ANTS!

[ailbhe]

I was cleaning up this morning - well, tidying - and as I cleared the cushions and newspapers off the windowseat in the library, I found about thirty ants milling around. Ants. And something has bitten me on the ankle twice in the past two days; yesterday evening I got a nasty bite that almost made me cry with the itchiness of it.

So I think we have ants, though since I've never noticed them indoors before now they can't be all that bad.

They have long been out the front under the tiles outside the door. I don't know where the actual nest is. There's almost no food waste in the bins out the front, just outside the front door and library window - we have a wormery so even cooked food waste gets composted.

The nasty thing is that Linnea's toys are in boxes under the windowseat. IF these little black ants are what is biting me, then there are bitey things in or near her toyboxes. I'm not thrilled about that. (I'm hoping it's actually fleas, and Rob flea-treated the cats this morning).

What do we do? I need to keep the place tidier to make sure that there are no food scraps in the area, that's easy enough. Rob has suggested keeping the windows closed so that we can keep an eye on where they enter the house, but that's... well, it's a south-facing bay window. This room gets hot. If I can't open the window we may all die of suffocation.

So... boiling water over the tiles outside the front door? Wash the wall outside the window to get rid of scent trails? If so, anything in the washing water? I realise this isn't a serious infestation, but I'd like you all to think about the word "yet" for a while.

Comments

[megaleena.livejournal.com]

Apparently ants won't go past cinnamon, so it you put a line of it where you think they're coming in, they wont' pass. Weirdy but true!

[griffen.livejournal.com]

True that. We put cinnamon down behind the sink faucet in the kitchen (where the ants were coming in) and it's been there for about six months. No ants in the kitchen since then.

Sure, it looks grotty, but ants are worse.

[megpie71.livejournal.com]

Well, the best hints I've seen involved things like using eucalyptus oil in the rinse water, and putting strong-smelling herbs (mint, basil, bay tree) nearby to areas you don't want the ants to be. These apparently stuff up their sense of smell (although I doubt they're likely to do it 100% of the time). Food scraps aren't likely to be the problem (we have ants living under our washing line, and if they think they're getting food scraps there, they're out of luck) but what will bring them, I've found, is sweet sticky stuff (the washing line ants seem to love the bottlebrush tree nearby). So, if you spill honey, sugar, or have chocolate or anything sweet smeared over surfaces (which is almost inevitable with a toddler in the house) you're likely to find ants. If you find holes, pour the boiling water down them, but don't expect it to work long-term.

[pogodragon.livejournal.com]

We had ants a couple of weeks ago - through the front door and across the hall, nowhere near any food, spraying them/along their trail with 'Cif' got rid of them, and incidentally meant the floor got cleaned, we nuked the nest by the door with some 'child and pet friendly' anticide the following day.

I suspect I'm more willing to use such chemicals than you are, but obliterating their trail with strong soap may well have the same effect as the Cif, you might have to keep a closer eye on them though.

[oldbloke.livejournal.com]

When I lived in Stockport, I was sat on the sofa watching tv one evening, when I turned to pick up a glass from the side table, and saw ants - quite a few - coming out from a crack in the corner of the skirting. They'd nested in the cavity wall, eaten through into the cellar, and were looking for a way for their winged versions to get out.
The only fast solution was a vacuum cleaner. And then I had to treat various bits of cellar with Stuff.

[sian-shoe.livejournal.com]

I thought black ants do not bite? Red ants are meant to be the biters. Or is that an old wife's tale?

[ailbhe]

I don't know. I didn't see what bit me, all I saw was the swelling lump. It's down to an inch across now. And it's right under my sandal strap.

[sian-shoe.livejournal.com]

http://www.redbridge.gov.uk/environment/blackants.cfm

Apparently when they bite (which is ovccasionally) it causes "mild discomfort."

[ailbhe]

I'm a big-swell kind of girl, me, when things nibble me.

[pauamma]

IIRC, what causes discomfort with ant bites is formic acid, so if these are ant bites, a mild baking soda solution may help.

[ailbhe]

It did! micheinnz suggested it on AIM last night and it was great.

[tassie-gal.livejournal.com]

Chalk or talcum powder across the entry points keeps them out. Something about not liking it on their feet.

[jenett]

Living in a ground floor apartment for a number of years, we had ant issues, regardless of food being around (they'd come in from the foundation level, and into places like the bathroom, where we never had food.)

One thing we discovered was handy was to locate where they were coming in, and seal it with something - superglue worked pretty well, in places there wasn't another more obvious material choice.

I've heard good things about the mint method, too.

[griffen.livejournal.com]

we had ant issues, regardless of food being around (they'd come in from the foundation level, and into places like the bathroom, where we never had food.)

That's because they were looking for water. Right now it's insanely hot here, and we've seen ants in our bathroom - not many, but they have been there.

[jenett]

We had them even when there was plenty of water in the ground/even in the little place it tended to puddle post-rain. I tend to think it was more about the bathroom being on an exterior wall of the apartment than anything.

[supermouse.livejournal.com]

It probably is fleas, it sounds like fleas. Black ants only seem to bite when you shove a digit into the nest itself.

I like the cinnamon idea and cinnamon oil would smell fantastic, though I am not sure what cinnamon oil does to paint.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Unbroken lines of chalk around entryways will help.

If you don't mind poisons, get some of the ant-stakes, which have the goo inside a box with a small hole, and place them outside. That will one, killl them, and two, train them that food isn't to be found inside.

I put the stakes outside the kitchen door, and within a couple of weeks they weren't coming in anymore. I did that after gallons of boiling water had been poured into the cracks in the patio mortar (which patio they were livig under).

TK

[nicolechan.livejournal.com]

We had a problem with ants coming under our front door. I tried everything to keep them away, but nothing worked. Since it was the front door, putting a cinnamon line down was too messy and got in the carpet. I put down vinegar, but when dried, they came back. I dont know what they were looking for, but they liked our coffee table. I probably wasn't washing it well enough after meals.

What finally solved the problem... I set out a small dish of maple syrup on our front porch (about 2 ft. from the door). So instead of them coming in our house, they started going to the syrup and would get stuck. I haven't seen an ant in the house since. Granted, having them on the porch is yucky, but better than the house.