Best solution for sweet-eating ants
Written: Feb 01 '05 (Updated Mar 12 '06)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Cheap, no nasty chemicals, appears to wipe out the whole nest.
Cons: Effect is not immediate, can take a couple days to a week.
The Bottom Line: Five stars. Harmless to humans or animals, but it zaps the ants at their source.
|
|
|
| renlute's Full Review: Senoret Liquid Ant Killer |
If all you need is a quick kill of ants you can see, and don't want to breathe toxic fumes or befoul your kitchen with nasty chemicals, forget Raid and just squirt the ants with Windex or a soap spray.
Getting rid of the ants that haven't visited yet is a longer-term and harder problem. For years, every time I bought ant stakes or solid poisoned ant bait it was a complete waste of time and money. And the Argentine ants are a big and endless problem here in Northern California.
Because I found out that they prefer sweet food, this time I tried the Terro (=Senoret) Liquid Ant Baits, which is just a 5% borax solution in sweet syrup, placed in a flat but ridged (for access), sealed plastic tray into which you cut an entrance.
About five days ago I had a steady stream of Argentine ants outside my window, sending a couple dozen scouts per minute inside to explore. After the Terro treatment on the window sill -- just two little trays of syrup that they suck up and take back to the nest to feed the queens and larvae -- I am down to near-total inactivity outside my window and just an occasional straggler inside that doesn't realize he is supposed to be dead. In a couple more days they probably will be gone to join their entire clan at the great anthill in the sky.
Finally -- a cheap and harmless (to you and pets) extermination solution that works for the type of ant that prefers sweet food. I give this brew five stars.
UPDATE: Where are the ants?
It's now (Feb. 19) almost a month since I served drinks to the ants (Jan. 21), and virtually nobody has come to the party for a couple weeks now. Evidently something disagreed with them severely. I remain pleasantly surprised that a product actually worked, since every other method I tried was a flop. See my longer piece on this topic at:
http://www.epinions.com/content_4237664388
(rubric "How to Choose Ant Control Products")
FOLLOW-ON UPDATE: It's now late April. Only occasionally does an ant stroll by. But my downstairs neighbor has an invasion. Naturally I suggested the borax bait.
YET MORE UPDATE: A year later (March, 2006), half a dozen ants were back inside on my window sill. This time I tried the Terro bottled liquid (1 ounce for $4.99 at Ace Hardware). I just dropped a few drops on the sill. The ants noticed immediately, and some started to slurp it up. Within a few minutes there were nearly a hundred ants scurrying around. But now, 24 hours later -- hardly an ant in sight. I love this stuff.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
renlute
|
|
Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.