San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

This happens to us about every 4-5 months. Here's the solution: Go to Home Depot, find a product call Amdro Ant Block and sprinkle it around the outside of your house. Don't put it where your pets might go, it's OK, you don't need complete coverage. In 1 day all the ants are gone. Trust me, this stuff is great. I find 1 jug of the stuff treats my house twice.

My wife goes insane when she sees ants, so I tried everything. This stuff is the best.

Remove the temptation by keeping everything as clean as possible. In my experience, ants eventually give up and move on to greener pastures. We have to empty our dog's dish before we go to bed every night, if there's anything in it. If we happen to forget one night, it's no problem, but any longer and the scouts will bring in the army.

Thanks, NavyDoc. I've got my husband on the task as we speak.

I dont mind an occasional ant, but when I looked down and saw them swarming in the carpet fibers, I swooned.

They were marching towards our pet kibble dishes. We also had watermelon that afternoon, and a very small amount of the juice seeped through our trash bag/bin.

Aaaaaaaarrrrrggghhhhh...

Use Terro ant killer. Works like a charm because it kills the queen. You can get it at Ace. The only problem is you have to deal with about two days of ants swarming the bait, then they disappear forever.

Food isn't the problem. Water/heat is. Ants are looking for water.  Traditional sprays don't work well, because it just kills the ones you see and not the colony, they just move and go through another crack in the home.

Just the ant baits you get in traps and leave them around the ants. Let the ants walk in and out for the traps for about a week. They gradually get worse and then they start to go away after about a week. If you're afraid of the ant problem spreading, get your favorite hand-dishwashing soap and draw a "barrier" liberally with the undiluted detergent so that the ants can't cross-over to another location without going through the detergent. Most ants are smart enough to not cross into the detergent, and the ones that aren't will be quickly eliminated by darwin's theory of evolution.  I did this regularly my bay area home which has a huge ant problem regularly, since it's pretty hot there in the summer, and some of these older homes there have a 18inch crawl space underneath the house floor, which exposes lots of cracks etc.

Since I'm assuming this is a rental, don't do anything else after the ants go away. Otherwise, if it were your home, after the ant problems go away, I'd use some caulking to plug up the cracks where the ants were coming from.

Here in SD, I had an ant problem in CV when we first moved in. But we hired an exterminator that sprays the outside every two years, and we don't have a problem since.

selfportrait

----- Sour grapes for everyone!

When I used to live in Carmel Valley, it was like living on an ant hill. FLU is right. They want water. Doesn't matter how clean you keep your house. They'll find a spec of something and they'll be on it. Oh, the mornings coming down to my spotless white kitchen only to see a black trail of ants marching along. It would freak me out. I tried all kinds of stuff. Unfortunately, I hate to use chemicals and only used it when I was at my wits end. It was a constant battle. I don't miss that. And I don't have a good answer for you. Sorry. Hope someone else does. This is good information to know. I have heard of Terro and had limited success w/it. I lived near a canyon at the time and the supply of queens and ants are unlimited and endless.

I put up with the ants for years. I finally called Terminex and I have not seen an ant since (3 years now). I tried all the store bought crap. The only thing that did work was Diazanon, but you can't get that anymore. Something about making your kids grow extra appendages or something.... Don't fight it just call a real exterminator. They have stuff that actually works. It's the best $80 I spend (every 3 months).

Yes - they are looking for water.

When I was in college, I had the perfect ant solution.
We put past-due meat and water outside the back door. They never came in after that. Yes, we had ants. but not in the house. The ants were happy. We were happy.

Not sure if my wife would be able to live w/ this solution as readily as my roomates.

I get the logic behind putting water/food outside so that the ants don't come inside. However, I would caution against putting out past-due meat as it will likely draw coons, rats, and other vermin, and it will generally stink. One alternative is to use a composter such as the Earth Machine:
http://www.earthmachine.com/

I bring this up because I installed 2 Earth Machines on the south side of the home we are renting and ant activity in our home has actually decreased this year as opposed to last. I had no idea of this theory until I scooped out some of the compost from the composters earlier this morning. I was shoveling it into a wheelbarrow and there were so many ants I got a bit dizzy because it looked like the ground was moving.

Even though you might be renting, I still would recommend sealing off as many access points as you can. Our guest bathroom was a particular problem and after studying the ant's movements I noticed that they tended to enter from behind the medicine cabinet. I got so fed up that one day I removed the medicine cabinet and completely caulked the wall behind it.

As for the pet food dishes you can try putting the food dish in a pan or slightly larger bowl of water.

Ants hate the smell of peppermint. Get some peppermint essential oil and put some drops of it on cotton balls and scatter them around your kitchen/living room/etc.

Last year I made an ant spray using peppermint, lemongrass, and lavender essential oils in a spray bottle mixed with water (about 4 drops of each, I think). Sprayed it where ever we saw them.

That helped.

Also we put a soda can outside with some soda in it.

Here is PQ ants outnumber people 10,000,000 to 1...the only thing I have found (and I have tried everything) is calling Corkies in April, having them spray in April and May, then once more around July or August, that usually takes care of the ants for the year. We live on PQ canyon, so they are everywhere. Corkies is all organic, and it does not harm our dog. Not an ad for Corkies, they are just one of the companies...$59.00, three times a year, and no headaches. It also keeps bugs off my roses, a definate plus!

MANmom

FLU is right. They want water. Doesn't matter how clean you keep your house. They'll find a spec of something and they'll be on it.

Tell that to the ants around here. We live in CV and don't have an ant problem, because we keep the house clean. We leave water out for the dog, have damp potted plants around, etc., but no ants. Leave food out for a couple of days, then they show up.

If anyone wants to lead ants outside with food, try a small pile of sugar.

For the record, I'd like to say that my house is very clean.

We usually have the ant problem in the 2nd floor guest bathroom - where they congregate around the toilet (probably for water).

The main floor invasion(s) only seem to occur when it's very hot outside.

Great suggestions - love the peppermint idea and the organic Corkies idea. I hate the idea of toxins and poisons in my house or near my animals.

I'm not going to get involved in caulking, etc. since we're moving in 2 mos.

Thanks, Piggs.

I'd like to know if the baits work or does it depend on brand (and what they contain)? I've gotten the baits from Target where they walk in and take the poison back to the colony. It worked for a few days and then the ants were back.

MANmom - Thanks for the Corkies suggestion. I never heard of that and it's good to know for when - someday - I buy another house.

The current heat wave is probably going to really drive the ants into homes. One of the few benefits of leaving San Diego is that we have not had one ant in the house in three years.

great OT! I had people over and ants were out in stride. To say the least I was pissed.