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ants

 
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I hate ants. In Texas they are especially bad this year. It wouldn't be so bad if they just got in my food. They are viscous. I have hundreds of bites. Mostly around my ankles. I bought some ant bait today. I hope it works.
 
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I wonder if you would substitute "aunts," how much of a difference that would make.

If you have been getting bites, are these bed bugs? They're not easy to get rid of. You have to leave your hours while the kill all the eggs.
 
Randall Twede
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No. They are ant bites. I've gotten them before, but never this bad.
 
Brian Tkatch
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What have you tried?

There's those sound emitters to get rid of them, ant spray, and the bait, which you are trying.
 
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Brian Tkatch
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"Frank, get over here. The human are back, get the spray please."
 
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Have you considered getting an ant eater as a pet? You can even do pair programming...


...maybe not

source
 
Randall Twede
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What a great idea Maneesh!
 
Randall Twede
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Brian, I didn't know about sound emitters. I bet you have to plug them in though and I don't have electricity :=(
 
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I'm late to this thread, but I battle ants with what I call the "cotton balls of death". Boil one cup of water then add two tablespoons of sugar and one tablespoon of Borax. Dip cotton balls in this and place them in strategic locations where your pets can't get to them. For instance, under the kitchen sink, under the stove and refrigerator, etc. I place each cotton ball on a small square of wax paper because when they dry they are like cement and will stick to the surface like glue. Do this for a couple of days and no more ants. At least it works with North Carolina ants. Your mileage may vary. I've never had any luck with those ant traps.

I've found that at certain stages of their life cycle, ants are not interested in sugar but rather fat. It seems to be early in the spring. I've considered altering this recipe to use butter instead of sugar for this time period, but haven't tried it yet.

 
Randall Twede
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borax eh? good to know
 
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I always thought borax was the standard ant killer, mixed with some sort of sweet sticky syrup. Once the ants take the stuff home and feed it to the queen ant, the colony will fall apart.
 
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Texas is home to fire ants. So-called because they can sting the fire out of you. Just one ant can raise painful blistering welts. Fire ants are native to South America, so when they first entered the Southern USA, they had no predators and spread like, um, fire. They're also fond of building nests in electrical fixtures (for example, the big ground-based neighborhood transformer units) and when there are floods an entire nest will lock "hands" and float off, which makes wading through floodwaters even more joy than moccasins and hidden potholes can offer.

Fire ants also set up shop in Florida, so I'm quite familiar with them. Fortunately, the University of Florida has an extensive entomological department and among the many pests it looks to control are fire ants. I think their work must have succeeded, since in the last few years my yard is no longer one big ant bed.

Not all ants deliver excruciating pain. The large "bull ants" we have locally (I think they're carpenter ants) have stung me, but for their size (and intimidatingly large mandibles), they're nowhere near fire-ant pain. Then there's the little "sugar ants" that don't seem to sting at all, but get their name from the way they'll do a beeline on your sugar bowl if you don't seal it up. An exterminator in Orlando introduced me to Pharaoh Ants. They look like "sugar ants", like to hide in electrical/telephone wall plates and are considered a nuisance because unlike most ants, any female pharaoh ant can become a queen,

At night in summer, the winged ants come out of various hiding places in my house. Mostly they just file around up the walls, but some get on my monitor screen, which is a nuisance.

I use Amdro for ant control, but it comes in several "flavors", so when in doubt, check with an entomologist.
 
Campbell Ritchie
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Tim Holloway wrote:. . . Pharaoh Ants . . . look like "sugar ants", like to hide in electrical/telephone wall plates and are considered a nuisance . . .

I don't know whether they are the same species we get in Britain, but I think they are native to Egypt or somewhere like that (hence the name). They can get into all sorts of equipment, even things like infusion sets in hospital, and as you say they are a right nuisance. They are very small ants, if I remember correctly.
 
Tim Holloway
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Apparently the name is in dispute. One article suggested it was one of the Plagues of Egypt, another says they're from Egypt, my exterminator said that it had to do with their ability to promote non-queens to queen status.

Apparently they have managed to spread throughout the temperate and warmer zones of the entire world and they are infamous for liking indoor electrical boxes and the like. They reportedly can live outside in "South Florida", but I don't consider South Florida to include Orlando, where I was first introduced to them underneath my telephone wall plate. South Florida is tropical, whereas Orlando historically expected a few below-freezing days each year. These days, who knows. I had to run air conditioning in January last year, and I'm located in one of the colder zones of the state. "Winter" was a week in mid-February, so not only temperatures, but timing was seriously askew.
 
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Tim Holloway wrote:Texas is home to fire ants.


You mean Spicy Boys?
 
Tim Holloway
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Actually, if you've ever been formally introduced, the name used is considerably more colorful, but not suitable for repeating here.
 
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Tim Holloway wrote:They look like "sugar ants", like to hide in electrical/telephone wall plates and are considered a nuisance because unlike most ants, any female pharaoh ant can become a queen



You're not confusing these ants with little cockroaches are you?
 
Tim Holloway
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No one in Florida has trouble distinguishing ants from cockroaches!
 
J. Kevin Robbins
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And now I've added one more item to my list of "Reasons Not to Move to Florida". Also known as the Australia of North America.
 
Randall Twede
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don't move to Texas either. besides the ants we have a mass influx of immigration. a closet now rents for $800/mo.
 
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