apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Well, the fact that they are in your apartment on the 5th floor means that the building is infested with ants. My father lives in a penthouse 16 stories up, and he gets them, too, sometimes. The ants are in the walls, and the building management needs to take steps to get rid of them at the source - i.e. at ground level and in the basement.
You can, however, use citrus based products to keep them out of your apartment. Ants HATE citrus oils, especially grapefruit and lemon.......

We had the same problem last summer and I refused to call an exterminator because of all the chemicals. Remarkably, those tiny "ant hotel" traps really, really worked for us. They're also super cheap. We put a few in corners and on the counter--anywhere we'd seen the ants-- and in less than a week, they were gone.

I don't know if I agree with the whole building infestation thing....

When I moved into my apartment, there were massive amounts of ants. When I got rid of them in the kitchen, they showed up in the bedroom. Got rid of them in the bedroom, they were marching along the tiles in the bathroom! It was SO GROSS.

So I packed up my cat, fumigated with three Raid foggers and have never seen another one. (Nor a roach...knock on wood...)

None of my neighbors can recall ever having ants!

LK --

I'm having the same problem, and all I can say is: Tis the season. This is the time of the year when those little tiny ants--masonry ants, I think-- infest everywhere. Fight them best you can with traps and sprays (I just discovered an all natural one at Garber's Hardware on Greenwich St. -- it's made with mint oil and lecitin), especially around the points you think they use to enter, be it doorways or windows. But take heart: They will go away on their own once spring is over. Happens every year.

Terro Liquid Ant Killer. This was a staple in my midwestern home while growing up. Put a few drops on a small square of waxed paper wherever there are ants. They eat it and die. Simple.

The web-site says that it's "the nation's #1 seller for 85 years."

http://www.terro.com/shop.php?show_prod_detail=2

LK, I'm on the same boat as you. I actually cried for 2 hours since i could not believe that there were ants at my place as i put in so much effort to keep it spotless. I'm on the 5th floor too.

Anyhow, the terminix people told me the same thing as Justin that the building needs to get the outside disinfected and also, this is the prime season for the ants since they are looking to build new colonies.
I've sprayed this bug spray at all entry points and along the edges but i will try the citrus cleaner idea also.
BTW - i havent seen any more ants since i sprayed the bug spray!
Good Luck!

Since you mention that you have a cat, I am going to suggest this trick. I live on the ninth floor and started to get ants this winter - and ants really like cat food. which is gross and I doubt the cat likes it either. I leave the cat food out all day - not my preferance but the cat insists - so, I put his food in a small custard cup and set that cup in a larger food bowl filled with water. You only need about 1/8" of water - ants aren't interested in crossing it. This seems to make my place a lot less attractive to the ants and they have left for better feedings in someone else's apartment.
hope this helps! good luck.

My co-op has an extermination service twice a month, you just tell them to have the guy come (so he doesn't wake you up) and he'll knock on your door. We're not a fancy co-op by any means, maybe you should inquire to someone on the maintenance team of your building as to what you should do?

I haven't had to use it yet though, probably because of the rest of the tenants using the service.

We discovered ants in the bathroom (which, strangely enough, has a door to the outside, undoubtedly where they're coming in) in our new apartment before moving in, and sprayed them with Raid. It said it lasted for two weeks, and indeed it did, to the day, so we sprayed again where we saw them and around the windows and doors. We also have a couple of long-term solutions that we'll try, including ant traps and borax ant-killing stuff, which we got at Home Depot but should be available in a lot of places, including large grocery stores. Normally I'd try for a nice environmentally-friendly solution, but my dander is up and patience gone with these critters. I might give the citrus oils a try, though.

I can hardly stand having an ant or two crawling around the bathroom floor, so I can't imagine how I'd react to them crawling out of my laptop. Ewww. Good luck.

I'd go with the Terro Liquid Ant Killer. Seems to do the trick. Amazing stuff when you can actually see them circle around it.

Everybody knows about food - but ants also will go for food residue on counters or in cabinets so you need to wipe with some type of cleanser. Ants need water and sweaty pipes are like a trip to South Beach for them. Put some ant killer around those areas.

I had the same problem, and ants crawling out of my laptop was the last straw. We had great success with Terro Liquid Ant Killer as bryan.nyc and Chris reccomended. I left the liquid out on little squares in every corner of the apartment for 2 weeks. It's really interesting to watch them all surround the liquid- and you can follow the trail to see where they're coming from. You'll see lots of dead ants around your walls... this is good, and it will continue for up to a week after you take the bait away.
Don't bother with the spray- it didn't deter the ants crawling in through my ceiling fixture.
We finally did call an exterminator, but only so we could submit his report to the building management office... we needed to motivate them to address the building-wide infestation.

Diatomaceous Earth:

http://www.biconet.com/crawlers/DE.html

http://www.internet-grocer.com/diatome.htm

I'm with Alex.. tis the season. they show up... and then they go. no problem. does happen every year in my neighborhood. i have also heard that ant traps work really well. this week i have some fellas that seem to show up around 7p.m. ... and then go home around 9. i've not been around to put up much of a fight. but i think i'll try a little citrus oil around the suspected entry points. thanks for all tips everyone.

Funny you should ask about this, as Martha Stewart Living just addressed the whole ant thing. Martha recommends white vinegar and water (50/50 mix), sprayed on water resistant areas and allowed to dry. I don't know if it really works, but I'd try it before undoubtedly carcinogenic chemicals, especially around the kid. Good luck!

The water/vinegar mix really does work, I just used it not five minutes ago and it took care of the ones that are crawling around my living room. I really want to try the citrus oils next though. Any ideas where you can get them?

I wrote about this a few weeks ago and I second Caitlin and L in recommending you not use pesticides which is safer for you and your pets as well as effective.

http://www.charlesandhudson.com/archives/2006/04/ant_control.htm

FYI - Terro is essentially sugar water and borax. The toxicity of borax is about the same as that of table salt. It will not harm your pets / children.

Cloves is a folk remedy. I tried it and it worked. Windex (to clean their trails) works too.

We just moved into a place and discovered a back balcony beam below our porch was HOLLOW on one side (near the "trash area" ... no kidding, I wonder WHY?) The fact that no one was killed grilling on that side of the porch is simply amazing. They were ants, and they were burrowing. They were burrowing, nesting, wood-killer little ants. We thought it was termites at first until they unearthed the first nest during reconstruction.

Anyway, long story short, the whole porch had to come down. Completely. Then, we got some windows replaced and the frames just *crumbled* - it was alarming to say the least. We are on the 2nd and 3rd floors of a classic Massachusetts 2-family in a great neighborhood - dry basement, perfectly dry attic, no water damange, nothing - now I know why it was so dry everywhere! Now I know why when we moved in, we found ant killer under the kitchen sink! I was like, "what the heck? I don't see any ants!" Then, I started looking at the wood in the house. Everything is wood, tile and dry wall, and yes, I'm worried. Thank god this is just another rental on the way to owning... someday.

Try to first identify anything obvious that is structural where they may be nesting - you could literally, be at danger of floors or walls loosing their integrity. It's scary. Get it checked out by a professional, and if you are covered by your coop insurance for investation, the board should approve an official extermination/investigation at least, call your super or manager, and if they don't respond, the city, and make an official report of the findings. If they keep coming back, it's seriously not anything you can do with putting away food or spraying windex or vinegar to stop the actual destruction. Think "Carpenter Ants" or Army Ants in Africa... scary little buggers. The burrow, they nest, they eat the wood shavings to make those nests, and they have thousands of babies ... ICK!

One thing to remember, it's better than roaches. When you get roaches, you can't get rid of them. I lived in Harlem. Eventually I moved. IT's BAD.

The ants do not go away without basically a really hard-core extermination and structural investigation. ESPECIALLY if you have wood supports and elements.

go to the garden store and get those little tabs that you stick in the cement line in front of your door and ants will stay out of the house.

The best product I've found is Ants B Gone. It's a boric acid/sugar solution, I think. You just place tiny drops along the ant path. They take home the bait, and you have no more ants after a couple of days. I wipe up the ants I see in the meantime (on the far side of the bait drops, of course).

I feel bad about killing them. Bay leaves and spraying perfume on the areas where ants were spotted got rid of them in a day.

From LK: Thanks so much guys. We could not bear it anymore, and we did call the extermintaor. He put down a gel and they are gone. COMPLETELY. Let's hope it stays that way. I had tried ant motels (nada) and Windex (being Greek, i figured I would honor my roots) and still nada. So the big nasty chemical gel was indeed, THE FINAL SOLUTION.

im just going to believe what the guy said that it won't be dangerous to the baby and cat.

one thing that will definitely work well is called Chinese chalk; you draw lines around the perimeter of your place, esepcially where you notcie them coming in, and they will not cross the lines. Who knows what is in it--I never touch it directly, but use gloves. It kills the first few, but the rest won't come near it. Available in Chinese neighborhood groccery stores.

I came home to an ant infestation. I bought a product called Insectigone by Chemfree... and no more ants. It doesn't smell.

We just had the same problem and only one thing fixed it. Follow the ants to places where they come in and squirt it with hot sauce. Doesn't matter what kind (we used tabasco) but it will stop the ants. No icky poison to mess with or worry about the cat or kids getting into. Hot sauce. It's awesome.

AHHHH Terro...I love that stuff...absolutely amazing. I actually found out about that stuffa bout a year or 2 ago when my grandmother had nasty black ants all over her kitchen, and she's a neat freak! I moved into a camper next to my house because my dad took over my room when I left for college. I put the Terro down and they were gone the next day, but I don't think one little package thing was enough...so for now, I'm going to try the bay leaf/cinnamon/chalk/windex thing for now... I really don't feel like sleeping with ants tonight...

The carpenter ants attack my mobile home every spring. I've found that if I rip a few of their legs off and release them, the other ants in the colony eventually get the idea and find themselves another chump. Try it!

A cool, if potentially cruel, experiment: take a lemon peel and use it to draw a box on the floor/counter/whatever around one of your ants. It won't cross the line, in fact, it'll literally jump back from it.


The last time I had to deal with creepy-crawlies, I went through the whole apartment and blew boric acid into every crack or hole I found, then sealed it up with spackle or silicone. It reduced the population enough that I at least didn't see them anymore, so I could pretend they were gone. This probably works better for er, larger multilegged unwanted roomies than those little brown ants, though.

Thanks you all for your great tips and solutions!
I'm gonna go for the Chinese chalk and vinegar/water solutions - if I'd thought about it, when I was recently in NY I could have popped into Home Depot and bought some stuff!!!!!!
Over here in England they (the little buggers!) are just starting to wake up......Aarrrghh!!!!

Chinese chalk, is also called moth balls. You can place a couple around areas where you find ants and the ants will not go near them. Some ants might even die. (That stuff smells really bad though, and it's not something you should play with right befor you eat. It's not strong enough to harm humans though (but i don't suggest for you to eat any. Don't worry, pets don't go near them, cause they don't like the smell either.) This stuff is cheap and works efficiently.

DO NOT use "Chinese Chalk"!! It is not "harmless", it's a compressed chunk of insecticide so dangerous that it's actually illegal in the US. (The "non-toxic" label on the packaging is a simple lie - it's an illegal product anyways, so it's not too concerned with truth in advertising - and the stores that sell it are breaking the law.) Humans and pets can be, and have been, harmed by it.

http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/health/illegalproducts/chalk.htm

Mothballs are *not* the same as Chinese Chalk. They are also not harmless, but at least not as nasty and toxic as the chalk stuff (and also not illegal).

I googled "ants in laptop" and am so happy to hear that I'm not the only one dealing with this problem! What are they finding in there that is so interesting? But..I have ants...everywhere. I clean, clean, wipe, and spray. Southern California sany soil seems to just invite the buggers in. I also live in a bungalo built in the 30s, tons of 'charm' but also many little crevices for the bugs to come in. Since April, I have used the Raid traps, Terro Traps, Borax powders, vinegar, soapy water spray, floating the cat food in a moat of water. I swear I have Jesus ants- they find their way over the water eventually= I've found that if I put 2 drops of dish soap in the moat, they can't walk across. Yes, it is 11"X14" cake pan, 1" deep with water and 3" souffle cup for the cat food. I have NO idea how they are gettin in it! I'm looking forward to winter, but until then, how do I make my laptop less interesting to the ants??

I think I will use the vinegar and water solution on the kitchen counter top and get that leaky kitchen faucet fixed right away, at least by early next week. Also, I will use only lemon-smelling cleaning products or there is a product called Method, which has a cucumber-smelling product available also. I don't know if it works to deter ants though, but it smells like cucumbers. Then I will call the superintendent for pest control, because right now the ants are winning! but not for long.

I have a lot of little black ants that just started showing up in my kitchen. They are all over the countertops and in the sink. I can't seem to find an entry point for them.I sprayed all around the outside of the house with ortho pest spray,and the windows and doors. I tried the vinegar spraying,but they were back in 30 minutes???They just started showing up since the weather cooled off. I live in S. Fla., and am used to having creepy crawlies,but these ants are driving me crazy.

i put out Terro last sat. as a last resort after trying vinegar,bay leaves and cloves..By tues. they were GONE,and it's fri. evening and I haven't see one since. When all else fails try terro.
GLTA
John

Ants, here in NC, hate Cinnamon. I put it all around the house and it seemed to really work. Also on the outside of the windows ledges they were using.

Peppermint tea or string dipped in peppermint extract. I had ants last summer coming in along the outside wall. I sprinkled loose peppermint tea along the baseboard and kinda swept it under and haven't had any ants since. When the Roomba pulls the tea out, I just redo it.

hi AT,
i moved into a 3 story walk-up about 6 months ago and when we moved in we noticed ants and right away went to our landlord about them, and he said he would take care of it. in the meantime we had tried everything that we could to get rid of these ants. the sprays, the traps, everything that we could think of. some would work for a few days or so, but nothing stuck. finally about a month ago our landlord finally got an exterminator to come in and he put down this gel like stubstance that was supposed to have them out, and he said it could take about 3 weeks. well the gel didnt do anything for it, it actually brought more out. we are running out of options... any advice?

oh and we are from ontario canada btw... maybe that will help

okay I know the last post on this was while ago but I just wanted to add that I am now officially freaked out... I just put down the CIL baits in my apartment (in toronto, ON) and decided to to a search to see how long it would take before the ants are gone and instead I am now tapping at my keyboard with disdain picturing ants crawling out on to my fingers uggh... does anyone else get really itchy reading this stuff? I never thought ants were such a big deal (having previously dealt with roaches- I moved out after 3 months, and mice) but now I'm worried, I guess I should just call the landlord. I'd still take the ants over the other two though uggh...

I have read on other sites that talcum powder set down as a barrier works too. I have yet to try it, but my hopes are high.

I think that the various solutions listed here may work for some and not for others because we're dealing with different types of ants. Does anyone know of a good site that shows you how to identify your ants?

I have to say - living on the 12th floor of an apt. makes it harder to control since you don't have access to the ground floor....