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OT - Killing and ridding the shop of ants

que

Plastic
Joined
Apr 22, 2009
Location
Alabama
I work in a wooden structure. the ants are already attempting to take over. I need something to kill and rid of these little critters. whatever it is must be safe around the tools (rust) and the help (dawgs). thought about getting those bombs that spray and just let them have at it but unsure what the vapors will do to the tools.

any help?
 
Boric acid powder. Buy a couple pounds to have on hand. Get a restaurant salt shaker - one of those big alunminum ones with the screw-on top. Use it to sprinkle borid acid on ant trails as you find them,. Before you act, do a little ant tracking. The litte varmints follow definite paths laid down by their scouts. They all lead to the points of intrusion. Follow the intrusion back to the nest if you can find it. I think most ants are active during the day and retreat to the nest at night. If this is the case for your specific ant (your county extension agent can tell you) about midnite start sprinkling trails back to the nest. Be generous. Boric acid is benign stuff; it only affects bugs.

If you find the nest, clear an area around it with a weed eater. Find the nest margins and encircle it with a barrier of boric acid and stir it into tthe soil. Make it wide enough so they can't tunnel under it. If it's safe to do so, pour a gallon of gasoline slowly into the nest in a circle about half the size of the nest but do NOT light it. Let it trickle down inside and smother the nest infrastructure and vital inhabitants like the queen and her tenders. Burn it and the nest is only superficially damaged. What you want is ant genocide not ant terrorism.

All this from a county extension agent I knew when I raced slot cars (yes, THAT long ago).
 
I had carpenter ants in my shop. They are as bad as termites. They ate the wood in one wall. I poured 20 gallons of diesel fuel down inside the wall and parts of 2 other walls. Ants are gone and never returned that was 10 years ago. Ants like to eat clean wood not diesel fuel soaked wood. I also painted some wood with a paint roller and diesel fuel. I put used motor oil is some of the diesel fuel too.

If you know where the ants are coming from dig a hole about 2 ft deep. Dump a bag of swimming pool shock in the bottom of the hole then cover it up. The moisture in the soil will react with the shock and produce chlorine gas. The gas is heaver than air it will go down deep into the soil and kill ants, termites, and everything.

I had termites the termite company strayed over and over the termites kept coming back. I paid out a lot of money and not getting very good results. Then I put swimming pool shock under the house and sprayed it with the garden hose. It started producing a green gas that filled the whole under side of the house. Several hours later the gas was gone and the termites were gone too. That was 8 years ago termites are still gone.
 
I had carpenter ants in my shop. They are as bad as termites. They ate the wood in one wall. I poured 20 gallons of diesel fuel down inside the wall and parts of 2 other walls. Ants are gone and never returned that was 10 years ago. Ants like to eat clean wood not diesel fuel soaked wood. I also painted some wood with a paint roller and diesel fuel. I put used motor oil is some of the diesel fuel too.

If you know where the ants are coming from dig a hole about 2 ft deep. Dump a bag of swimming pool shock in the bottom of the hole then cover it up. The moisture in the soil will react with the shock and produce chlorine gas. The gas is heaver than air it will go down deep into the soil and kill ants, termites, and everything.

I had termites the termite company strayed over and over the termites kept coming back. I paid out a lot of money and not getting very good results. Then I put swimming pool shock under the house and sprayed it with the garden hose. It started producing a green gas that filled the whole under side of the house. Several hours later the gas was gone and the termites were gone too. That was 8 years ago termites are still gone.

I'm glad I don't live there.
 
All these homade remedies sound good, but spend a few dollars on some chemicals. I use Bifenetherin (sp?) also called bifen or Talstar. It is not cheap but it lasts for 6-9 months between treatments. It is not so much a poison as it is a barrier. Buy the concentrate, mix it 1oz to 1 gallon in a pump up sprayer and spray a thick barrier at the base of your structure, and under the eaves and every window and doorway. Then cut it back to a .5 oz to a gallon and do the same inside. YOu can also spray it on walls to keep wasps from making nests. I spray my hole yard with a tank sprayer every 6 months, I dont have ants or roaches in my home. It is also safe for pets and kids.
 
Boric acid is the active ingredient in most commercial ant bait so I'm not so sure you should classify that as a homeade remedy. I've had very good luck with Terro brand liquid bait; those suckers will swarm the container after you put it out, then a day or two later they'll be gone for 6-9 months.
 
Not entirely sure I'd agree with that.

I buy some Spectracide, sprinkle it around the perimeter of my buildings in the spring.

No ants in buildings.

Steve

Depending on what formulation of Spectrcide you use, it may very well be bifen. Its great stuff.
 
My go to pest killer is "Tempo SC Ultra" good residual, pet safe AFTER it dries, listed safe for food facilities, kills A LOT of different pests (not an instant knock down, so don't think it will kill stinging pests on contact, ask me how I know!). I spray the exterior of my buildings in the fall when those damn bean beetles (orange lady bugs) and boxeleder bugs start to look for winter shelter. End up with piles of the damn things at and around the foundation. Not sure what is in it, but spraying the perimeter of buildings, and entry points like the sill, windows, and doors, has proven quite effective. Heed the warnings though, it kills aquatic life as well if allowed to contact those areas. Kinda expensive, but a little goes a long way.
 
I've had really good results with Terro Ant Killer II. It comes in a bottle and looks like Karo Corn Syrup. I make bait stations using the cans that the International Coffee comes in, they are small rectangle cans with snap on plastic lids. I make a label for the can identifying it as an ant bait station and tape it around the can. I drill several small holes about 1/16" just above the double seam at the bottom, a couple per side. I then cut a small square of cardboard that fits in the bottom of the can and pour a small amount of the Terro syrup on it. I put the cover on the can and place it where I've had ant activity.

These have worked really well for the little itty bitty ants we get around our house occasionally.

Bernard
 
for carpenter ants I used a product called "Maxforce" carpenter ant gel- from a online place called bugspray.net- this stuff is expensive, but works great-the ants ingest it, bring it back to the nest and feed it to the young , wiping out the colony. And I think it keeps recycling as the new ants eat the bodies of the dead ones.
 
16 answers and not one has started with the essential first step: Identify the kind of ant!

Different ant species are susceptible to different pesticides and different application methods. Use the wrong stuff in the wrong place and you've wasted your labor and money. :willy_nilly:

The OP didn't provide enough info to even guess what kind of problem he has.

Catch a few and take them to your local county extension agent for a free ID. Nearly every county in the US has a County Extension, although not all of them have web pages.

A quick search turned up this useful page from the same region of the country: http://www.caes.uga.edu/extension/cobb/anr/Documents/Ants08pdf.pdf
 
Id figure out why they are ther what they like about your shop Iv had aint problems twice I think they were regular red aints if ther a such thing as regular. But both times I had water problems in the wall. pin hole leak in a drain pipe once. And leaky roof second time started see aints new wright away somthing was wet fixed the water problem aints disapered. Iv been told they like cool moist places.
 








 
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