Nontoxic carpet treatment for ants?

[WSB]

We vacuum multiple times daily. We clean. We fret. And yet those tiny black ants are invading. We moved the cats’ food out of the kitchen … and they found it in the living room. I’m wondering if there is nontoxic carpet treatment for ants, a la Fleabusters for fleas (which we tried when Junior Member of Team was an infant and it worked incredibly well … have since replaced that carpet, though). Anyone? Help! — your humble site hosts, plagued by ants

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[Shibaguyz]

These are our three best bets. We’ve had that problem in the past… ick…

http://www.alsnetbiz.com/homeimprovement/boricdirections.html

http://www.avianweb.com/miteproducts.html

http://www.eartheasy.com/live_natpest_control.htm

GOOD LUCK!!

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[JoB]

have you elevated the cat’s dish?

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[WSB]

That’s a good idea, if we could think of something to get it far enough off the ground that the ants couldn’t climb it (they are persistent little b***rds … found one on my glasses the other day … while I was wearing them) … I keep thinking there has to be something that repels them, the way you can put a foil or copper collar around certain plant starts to keep away cutworms. Thanks for the ideas so far!!!! — TR, temporarily ant-free on the water taxi (although I wouldn’t put it past them to figure out how to swim)

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[herongrrrl]

Cayenne pepper is supposed to repel them, if sprinkled in a solid line at the point where they are entering the house.

Boric acid is probably the most benign ant killer out there, but beware of sprinkling it all over your carpet if you have a kitty. It’s not kind to kitty kidneys.

This is probably the last thing you want to hear, but have you thoroughly checked your house to be sure there isn’t a nest in the wall somewhere? We had a moisture ant infestation a few years ago in our bathroom wall–turned out the window was leaking into the wall, resulting in nice wet wood, exactly what they like, and we had to have that whole wall replaced. Be sure you don’t have any leaking pipes or drainage issues that are giving them a nice place to set up shop, and don’t leave anything they might consider edible anywhere they can find it. If your cat free-feeds now, you might have to switch to a regular feeding schedule until the ants are under control.

Good luck!!

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[hopey]

One thing about ants is that they leave chemical trails wherever they go, which the other ants use to find the food source faster.

I would recommend trying to figure out where they are coming in — near or through a doorway is obvious, but recently we had ants coming through a hole at the edge of the moulding around a window. We plugged up that hole with some silicone grout, and cleaned up the “trails” on the wall and floor with orange-oil cleaning spray. While the remaining ants were wandering around aimlessly, we vacuumed them up with a hand vac.

Since that was the only point of entry, these ants have not come back. It does sound like you may have multiple points of entry though. But if you can figure out where they are coming in & plug up the entry, that’s usually half the battle.

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[WSB]

thanks. Patrick thought he’d figured out where they were getting in … he caulked it … caulked another one … another one … The chemical trails thing is really interesting. Now that makes complete sense. We’ll find the killer anti-ant app here somewhere …

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[JoB]

i think cleaning with orange oil really helps…

and i have hear that mint at access points helps..

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[B-squared]

I use Terro at my house. i believe it is essentially borax and corn syrup. the cats never get into it as it is just a blob on some card board. placed near the site where they tend to congregate, it buys you some time so you can then caulk or obstruct their entrance and clean the areas near there to eradicate their trails. they seem to be attracted to water at my house – so the kitchen. i have never found them in my food, and they do perform many “service” although probably not in your house;) really good info on this topic at http://www.pesticide.org/ants.html (NCAP – Northwest Alternatives Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides – a group i support)

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[WSB]

I feel so hopeful now. Thanks again, all. We’ll be trying a number of these things. We’ve fieldtested lemon juice with the ants who like the kitchen counter and they do seem to be citrus-averse!

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[Beasley]

Something I tried that worked in my kitchen – I washed the presumed ant-trail area with vinegar, and the place I suspected they came in, I stuck bay leaves there. They haven’t been back since.

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[Aim]

TR we had exactly the same issues a couple of summers ago. With 4 very naughty cat-boys (3 of whom are useless on ant patrol) we didn’t want to do anythign toxic.

Here are my suggestions based on experience:

Plant Rosemary all around the edges of your house. It will smell nice and it keeps the ants away.

Put a good-sized pile of nutmeg and cinnamon (ground, cheap variety can be found at the dollar store) anywhere they are entering. We put piles right up against the window frames, and had a couple of lines of both circling the cat food bowls. (watch for paw prints and sweep regularly. The cats will track it if they walk in it. Luckily it won’t harm carpets or anything.)

Between the rosemary and the spices we didn’t have to go any further. They hate rosemary, and cinnamon burns them so they won’t walk through it. If they eat it, it will kill them. Nutmeg apparently does something similar.

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[rainycity1]

If you can find the access point(s), put straight peppermint oil there. We use Aura Cacia essential oil, which you can get at PCC. I hadn’t believed it when I read it, so one day I put a drop on my finger and traced a circle around an ant. It was stuck going round and round the oil ‘wall’ looking for a way out. Since we were outside, I ultimately wiped away a passage through the oil with a clean finger, and it was able to get out a little while later. I was amazed that it really worked so well, but that also showed me that it would need reapplied periodically. Also, as an intermediate solution when we had a similar problem we put the cats’ food bowl in a larger shallow bowl of water. Of course you have to make sure that the cats can still get at the food without stepping in the water. ;-)

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