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How to Get Rid of Little Black Ants in Your Home
How to Get Rid of Little Black Ants in Your Home. Many homes are infested from time to time by "sugar ants." These may also be called "Argentine ants", "pharaoh ants" or "piss ants" in some parts of the country. To me they are little black ants and they are hard to control. I spent a lot of time and money...
Many homes are infested from time to time by "sugar ants." These may also be called "Argentine ants", "pharaoh ants" or "piss ants" in some parts of the country. To me they are little black ants and they are hard to control. I spent a lot of time and money this year spraying indoors and outdoors, killing hundreds of these pests but they kept coming back. I later learned from research that you have to get the queen(s) and others in the colony which sprays can't reach. I now have found two good products that do work well against these small ants. They are liquid and gel bait formulations that the ants carry back to the nest and then the queen(s) and other members in the nest eat the bait and die within days.
Things You'll Need
Liquid Ant Bait
Gel Ant Bait
Prevention helps. Keep a clean kitchen and clean bathrooms to reduce the attraction of these ants. Sugar ants go for anything sweet. Don't leave dirty dishes overnight.
Stop using insecticide sprays on the ants. It kills them too quickly and the nest just goes on. The queens will only lay more eggs. And parts of the ant colony may move to another part of your property, multiplying the problem. This is what happened to me.
Buy two types of ant bait, liquid for primarily indoor use against the ants (I've used a product called Terro Liquid Ant Bait) and a gel for use both indoors and outdoors (I've used Combat Ant Killing Gel). Both the liquid and gel types of ant bait seem to work well. The ants love the material and carry it back to their nest where the queen and others eat it and die within hours or days. Home improvement and hardware stores typically carry these products. I haven't had enough success with dry ant baits to recommend them.
Read and follow the directions on the packaging! You need to place the bait material close to the entry point inside and outside the house. The ants should diminish substantially within three to five days.
Tips & Warnings
You may need to reapply the ant bait after a week if you still see ant trails.
Don't over apply the ant bait. You may attract other ant colonies!
Keep the ant bait out of the reach of young children and pets.
