. They came all out for the feast.
Thank you so much! I live in the woods, and every solitary, for the past few years they have been invading my kitchen. I can’t buy bananas, etc., for them, and have to place a lot of pies and cakes; cookies, etc., in plastic containers. I’ve purchased ant bait traps at Home Depot, to no avail, so thank you, again so much!
I agree, terro works for me. I put it out at the first sign of ants and in a few days they are gone and I usually don’t see them again till the following year!
Can I buy terro at wal mart or is it found at a hardware store?
I have bought tarro at home depot, I am not sure if wal mart has it. I have been battling ants with tarro and the ants are dying before taking it back to the nest so they just keep coming. I don’t know what to do anymore. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks
Hi Sue,
I would like to suggest our product. We developed it to get rid of roaches and have found from friends, neighbors and customers that it works great to get rid of ant problems in the house. Put a couple of caps in their trail and keep the backing paper on so you can move them around if necessary. Scrape the top of the product to make some crumbs. The ants will begin to take the crumbs back to the mound the queen will eat the product and die and the population (egg laying) will stop. Hope you will check out our website and give us a try. Thanks Crissy
I have bought Terro at Ace Hardware in my town. However, I’ve found that it doesn’t always work…the worker ants are dying like mad, but every night hundreds more come out again to take their place…and it’s been going on like this for 2 months! I’ve got to find something that will eradicate the nests completely and I’ve got to caulk the entry point into the house.
i use white rice, ants eat the rice and explode, they also take it back to there nest, the others also eat it. i buy the cheapest i can find put it under my deck in the garden looks funny cause it looks like maggots for awhile. it does seem to work. also spray them with 409 house hold cleaner. it kills them instanly
I will try Terro. What I have tried but does not work is Ortho Home Defense, Raid spray and Hot Shot MaxAttraxt Ant bait. I am at my witts end. I keep the counter clean so now they are on the floor. I think they are coming in from outside through my doorwall which I have srpayed several times inside and out. They just keep coming!
I have used vinegar and that does work for awhile. Otherwise Terro is a wonderful poison to use. You do have to keep the kids and pets away from it and not kill the ants, but in a couple of days it will kill all of them.
If I find the source, I spray it with laundry stain remover. They do hate it, and its ok for our clothes, so… And then I swear by the little plastic ant “motels” by raid. if you put them around the room that has the ant trouble, soon enough you won’t have any ants around. Whenever the ants start to appear in the spring, I put out some new ones and within days the problem is gone.
I used cinnamon one year. Now they are immune. They drive me crazy this time of year. I’m using a Raid product made with pyrethrins. I don’t think it’s super safe, but it works.
I used to teach fourth grade and every year, we had ant problems! Since we couldn’t spray obviously, I used the ant traps and they worked great because the ants are attracted to them and they will take what’s inside back to the colony. Of course, if you have wee little ones, you probably don’t want them putting the traps into their mouths but as far as I know, the stuff that works is inside the traps. I think it depends on if your kids will mess with them and if you can hide them effectively.
Saturday, our kitchen was attacked by black ants. I tried the cinnamon treatment and it did not work. The ants just found a path around it. My hubby went to Home Depot on Sunday and bought Terro and the ants are gone, hopefully for good.
We’ve had great success with the Terro traps as well.
Baby powder works too. I can’t remember why, but it has worked for me as recently as Sunday!
problem is though, unless you kill them and their home…you have only diverted them to somewhere else in your home you can’t see
We get them. In the bathroom and the kitchen. For the kitchen, I wipe everything down with clorox wipes at night, for the first week after seeing them, now I do this every other day. Keeping the counters clean is the key and I mean eat off clean. The bathroom, I have tile(white) on the floors and mop with clorox wipe on the pads.
Now as was said earlier, you are just sending them some where else, so I use the Terro outdoor bait spikes and place them, next to the house, all around the house. Takes a few packages cuz they need to be spaced so far apart, but this takes care of it for at least 6 months or more. I put another round in the fall, to stop them before winter. The bait spikes are a couple inches across and are put close to the house, so my daughter never bothers them and they have no affect on our cats.
I have tried a natural spray for ants, but the smell of whatever spice is in it was so strong, we had to open the windows. Its not an appealing smell, after the first little whiff. EcoSmart is the brand, it does work, but for me the smell is too much and lasts too long.
I use mint oil and vinegar to clean my bathroom floors which is where I see them. The vinegar takes away their trail (so the other ants can find you) and the mint keeps them away. My bathroom smells like a candy cane!
BABY POWDER!!! I’m not kidding, it’s amazing! Anytime I see any ants, I coat the area with baby powder, leave it sitting for a few days and they are gone. Sometimes I do a few more coats, but it works.
The reason is because the powder gets in their ant lungs and suffocates them, if they even smell it they won’t come near it!
Great tip.. plus your bathroom will smell good!
It’s not safe around little kids and pets, but if you really want to get rid of them, you have to kill the queen. We use a TBspoon raw hamburger mixed with 1 tsp borax – give or take. The worker ants carry the meat back to the queen who eats it and dies. We leave it out for a day which is usually all it takes for the ants to get hold of it. Then, no more ants.
this is a great idea; it seems better than just putting borax powder loosely in my home. I will try that tonight. thanks
Ants will not cross a line of baking soda. Ammonia isn’t great to breath, but it is bio-degradable and it KILLS them.
Hubby worked at a hardware store when he was a kid, and he insists on Amdro outside. They carry it back to the mound and it kills them there. Inside, though, I’ve found chalk works well! It’s something every mother has on hand (last I used outside chalk, which worked fine) and it comes in so many colors, I had no problem matching the floor, baseboards, walls, whatever!
I’ve heard that putting grits in and around their nest works.
I’ve heard this too, something about the grits expanding. I haven’t been able to locate the nest, but when I do I’m definitely going to try it.
Good luck with finding their nest
One time we had a TERRIBLE ant invasion in our kitchen and I tried all kinds of things to get rid of them. Natural and otherwise. Terro usually does the trick for me, but this time they were horrid. I ended up getting my garden sprayer out, and followed their trail out the door and just sprayed their trail with garden bug spray as far as I could follow their trail… until I was out in the middle of the front yard and still finding them. That took care of them and thankfully we haven’t had any trouble to that extent since.
We’ve tried several natural alternatives in our house but none of them seemed to work. I’m sensitive to chemicals, so we avoid them whenever possible. We have found that Terro works very well, though, and it doesn’t bother me too much. Other than that, I clean the counters in the kitchen with sanitizing wipes every night and make sure that all of the dishes are clean. Any kind of food that is out will attract them, so all of our cereal and opened foods are in plastic storage containers in the pantry so they don’t get any ideas. The Terro takes a few days to start working, but since they take it back to the rest of the colony, once they’re gone it’s usually for good.
We had a similar problem last summer. Ants really don’t like the smell of peppermint too. I bought a small tin of Altoids & put them in the cracks & corners of my bathroom. We even put some up close to my backsplash in the kitchen where we were having a problem. They left & never came back!
I didn’t have much luck with vinegar. It only seemed to help temporarily. But we were determined to find something that wasn’t a poison that worked. I might try cinnamon this year if we have a similar problem b/c I’m pretty sure my hubby ate all of the leftover Altoids!
We used a couple of Equal packs from a restaurant. No offense to people who use it in their beverages, but it is apparently poisonous to ants.
I sometimes get little black ants (my mom always called them sugar ants)in my kitchen and can never figure out where they’re coming from. I didn’t have time or money to buy ant poison, so I just grabbed a bottle of Mr. Clean and sprayed it all over them. Killed ‘em dead! Probably not the most natural of methods, but it worked!
I’m going to get some of that Terro and keep it on hand for the inevitable next time!
If you find their nest pour boiling water on it.
I have used baby powder and it works great! They take it back to their nest and kills them.
We have gotten them every year since we moved into this house 7 years ago. They just started up again this week. They have a huge nest somewhere and they usually crawl up through an entry point near our dining room, then crawl along the floor and round the corner and up to the kitchen counter. We have tried EVERYTHING suggested here (except baby powder). We have used natural cleaners, bait traps, sticky liquid bait, etc. Everything works for a bit, then they come back in full force. The ONLY thing that gives us any relief (for any real length of time) is liquid poison sprayed along the baseboards. *sigh* DH sprays poison outside too. We really hate to use poison, but if we don’t THEY WILL WIN!
I’ve used baby powder before and it seems to help.
Last year we found them nested in the door that leads to our basement. They were carpenter ants and were literally eating away at the wood inside. You could see the wood residue in the morning (they worked/came out at night). Those little ants are smart. They wouldn’t leave the little wood shavings right under the door. I literally sat one night and watched them take each piece and throw it down the stair. By morning, the little wood shavings/residue would be half way down the stairs!
We had to get rid of the door. There was no saving it. Hopefully they don’t find a new place to nest this year! I already saw one or two ants in the house last week. We’ll see what happens!
If you have carpenter ants, DO NOT WAIT! Call a professional. If they are out where u can see them, they are lots of places where you can’t. They will do terrible damage, have your home professionally sprayed. It sucks, it’s not cheap but you don’t want that kinda damage, trust me!
That’s an awesome tip. I haven’t had any natural ant repellents so that’s something I’ll have to try when they decide to invade.
The BEST solution is Avon’s Skin So Soft bath oil – I’m not kidding
It has over 50 uses (including repelling fleas and black flies off your pets). This stuff is amazing. I buy the small spritz bottle and then the large to refill. I simply spray wherever ants are prone to enter and they are gone. It’s non-toxic and it works.
We had the same problem in our kitchen a few summers ago and it was gross AND frustrating since that should be a clean area for sure!!! Before our kids were born I SWORE by Terro (I bought it at Home Depot or Lowes). I literally tried ALL the methods people have listed above (I got super obsessed about riding the ants!) and none of those methods are really lasting or effective at all and they can be messy. Terro WORKS and the ants never seem to become “immune” to it, which is something that can happen with more “natural” home remedies.
Now that I have a toddler and an infant, I SWEAR by Barrier Pest Control. They treat the interior and exterior of our home as well as the property (grass, sidewalks, driveway etc.) and I’ve NEVER seen an ant and it’s bee a couple years!!! The solution they spray is non toxic for humans, dry quickly and is odorless… PERFECT for any household, even more perfect for those of us with mini me’s!!! Barrier is amazing with their service and they come between the scheduled quarterly treatments as often as you want for FREE. We pay less than $200 a year and it is something I will ALWAYS incorporate into our budget
They treat for more than ants… that plus spiders is all we have them focus on.
As parents we don’t have time to waste on trying every spray, goo or home remedy recipe… only to discover that it’s all ineffective in the end. Good luck and I hope that soon your ants pack up and never return. In the grand scheme of things, ants aren’t the end of the world, but it’s an amazing thing when you don’t have them around the house
Good luck!!!
xoxo
Chili powder – “kid friendly” in the non-poisonous way. Not so much if they get into it and touch their eyes.
Have you tried caulking? I know you can’t realistically caulk the whole house, but it might block out some of them.
Someone told me about cornmeal. Something about bloating them up and they take back to the queen. And sure enough, they were all gone the next day. Worked for me.
I sprayed my kitchen floor with “Hot Shot” for wasps and the next morning a pile of them were tumbled over dead, or squrming to stay alive. It worked great to get rid of them once and for all, but keep kids & pets away. Also, there is NO FOUL ODOR from the spray.
good luck!
I woke up this morning, went out to my kitchen, and it had been invaded. Not by little sugar ants, but by giant black ants. I lifted up a bag I left on the counter and they poured out. I’ve thought about natural remedies, but since I don’t have kids yet and I just want them dead I’m going the poison route. I’m going to finish my breakfast and go buy some.
Ants creep me out.
The place where ants are in my house is in the kitchen around the sink area and my counter tops. I try to keep them wiped down and dishes washed but the will not stop coming!!! I have tried the traps, and raid sprays but it hasn’t worked yet. I guess now i can try the cinnamon and toro b/c they are driving me crazy. always all over my clean dishes and i have to make sure there are no ants on a dish before i use it … :/
i just had a big black aunt problem outside on my porch so cleaned them all off by spraying them off with the hose the water dryed and sprinkled ground cinnamon all around in the cracks on my porch and there not coming up on my porch they are all over the ground but not on my porch and coming in my door thanks for the good tip
My mom had been having an occasional ant problem in her bathroom and they hadn’t decided on a long-term solution. In the meantime, they were using bug spray. One day after “using the facilities” she was startled by an ant and grabbed the can and sprayed him fiercely! He froze completely but the spray didn’t seem quite right–she had grabbed the hair spray. Good thing she didn’t grab the bug spray for her hair.
Well, there aren’t any bug or any other dangerous sprays in the bathroom unless they are under the sink. I think Mom still uses her bug sprays, but I try to use the other solutions. I have been known to use boric acid in kitchen cabinets. Not so non-toxic, but non-accessible and not quite as many poisons as all the commercials sprays and so on.
The cinnamon has always worked for me with the little black sugar ants. Folks think i’m crazy when i tell it, but it does actually work. It doesn’t work (just found out…) for the big mannish black ants. I’m still working on those. Good luck.
We developed an ant problem after the pest control people treated the exterior of the house for termites. Go figure! The large black carpenter ants showed up in droves. I tried the Raid ant bait stations but it did nothing for me. What did work is vacuuming all of the cabinets out and wiping down EVERY surface with disinfectant. Even if your house is clean and doesn’t look dirty they are staying for some reason. The smallest amount of food or a greasy film on a cabinet will give them reason to stay. A spot of grease could feed a colony for over a day I’m sure. I am a meticulous house keeper as I’m sure most of you are. Those that aren’t wouldn’t be here freaked out about ants in their homes. I vacuumed my cabinets, wiped down cabinets inside and out, wiped down the stove, refrigerator, dishwasher, etc. I also sprayed ant killer where I saw them. I think I killed about 100 ants as I cleaned and haven’t had a problem in a couple of weeks.
I’ve never done this myself, but I know others that have and say it works. Use cornmeal, the ants eat it, take it back to their nests and share it and none of them can digest it so they die. It may take a few days, up to a week if it is really humid or rainy. The benefit is that it is kid and pet safe.
I’ve had an issue with black ants since our “NO NAME” storm months ago….had the professionals come out…nada….I have since found 3 nests, one in the flag pole(yesterday, out front, flag on oak tree), in a large piece of bamboo (which is now in the trash)and my pool PVC chair (which I threw in the pool). Millions of them were hiding out there. I’ve gone through 3/4 bottle of Toro, seems to take care of but only a short while. I see hundreds of dead ants but there are still two paths….on the ceiling of my patio…going down the downspout. Can’t find the nest. They have not come inside,thank god, but annoying just the same. I have dropped the trails down to two, but want to finally rid my patio of these ants. The geckos are even full from eating them lol We had two nights of freezes, but that didn’t seem to bother them. So, how do I treat an area which is above my head? I’ve put the Toro on cotton balls, which the ants attack but once it’s gone the ants still return. I’ve also put down all the “ant stuff” from Home Depot and they crawl over it! UGGH HELP thanks
Anne in Fl.
Spring has sprung and we have ants. They are black. First I saw them in the kitchen, now on the other end of the house in the bathroom and computer area and just on the back side of the house. I cannot find where they are coming from. There is no trail. I have scrubbed and sprayed a natural “soybean” organic something (I have a 15 month old) into the baseboards, put baby powder everywhere, sprayed Raid before going to bed, bought Ortho to spray outside. I dont know what to do!!! I guess I will try sitting out some of this Terro stuff at night before bedtime and see what happens. I havent seen any ion the kitchen yet this morning (I hit it HARD last night with Raid, around outlets, window seal, sliding door, baseboards…) but I have smashed about 20 sitting at the computer typing this. Where are these things coming from??? UGH!!!
We have a travel trailer,we have had the medium size black ants for 4 mo. I put down terrro they eat it and disappear on the counter and floor dead so they do not take it back to there nest. they stay gone for a few days and than they come back, I cannot find the nest, I have looked around the trailer outside and cannot see any black ant. Any help would be appreciated.
Hi Gloria;
We make an EPA approved product that will get rid of the ants (and roaches and silverfish) It is People, Pet and Planet friendly. It also works for 6-8 months or longer. Check out the pestimonial videos on our home page.
http://www.roachridder.com One of our customers talks about this exact problem.
Crissy
Got the info on the kitchen and bath but………..Last week I saw a few ants on top of my modem. While killing them, I bumped the modem and BOOM ants started to pour of the modem. As I was spraying them, I kept tapping on the edge of the modem and they just kept pouring out. Not sure but 300+? I’ve also seen them in my dishwasher and didn’t seem to matter if the contents are clean or dirty. Any suggestions, I appaently have ants that are tech savy…
Also, foundations? I get anywhere from 5 – 15 lines of ants going into the house. I’m on the cheap so I don’t want to have to buy anything unless I have no other choice. ??
Thx.
Having just found this site and living in the UK pardon my ignorance – but what is “terro”?? I use ant baits but have found them to be very slow acting. Thankfully my guests are the smaller variety that emerge every spring, In the Uk they tend to be attracted to older properties. That terro sounds to be ideal – many thanks for any information.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m gonna try the splenda and see what happens. I am under seige over here. HUNDREDS every day ALL over house now. I’ll keep yous (LOL) posted on my outcome. I LOVE A GOOD CHALLENGE. LOL
IM having the same issue. i work 2nd shift and have a little one so i pass out as soon as i get home and im usually running around all morning. so i have NO idea where theyre coming from. theyre just suddenly everywhere. i saw A nest n just sprayed the crap out of it with hairspray. kinda an impulse reaction like “take that!” but tomoro im going to get Borax. my parents told me to mix it equally with sugar n lay it in little piles around the house. they swear by it. so ill try it out n let u know.