they look just like ants from up here

landser

I just bought a house and there seems to be a couple of ants nests under the kitchen. i 've seen the little buggers use about three access points points along the back wall of the house. what's the best way to eradicate them? can't really afford to get professional help on this one and i'm concerned that they could colonise my gaff :eek:

patrido

i had them in a house i rented in england. I got stuff from the local hardware store to get rid of them. I'd expect that woodies, etc might have something similar. It was a liquid, and you put drops of it near the access points, and it baits them and poisons them. You have to keep repeating this until all of the ants are dead.

If the nest is physically inside the structure of the house, you probably need to remove it, and it might be an indication of damp and rot.

If they are not nesting inside, then they are just coming in for food, so when you clean the place up after the previous occupant they won't come back

Real

My mom had the same problem in her house a few years back. If you find the nest pouring boiling water on it will kill them. Also wash down all your surfaces (worktops, floors, sinks etc) with equal parts of water and vinegar.

It sounds a bit cruel but look at it this way - do the pay you rent???

joseph brand

My parents have ants and are using this white powder to get rid of them, it seems to be working. Don't know what it's called though, sorry.

Just put it around access points.

Seems to be an abundance of dead woodlice on kitchen floor as of late.

The folks also have problem with slugs in kitchen, they come out during night time. I can understand tiny little ants finding entry points to house, but SLUGS!!

Sleipnir

my mate had a similar problem and that Nippon ant killer did the trick. Can take a few weeks of changing the bait-poison every day.

Course before that he took to cutting some ants in half and leaving their corpses outside the access points so the other ants "would get scared and leave"
Plus several other physcological means....... :rolleyes:

landser

thanks for the tips... hopefully i'll get the interloping feckers out in no time. i might give the psychological bit a miss though

i'm a bit concerned re the rot issue. the buggers haven't come into the house, they're mainly nesting directly under the back door. the kitchen floor has a concrete floor, so hopefully rot cant enter the equation... of course, i don't know what's under the concrete... a body probably!

The Rooster

I had a nest of ants just outside my front door, under a big rock in the garden. A kettle-full of boiling water did the trick.

patrido

landser wrote:

i'm a bit concerned re the rot issue. the buggers haven't come into the house, they're mainly nesting directly under the back door. the kitchen floor has a concrete floor, so hopefully rot cant enter the equation... of course, i don't know what's under the concrete... a body probably!

should be ok so... if you had a suspended wooden floor, and they were nesting underneath, you might have had problems, due to their tunnelling, etc.

outide=good

RicardoSmith

Where do you get the bait traps? That nippon power is toxic and you can't use it around small children. We have a problem with Silverfish and are finding it hard to get rid of the *%%£$%$5 things. We've using the nippon sprays and they are reducing but the sprays are really not suitable for us. You can get special powder thats not toxic (can't remember the name at the moment) it strips the insects of the ability to hold mositure and kills them that way. Dunno where you get these kinda powders in Ireland.

kenmc

you can get nippon liquid-bait in homebase in nutgrove at least - probably most places to be honest. comes with 2 little tray-things that you put the liquid into and place the lid on them then - cut out some little hatches for them to get in and get the food...

RicardoSmith

Homebase. I'll have to check them out. B&Q, Atlantic and the mall hardware shops near me didn't have anything like that. Where esle are they in Dublin. Nutgrove is awkward for me.