How to deal with the first signs of a black ant invasion?


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Old 07-02-19, 06:15 PM
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How to deal with the first signs of a black ant invasion?

Basically, my Family and I went on a week vacation to Europe, and came back to find the beginnings of an ant infestation. We killed what we could see, threw out most of the food in our pantry that seemed open and took out the garbage, and then cleaned the table as well as our counters. When I woke up this morning, I realized that they had begun exploring the guest bathroom, which is a good 3-4 yards away from the kitchen where we initially found them. They’re black ants, btw. What should we do? I was considering getting traps, or going with making homemade traps, but I’m not sure if it’s too early. Dad also was considering calling pest control to help find where they’re coming from.




TL;DR: Came back from vacation to find ants. Seems to be scouts, not too many of them. What do?

 
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Old 07-03-19, 06:21 AM
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What country/state are you in? Always helpful to know when dealing with insects.

Large or small ants? Any winged ants?

What is underneath the floor where you're seeing ants; basement, crawl space, slab, etc?

For the small ants, bait is always good, especially the gel type baits that come in syringes. Do not spray anything when baiting as that will ruin the baiting strategy.

Ants are not an emergency; you can take your time in learning what to do and trying things.

I never recommend making insect bait as biologist, scientists, and others have already figured out the best combinations of ingredients, matrix's, etc. The baits are cheap enough already.
 
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Old 07-03-19, 12:06 PM
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Nevada, USA. Small black ants. Dad went out and bought the Terro liquid baits, it’s been around 10 hours and we haven’t seen any ants since. Going to wait a few more days or a week before removing them, they might just be looking elsewhere. There are some cracks in the baseboards, as the house is relatively old and we purchased it about 2-3 months ago. Baits were put in front of suspected entry ways. I’m 99% sure they’re just pavement ants that are avoiding the dry heat and are looking for grub. Another thing is that we have some spiders once and a while, and it seems like they’re also putting in some work, I saw like 3 ants in a web earlier on he day I posted this.
 
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Old 07-03-19, 02:39 PM
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Sounds good. Terro liquid is a good bait. Baiting can take a while, someitmes a long time to work. The foragers really do take it back to the nest/colony and feed the rest of them so this process takes time. The baits are very low in toxicity, otherwise the ants would die before they can feed the colony hence the longer time frame.

If they don't appear to be accepting the Terro, try the gel baits. Terro is a carbohydrate based bait while the gels are protein based. Different times of year they want/need one or the other.

Aside from food, they will swarm in large mass due to reproductive drive. This is a force of nature and baits won't stop that but stay with the baiting strategy.

If you see ants at the bait, back off and let them do their thing.
 
 

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