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Little Black House Ants in DROVES!

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  • Little Black House Ants in DROVES!

    Here in Kahalu`u, and in Ahuimanu we seem to have a common problem.
    Little black ants, about 1/8" long, that bite, climb all over, are deterred by NOTHING, are attracted to pet food, dropped scraps. etc., grease, sugar, EVERYTHING!

    I have tried baiting their select foods to kill the queen, but have had no luck. The pest-controllers know less than we do! The State says (with glee!) ah yes, you have GLABER ants! Very hard to ERADICATE!
    They build multiple nests, and many will be in your walls, basements, etc. You need to eliminate all the nests.

    Bottom line:

    They can be killed easily with Windex. ANY mild soap-based product will kill them. But you only kill the workers. Breast Cancer Society.

    If you kill the workers, and not the queen, she will make NEW workers. Ad infinitum.

    Orange guard is a good, non-toxic and as efficient as other recommendations.

    F'ing haole ANTS!

    k,7
    Last edited by Kaonohi; November 3, 2008, 11:43 PM. Reason: SPELLING, GRAMNDMA
    Be Yourself. Everyone Else Is Taken!
    ~ ~
    Kaʻonohiʻulaʻokahōkūmiomioʻehiku
    Spreading the virus of ALOHA.
    Oh Chu. If only you could have seen what I've seen, with your eyes.

  • #2
    Re: Little Black House Ants in DROVES!

    Try making a paste with sugar, water, and boric acid. Put the paste by the lines where they march. Be sure no pets or kids are around to eat the paste. They'll take the paste back to the nests and kill the queen and the rest of the colony in a few weeks.

    DD
    www.myspace.com/chrislunainstrumentals

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Little Black House Ants in DROVES!

      Grim Reaper Pest Control: 261-7609. Talk to Cheryl. Tell her Paula sent ya.
      Aloha from Lavagal

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Little Black House Ants in DROVES!

        Take note of where they pass through and draw a line with Dead Fast to kill them. Available at Longs Drugs and City Mill.

        Terro also works. A few drops will attract the ants. They take the poisoned bait back to the nest and that supposedly knocks out the colony.

        We got those same ants, too. And I've noticed a lot of winged ones around. They're migrating.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Little Black House Ants in DROVES!

          IF you have any old plastic 35mm film canisters around (they are getting rarer, of course), here's a bait we've found effective and cheap ---

          Home made ant bait:
          1 c. water
          1/3 c. sugar
          1 teaspoon boric acid
          One 35mm film canister.

          Combine until all ingredients are dissolved. Pour some of this mixture into a black film canister with a lid into which you have poked small holes right below the closed rim of the lid. Turn upside down so the canister works like a feeder. Squeeze the canister gently so some of the liquid spills onto the rim of the canister. Place in the path of ants, as close to their entry points along the wall as you can get it. Do not use around pets or small children.

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          • #6
            Re: Little Black House Ants in DROVES!

            Terro works for us. However, it seems like when one trail disappears, another pops up.

            We found them in our computer room nesting in a stack of cisco routers. I've never seen ant eggs before, let alone a million angry ants. They'd also nested inside of an old hard drive...geez

            We've had lots and lots and lots of winged ants over the past 3 months. I can't find their current nest so it must be in the walls.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Little Black House Ants in DROVES!

              Originally posted by Kaonohi View Post
              They can be killed easily with Windex. ANY mild soap-based product will kill them. But you only kill the workers. Breast Cancer Society.
              Huh? Breast Cancer Society?

              Originally posted by Kaonohi View Post
              F'ing haole ANTS!
              Huh? Let's see, did you mean popolo ants, or maybe hale ants, or were just practicing using the term "f'n haole"?
              Now run along and play, but don’t get into trouble.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Little Black House Ants in DROVES!

                Originally posted by Amati View Post
                Huh? Breast Cancer Society?

                Huh? Let's see, did you mean popolo ants, or maybe hale ants, or were just practicing using the term "f'n haole"?
                Strange. NONE of that seems familiar in any way. I have NO clue how it got there.

                I remember seeing someone saying recently that their posts got deleted, and the webmasters said they didn't know why....

                Hackers? Late-night keystroke errors? Unihipili? Too much Bud Lite?

                No doubt it's there. I'd go back and fix it, but it seems I lost my editing priviledges for those posts.
                When and if I get editing back for those, I'll straighten them out.

                For sure.
                Last edited by Kaonohi; November 4, 2008, 05:48 PM. Reason: Spelling
                Be Yourself. Everyone Else Is Taken!
                ~ ~
                Kaʻonohiʻulaʻokahōkūmiomioʻehiku
                Spreading the virus of ALOHA.
                Oh Chu. If only you could have seen what I've seen, with your eyes.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Little Black House Ants in DROVES!

                  Mahalo all the recommendations.
                  I have tried boric acid, tried Terro, tried Pic, tried Every ant bait I can find.

                  Dead Fast certainly will eliminate them from a small area, but they keep coming back via other portals.
                  Maybe multiple cooperating nests?

                  They are called 'Glaber ants' - they make multiple nests, sacrifice workers and eggs willingly to support the colony. If food is short, they eat their own eggs.

                  Their main food is to milk aphids which live in our flowers. My ginger patch and other tropicals are aswarm in them. If I brush by a plant in my yard, I am covered with at least one dozen ants.
                  My (former) flower farm is useless. I have not discovered how to pick without getting eaten. Parts of my yard I cannot walk through.

                  They have nested in and ruined my VCR tapes. Every enclosed space they use for a nest, inside and out.
                  I soaked my commercial flowers in soapy water overnight, assumed they were OK, then next day the display started exuding ants.

                  (Sigh) This, too, shall pass. (I hope!)

                  Thanks for your suggestions - I'll try all I can and let you know if anything works.

                  Here's hoping this post doesn't appear with strange insertions like my OP did!
                  Be Yourself. Everyone Else Is Taken!
                  ~ ~
                  Kaʻonohiʻulaʻokahōkūmiomioʻehiku
                  Spreading the virus of ALOHA.
                  Oh Chu. If only you could have seen what I've seen, with your eyes.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Little Black House Ants in DROVES!

                    Are you maybe old enough to have senior moments?

                    We use Terro traps, but yeah, you knock out one nest and there's always another. Also, these buggers nest in old termite damage so there's always a supply of old termite droppings especially under the windows. Part of our garage floor is covered with the dark brownish red droppings from the roof. The roof itself is still solid.

                    Wasn't aware they bite. I've had them crawling on me numerous times with no discomfort from bites.

                    So far, I've not found any new termite droppings in the house, so I know I knocked out at least 3 nests.

                    You can blame our unusually dry weather for the increase in these ant nests. It's not only these black ants that are going rampant. My parents are having problems with "ghost" ants and we've got these rather large red ants all over our property. They don't bite, but they do get into our fruit trees and lilikoi vines and damage young fruit as well as cultivate aphids.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Little Black House Ants in DROVES!

                      Originally posted by Da Rolling Eye View Post
                      Are you maybe old enough to have senior moments?
                      Oh, for sure. But not li'dat! Whole 3-word phrases out of nowhere? Unless I'm entering a new phase....

                      I will keep battling the ants - till all 27 billion of them are gone, or until I am.
                      Be Yourself. Everyone Else Is Taken!
                      ~ ~
                      Kaʻonohiʻulaʻokahōkūmiomioʻehiku
                      Spreading the virus of ALOHA.
                      Oh Chu. If only you could have seen what I've seen, with your eyes.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Little Black House Ants in DROVES!

                        More better I liked the old days, with 8" centipedes, plenty slimey slugs, friendly cane spiders, rats and mongoose galore, in shifts (day & night), and the ubiquitous mosquitos.

                        In the past 5 years I have seen an increase in pincer bugs (black earwigs), and the small black ants in the last 3 years (Glaber ants, sp.); the ants are the worst. Today I noticed ants near my wife's jazz CD collection. Believe! They had nests, complete with eggs in her CD jewel boxes. Took me 3 hours I could have been gardening, surfing, whatever, to open the CDs, kill the ants and eggs, and set them out to dry.
                        I still have the other 90% of our CDs to check.
                        They already ruined our VHS tape collection. (The rats ate all our photo negatives - must be hallucinogenic!)
                        I need a better attitude.
                        My friend Byron Fears, from Hanalei Adventure tours (Boston Whaler whale view boat tours on N. kauai), always said: "just take the pictures that never fade." Meaning: be in the moment; retain what stays.

                        Maybe I'm jus wound too tight.

                        Kaonohi
                        Be Yourself. Everyone Else Is Taken!
                        ~ ~
                        Kaʻonohiʻulaʻokahōkūmiomioʻehiku
                        Spreading the virus of ALOHA.
                        Oh Chu. If only you could have seen what I've seen, with your eyes.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Weekend Update!!!!!~!

                          Borax, sugar, 2 weeks, no change.
                          Added Terro (a borax compound they seem to be attracted to), no change.
                          They keep coming and coming and coming.
                          I have millions of billions of ants, eating from my ant baits, coming back, (I guess, or they're newborns) and recycling again and again and again and... arrrrggghhhhh!

                          Next stop, the pest control one other writer recommended... but ...
                          You know ... everything too expensive.
                          More better poor than overwhelmed., i guess.

                          These ants are super ants!
                          Beware, they come to you, they take over all the island!

                          Uh, maybe coqui frog eat 'em?
                          (Mongoose? Lizards? SNAKES! Let's import ant-eating snakes!)

                          Kaonohi, under stress.
                          Be Yourself. Everyone Else Is Taken!
                          ~ ~
                          Kaʻonohiʻulaʻokahōkūmiomioʻehiku
                          Spreading the virus of ALOHA.
                          Oh Chu. If only you could have seen what I've seen, with your eyes.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Weekend Update!!!!!~!

                            Originally posted by Kaonohi View Post
                            Borax, sugar, 2 weeks, no change.
                            I spent an entire month trying to eliminate a nesting area with bait traps before I saw improvement. And even now there are is a weak army still marching around, but at least not the swarming mass there was before. I'm going to have to be satisfied with a reduction I think.
                            Now run along and play, but don’t get into trouble.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Little Black House Ants in DROVES!

                              I stayed in Oahu and my ex G/F used to put outmeal down for them. They take it but can't digest it. Hence they go to Ant Heaven. It works.

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