Please help- ants!!

[mackmama]

In the last 2 days, ants have invaded our upstairs. I put down terro bait traps, but they are ignoring them! We had ants downstairs last week, and I put down terro traps which worked well. Why are they ignoring them upstairs? The ants are in the hall right outside DC's room and lots are now going into DC's room. The are also now in our ceiling lights- tons of them. A few are also crawling on the walls and doors which seems odd. We can't identify one source, and there's no food up here. We are totally grossed out.

Our pest company can't come until Tuesday. The weird thing is our pest company Terminix was just here last week (for regularly schedule service) and sprayed the outside perimeter of the house as usual which is supposedly for spiders, ants, etc. We didn't have any ant problem inside until days after they sprayed so no idea if the timing is related. Since they did just spray, Terminix told me on the phone that they won't be able to spray or use anything more for 10 more days due to pesticide laws or something. I explained these ants are inside and that they didn't previously use anything inside but he still said we have to wait 10 days. I convinced them to send somebody out just to look but soonest they have is Tuesday.

Any ideas until then? I don't want to put anything toxic in DC's room or right outside DC's door so am unsure what to use. I have tried vinegar and it kills the existing ones but then (lots) more come. The ants look like normal ants although some look slightly bigger than the other smaller ants. Definitely no super big ants though. I have found no small ant hills outside. Help!


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[petesgirl]

When we had an anti infestation they were getting in through the garage so I sprinkled cinnamon on the garage steps and that stopped them. Not sure how to use cinnamon on a carpeted area though.

[toby]

In the last 2 days, ants have invaded our upstairs. I put down terro bait traps, but they are ignoring them! We had ants downstairs last week, and I put down terro traps which worked well. Why are they ignoring them upstairs? The ants are in the hall right outside DC's room and lots are now going into DC's room. The are also now in our ceiling lights- tons of them. A few are also crawling on the walls and doors which seems odd. We can't identify one source, and there's no food up here. We are totally grossed out.

Our pest company can't come until Tuesday. The weird thing is our pest company Terminix was just here last week (for regularly schedule service) and sprayed the outside perimeter of the house as usual which is supposedly for spiders, ants, etc. We didn't have any ant problem inside until days after they sprayed so no idea if the timing is related. Since they did just spray, Terminix told me on the phone that they won't be able to spray or use anything more for 10 more days due to pesticide laws or something. I explained these ants are inside and that they didn't previously use anything inside but he still said we have to wait 10 days. I convinced them to send somebody out just to look but soonest they have is Tuesday.

Any ideas until then? I don't want to put anything toxic in DC's room or right outside DC's door so am unsure what to use. I have tried vinegar and it kills the existing ones but then (lots) more come. The ants look like normal ants although some look slightly bigger than the other smaller ants. Definitely no super big ants though. I have found no small ant hills outside. Help!


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You may need a different kind of trap. I think that different kinds of ants are attracted to the different bait in the traps. Cinnamon has worked well for us also (won't kill them, but they don't like to go near it). If it is on a carpet, maybe you can put cinnamon down on saran wrap? Can you put DC on a mission to study the ants and figure out the source?!

So sorry!

[123LuckyMom]

Are you sure they're not carpenter ants? The carpenter ants we had in our house were huge. We also had the swarmers with wings, so I thought all carpenter ants were big like that. My mother ended up getting them in her house, though, and they were small. I would have assumed they were just sugar ants, so obviously they can be different sizes. Have you seen any little piles of sawdust anywhere, like in those light fixtures? If they are carpenter ants, I would call an exterminator.

[daisysmom]

We had an ant problem a few weeks ago. The ones coming in the kitchen dies easily with the Terro traps. But the ones in the bathroom at the opposite end if the house didn't go to the Terro traps. I was befuddled. We had irking come out and spray and that guy told me some ants don't fall for Terro. We ended up also getting a bunch of raid traps. The combination of the or kin and the raid ones worked.

[mackmama]

They are on our walls and our floors and I keep finding ants on me that have fallen on me from the ceiling. Are you kidding me?? So gross. Ants don't usually bother me, but this is too much. They did seem to find the Terro traps in the upstairs hallway finally so that's good. We have an exterminator coming on Monday now. Just not sure how he's going to tackle it with the main problem being right at DC's bedroom door. I bought some Combat baits today to use also, but somehow they didn't come home with me. The checkout person must have forgotten to put them in my bag. :( Any other ideas from anyone that I can try?

Re carpenter ants... how can you tell?

[mackmama]

Update- Pest guy came today. Sprayed inside with organic thyme and outside with stronger chemicals. He said not carpenter ants just normal odorous ants. He found some colonies outside that he took care of so hopefully we will be all set.


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[Dream]

We've been getting big black ants inside the house recently and its not even warm yet. I didn't know Cinnamon was a solution. I guess I'll first have to figure out where they're coming from.

[Simon]

I'm glad that helped! We had our first infestation last spring and it drove me nuts. We had very good luck with those ant hotel things like this (http://www.amazon.com/Combat-Source-Kill-Stations-Colony/dp/B002LGY1LA/ref=sr_1_2?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1398791126&sr=1-2&keywords=ant+hotel) but I think ours were Terro brand. We were able to put them up high so they were out of reach of the kids and they worked pretty fast.

[123LuckyMom]

I'm glad the situation is under control!

The best way to tell if you have carpenter ants is to look for tiny little piles of sawdust around the house. It may just look like dust, though, so it's tricky. An exterminator will be able to tell you, but you have to pay for that service, I think.