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6.2 How do I get rid of them?
The first weapon in your arsenal should be information. Hence,
you will need the following information before deciding on a
course of action:
* Identify whether ants are workers or queens. If queens, simply
collect and kill/relocate her -- as they are probably looking
for homes off nuptual flight. Make sure to close off all entry
points to eliminate future problems.
* If ants are workers, then try to track them to where they nest.
This is to determine if they are foraging inside the house or
actually are nesting there. This makes a huge difference as to
which methods will be more successful than others.
Once you have this information. The following are various methods
which may eliminate them.
* If ants are nesting outside and only foraging for food or water
inside, simply eliminate the food or water source. Either fix
dripping faucets or secure food sources in sealed containers,
cleaning cupboards, etc. Generally in these cases, it is easier
to control the food source than to control the ants by killing
them via various methods.
If ants are found to be nesting in the house structure.
* Baiting. I have heard conflicting reports about how successful
baiting is. Some have had complete success and others claimed
none at all.
* Poisons or professional extermination. In the cases when ants
are foraging. I have heard this can work well in conjunction
with cutting off food supply. Frankly, I believe simply cutting
off food supply is the main reason ants do not come back -- not
the poison. If the ants are residing in the house, then poisons
can work. I personally do not like the idea of filling my walls
with a poison which I'll have to live with the rest of my life.
* Attrition. This is the method I have used reasonably well. One
simply puts out bait (poisoned or non-poison) to catch workers.
Carpenter ant colonies usually only have workers which numbers
in the thousands. Often I check my trap (a jar with bait in it)
and simply kill, In my case, I capture and imprision until the
colony dies by attrition. This method takes a lot of time, but
it is the most environmentally friendly way to remove ants
without resorting to removing walls. This has worked in my
house two times now with carpenter ants. Eventually the queen
is forced to leave the nest due starvation. All I know is that
the colonies were evetually gone after I captured/killed a few
hundred or thousand workers.
* I have heard of people using cinnamon around entry points. Also
one can simply cultivate a lot of spiders here and there --
though this will not for certain work. If they are foraging,
closing entry points physically (with caulk etc.) can help.
Elimination of foraging rewards is best.
* If a colony lives in a house and doesn't yield to other
methods, then the best and environmentally friendly way of
removing them is simply to remove their nest from the house
physically. Often this section is rotting or damp and will need
to be replaced or repaired anyway because of weakening due
weather or ants tunnelling. In these cases, removal is the most
certain way to eliminate the colony since colony disruption is
massive. If done properly, then a queen capture can be assured.
* In the case where colonies are looking for temporary nest due
to flooding/fire etc., almost every normal method of removal
fails simply because the number of colonies being dealt with is
much greater than one. The best method for extermination is to
actually provide better home(s) than your home for the refugee
ants. By doing this, one simply encourages ants to move into
the homes you've provided which are readily transportable. Once
residence is established, one can remove them easily. Or you
can destroy them. In effect, you are creating a friendly home
trap where by you can simply remove the ants by removing their
temporary homes. I have suggested to people to try cardboard
boxes, with alternating layers of soil (for soil species) and
corrogated cardboard (nice open homey spaces premade). When
your ant refugee homes are created, bait them with something
the ants like. Eventually if the refugees like your new homes,
you will see columns of ants moving in with the whole brood and
the queen. Once they are done moving in you can safely remove
them knowing the whole colony is gone.
--Mr. Ant
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