I recently returned home from being away for 10 days to find a trail of ants running all along the baseboards inside the house. They're the tiny little ants and they are in the family room, the hall, and the bathroom. My daughter is 10 months old and has just begun to crawl. I set her on the floor after we got home, for about 20 minutes, and when I picked her up I found 3 ants on her body. Does anyone know of a babysafe way to get rid of these ants?? I don't know what to do at this point because all my daughter wants to do these days is crawl on the floor.
Also, I live in Tahoe so the exterior of the house has about 2 feet of snow all around, and I do have a crawl space below the house. Any advice would be very helpful, thanks!
I've had luck sprinkling cinnamon on their trail. They haven't come back since. They were coming in through the windowsill, so I laid the cinnamon there. Good luck!
Terro ant poison is readily available at Wal-Mart & lots of other places. It is corn syrup & borax & your kid would have to eat quite a bit to be hurt, but a few drops will usually take care of your ants. It's sticky, though, if the baby does get into it (been there!), so it's best used in a spot Baby doesn't frequent.
White vinegar is very helpful, in getting rid of ants. You can fill a spray bottle and spray the baseboards liberally.
Just plain dish soap mixed with water works for a contact killer. If you need to grab something quick, Lysol spray will also work.
Boric Acid and borax can be toxic to small children and pets, keep well out of their reach and inform other household members of the whereabouts and purpose of the borax and boric acid dough and/or powders. Always refer to safety precautions on the package.
I use vinegar for lots of cleaning - even weed killing so I suspect that is a good thing to try, too.
Sweep away the ants. Dilute white vinegar with water and wipe where the ant trail was. Ants navigate with a scent trail that they lay down, so if you get rid of the scent trail they are less likely to come back.
I read some of your responses, but didn't get down to the beginning. If this is a repeat, I'm sorry.
One morning I got up to ants and wanted to find a "home remedy" to the problem since I didn't have time to go to the store. I googled "natural aunt control" or something like that and I remember two things from that. One is, they don't like cucumber peels so place those near the hole. The other is boiling water, dump it in the aunt hill. I know you have snow, but if the aunt hill is under the house, find it and destroy it =O)
Best of luck,
C.
CHALK! I had the same problem. First I wiped up the ants from their trail. Then I drew a thick line of chalk all around the kitchen (my ants were in the kitchen). It really worked. So try chalk. Doesn't matter what color. I also had ants raiding my dog food supply - did the same thing, drew a thick line around the base of the dog food container and the ants won't cross it.
We use a all natural bug spray called EcoSmart. We only sprayed once the ants haven't come back. I love this stuff. And the fact, that it is safe!
Those are Argentinian ants - they don't bite. Get the baby out of the house, spray an ant killer and then mop with a lavender scented floor cleaner - I'd mop it twice. Ants allegedly don't like lavender and you have to get rid of the scent trail they follow into your house. Spray a little ant repellent around your door jams and open doors and windows - spray around frame and then shut again. When the weather gets better have a pro come out to treat under your house - there are organic companies now. Maybe Pointe Pest control is in your area?
I had the same problem when we moved in - brother-in-law spilled sugar on the floor and didn't clean it up - we had a thick black line from the front door all the way to the sugar in the kitchen. I got rid of the ants - but the brother-in-law still comes back sometimes. ;)
Terro worked very well for us.
Hi A.,
I hope you got rid of your ants. Just wanted to let you know that Prespot stain remover and SOlUMel from Melaleuca kills ants. MelaMagic helps prevent the ants. There are no chemicals in any of their products. All their cleaning products have so many different uses. My sister is or should I say was dealing with ants. She has the Melaleuca EcoSense cleaning line, and i went to my reference book and shared the info and her ants are gone!
Good luck
I read that sprinkling paprika where ants are will also get rid to them.
The best (non-toxic) way to get rid of ants is to use boiling water to wash away their scent trail. Once an ant has found a source of food it lays down a scent trail for all the other ants to follow to the source, that's how they communicate to each other where to go. You need to wash away the scent. Just keep boiling kettles of water and pouring it over the ants and the trail. You can also wash it off with washing -up liquid, but I have found boiling water v. effective (it also kills the ants on the trail, so you'll have to come back as an ant in your next 1,000 lifetimes!!).
This has worked for me. You might also find that the ants will stop trying to come inside your house once the rain has stopped, so they might actually go away by themselves.
Good luck
D.
If you can find where they are entering (doorway, garage etc.) you can place a line of cinnimon and they will not cross it. That way even if your daughter finds it, it is completely non- toxic and smells good too!
Go buy a bottle of peppermint extract (real not just pepermint flavor). Put it in a spray bottle along with liquid dish soap and water. Shake and spray!
Keep the left over for wiping down your kitchen counters and use like an all purpose spray. It won't hurt your baby, but it will get rid of the ants and keep them away, plus it smells nice and clean :-)
Hope this helps.
T.
well, i've tried sprinkling cinnamon or chili pepper in the places they're coming in, but they usually just find another entrance. another friend leaves a " gift " very near to their entry point so that they just come in to that spot and go back into the walls. i have had little black ants in the past 4 houses i've lived in, and as near as i can figure, i cannot defeat them, only learn to live with them. luckily they are harmless, and futher more they taste bad...so not more than one or two accidental ingestions are likely to occur. just try not to get too freaked out, they are just ants... or you could poison the house, but i think the cure is worse than the problem when considering that route. also, they may be inside because of the snow, and will probably become less of a problem in summer.
good luck!
A.,
I use baby powder and it works great. I usually treat the area where I see the ants most as well as try to find where they are coming in and put some there to block their entry. I find that leaving the baby powder down for at least 24 hours works best and then after that you can just wipe it up. I have been using this treatment since my oldest was born (5 yrs.) and it's always worked. The best part...I bet you have some baby powder around! Good luck.
My husband tried lots of the things others have mentioned but the ants just kept coming back. So finally we had Terminix come out. I didnt want my husband wasting any more time trying stuff when I have a baby who wants to crawl around in our house. Terminix came out the next day and the ants were gone.
A.,
There are a couple of great ways to get rid of ants without using the usual toxic products.
Mint tea, citrus juice, salt, ground cinnamon and Boric Acid are all good for deterring ants. You can make the mixture below and spray where the ants are making their entrance:
2/3 cups water
1/3 cups white vinegar
2 to 3 tablespoons of dish soap
You can also mix Borax with powdered sugar and put in container with holes in the lid (maybe a baby food jar). The sugar will draw the ants they will eat and get covered in the Borax and take it back to the nest.
I always thought Borax was a harsh chemical, but it turns out it is naturally occurring. Green Living had some great information as well as additional uses.
http://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/115/1/Handy-borax...
I also researched the Terro traps, they are basically the Borax mixed with sugar! Looks like it would be much cheaper to do the homemade version. Green Living liked the Terro traps as far as commercial traps are concerned, their only complaint was that it is made with plastic and cardboard, which is a pretty minor complaint considering what else is out there.
I also checked out the Raid site, here is that link:
http://www.killsbugsdead.com/fop_ak_pre.asp
Hope this is helpful and you are able to get rid of those pesky little things. If you are ever interested in learning about other non-toxic products to use in your home, please let me know.
Thanks!
E.
