Getting Rid Of Ants

[mrireland]

Hi,

Ive a colony of ants, they were there for a week before the landlord had the place sprayed for termites and a week later they are back. There the really small ones you see regularly on wooden tables in restaurants.

Now i left a glass of empty smoothie on the windowcill and next thing i noticed hundreds if not thousands making their way from a hole in the window cill to and from the glas, there were hundreds in the glass so i took it over to the sink and washed them all down. Now my guess is some of them survived and made their way back to the the window and brought all their friends up to the kitchen area. Now there feeding off the bin, the sink and the cooker on any bit of food leftover.

Obviously the fist solution is to clean everything thoroughly including the ant trail but is there anything you can get in the shops here in chiang mai, im staying near nimmahaemin road. What does everyone find the best. Im not even sure where to start looking, 711, tesco lotus, hardware store, chemist and giving my lack of thai asking in store is probably going to result in me ending up with a bottle of insect repellent so hopefully someone knows a store and the name of the product.

Id love to hear any more tips too, i like the idea of the pellets you leave and they take them back to the colony, they sound effective, i dont fancy trying to kill thousands of ants and having them crawl all over me. Im not sure but i think they like to bite, they certainly like to crawl on me and there are thousands not hundreds and there all the way from the window, along the roof all the way into the kitchen following that trail and id like to stop them before they get to the bedroom

[roger1999]

Poison is available but my girlfriend buys it and I don't know where. (She is away so I can't ask her.) If you want more tips, here is what I did, and I no longer need poison. I located the source of the ants and blocked them using custom-made screens. For the very small gaps I had a handyman put in some plastic seal-type material. This was also placed around the edges of the screens. If forgot what it is called. For medium size gaps in awkward places where screens won't fit, we used concrete. Highly effective. Still you have to keep the counters clean, the food in the fridge, and dirty dishes go under water in the sink immediately after use.

[trainman34014]

Go into Tesco on 108, go up to the back wall, more or less right in the center of the store, and you will find about 4 or 5 different types of ant killer. I usually opt for 'ARS' which is tiny pellets which you put inside a green plastic box and the ants will swarm in as soon as they find it and take it back to the nest. Normally by next morning they have vanished. I always keep a new pack of this stuff in the house as I find it works every time. Peace of mind for about 59 Baht.

[searcher22]

Buy some borax and put in a small container. Mix with sugar,water and honey/jelly (see Internet for yummy recipes). Let the ants come and party. They'll love it so much they'll bring it back to their nest. You'll get rid of your ant problem within a few days, as the whole ant colony will be exterminated.

I bought some pure borax at a chemist shop a few blocks west of Wat Suan Dok.

[uptoyoumyfriend]

across from what pra sing is a chemist's store i bought 40 bt-the minimum amount -of borax.

you can google it it is pretty harmless and has many uses.i mixed with equal small amounts of borax ,sugar and a little water and put it out for the ants in an old bottle cap.they eat/drink it and they go away and do not come back.of course others will if you remove the caps .what i do is make sure there is a little water left in those bottle caps as they dry out over time.that's pretty much it .and the 40 bt's worth of borax seems like a life times supply.

[mrireland]

Go into Tesco on 108, go up to the back wall, more or less right in the center of the store, and you will find about 4 or 5 different types of ant killer. I usually opt for 'ARS' which is tiny pellets which you put inside a green plastic box and the ants will swarm in as soon as they find it and take it back to the nest. Normally by next morning they have vanished. I always keep a new pack of this stuff in the house as I find it works every time. Peace of mind for about 59 Baht.

Where's Tesco on 108 so i can look it up on a map, is that the main Tesco Lotus store or one of the express ones? In the meantime i have sprayed talcum powder in their path, they dont seem to like that and turn back, wont kill them but will block their path until i get some proper stuff. I might try the nearest pharmacy for Borax in the meantime

Cheers for the quick replies

Edited January 5, 2012 by mrireland

[Semper]

There the really small ones you see regularly on wooden tables

You can't get rid of these guys with any pesticides. The only thing you can do is to make sure that there are no residues from your smoothie or anything else that is sweet. Fruits, food, bread crumbs, killed mosquitoes etc....

The easy solution is just to ignore them.

[kokesaat]

"The easy solution is just to ignore them."

A two-pronged attack worked for us: #1 - buy the insecticide with the long needle spray nozzle....there are several varieties. Follow ant trails to where they enter the home, insert the needle and spray.

#2 (and more important than #1) - keep the inside of your home impeccably clean. If you can't, all the insecticide in the world probably won't stop them from having a field day on the crumbs/scraps.

[Dante99]

Wow.

[trainman34014]

Go into Tesco on 108, go up to the back wall, more or less right in the center of the store, and you will find about 4 or 5 different types of ant killer. I usually opt for 'ARS' which is tiny pellets which you put inside a green plastic box and the ants will swarm in as soon as they find it and take it back to the nest. Normally by next morning they have vanished. I always keep a new pack of this stuff in the house as I find it works every time. Peace of mind for about 59 Baht.

Where's Tesco on 108 so i can look it up on a map, is that the main Tesco Lotus store or one of the express ones? In the meantime i have sprayed talcum powder in their path, they dont seem to like that and turn back, wont kill them but will block their path until i get some proper stuff. I might try the nearest pharmacy for Borax in the meantime

Cheers for the quick replies

It's the large main store which is on the left hand side of 108, the main drag towards Hang Dong and Sanpatong.

[gosompoi]

For most ants ARS Ant killer bait with the green plastic works great but some don't like it. For those get borax, I buy it here. http://www.healthfoodthailand.com/index.php?cPath=3&osCsid=fce00497591c475c2c8aee2bdc167530

[champken]

Go into Tesco on 108, go up to the back wall, more or less right in the center of the store, and you will find about 4 or 5 different types of ant killer. I usually opt for 'ARS' which is tiny pellets which you put inside a green plastic box and the ants will swarm in as soon as they find it and take it back to the nest. Normally by next morning they have vanished. I always keep a new pack of this stuff in the house as I find it works every time. Peace of mind for about 59 Baht.

Thats what i use....highly effective

[chris5346]

yes get the stuff in the green clear box , ARS about 50 baht from lotus, big C or home pro etc.

you don't need to use the plastic container i just poor it out some where suitable in a few piles.

[grandpa-m]

keep a spray bottle of 50 --50 water and white vinager and spray everyother day or so around your window seals and screens andunder you kitchen table and under you sink , watch out for you house plants , vinager will kill them , will smell for a few min , but will go away and beside a little smell of vinage is better than ants , I've been using this method for years and works great I'm not into poisons and pesticides

[Asmerom]

keep a spray bottle of 50 --50 water and white vinager and spray everyother day or so around your window seals and screens andunder you kitchen table and under you sink

I had the same problem as the OP and spent weeks fiddling about spraying with this and that round the kitchen until I finally used my head and traced them back to their nest which was just below the kitchen window outside in the garden. After pouring a few big pans of boiling water on the nest followed by copious amounts of bleach I've not seen any in the kitchen since and that was about five weeks ago. Very satisfying.

[ignis]

If you see lots use hair spray, within seconds there set and you sweep them up.......

Getting back after the floods was ant free, but that only lasted about a week, now there are 1000's again, before only had the tiny ones in the house, lots of other types outside in the garden, but now have seen big black biting one in the house, the red ones also biting are back in the garden +++ now appear to be another sort ? are they ants ? there small and get into wood and appear to be eating the doors and windows surrounds, also last 2 days have appears on the bottom step of the stairs and are eating them, they look like ants just a very tiny bit bigger than the tiny ants that run around everywhere

Sadly our little friends that run around the walls and ceiling eating the ants appear to have gone, normally have 30 + in the living room and maybe more in the kitchen, but now there are non, just a few Lizards outside, + millions of mosquitoes

[wimpy]

now appear to be another sort ? are they ants ? there small and get into wood and appear to be eating the doors and windows surrounds, also last 2 days have appears on the bottom step of the stairs and are eating them, they look like ants just a very tiny bit bigger than the tiny

Sounds like termites. You better do something about them.

[nikster]

Cleaning our place and keeping food in sealed Jars or the fridge works for us.

If they do get in a container or other, wash the entire ant trail and the container with dishwashing liquid. That removes the pheromones the ants use to get there. Works every time.

I might get that ARS stuff though, that sounds like a good idea for when it gets too much...

[seedy]

I put a soda bottle cap full of honey outdoors close to the nest. They like the honey and never make it to the house. Lasts about 2 days.

[Godfree]

Clean your room thoroughly.

Buy a can of Bayer's Baygon.

Hold your breath and spray the perimeter of the room and anywhere you have seen ants (trails).

Leave the room.

Ants will not bother you for 3 more months at least. Repeat.

Those Germans sure know how to kill things...

[Semper]

Clean your room thoroughly.

Buy a can of Bayer's Baygon.

Hold your breath and spray the perimeter of the room and anywhere you have seen ants (trails).

Leave the room.

Ants will not bother you for 3 more months at least. Repeat.

Those Germans sure know how to kill things...

I suppose this will work with "normal" ants. But the OP is talking about those miniature ants, hardly visible to the eye. They live everywhere and you have to drench the whole house with Baygon if you want to get rid of them. The only thing to do as posted by several members, is to keep everything clean.

[mrireland]

Thanks Guys, nice to know im not the only one in this situation. learning my lesson on keeping food sealed away and dishes washed right away. Funny enough the talcum powder done a great job, within a couple of hours they all dissapeared completely, i just blocked there path with it and when they got to it they just looked all confused and turned back, after a couple of hours of going back and forth they must have got bored and went somewhere else.

Ill get some of that ARS though for next time, i think the colony is outside the window so i might leave some pellets there too. Thanks guys, Ant free again and hopefully that Talcum powder trick might help someone else as a temp measure if you dont have poison handy

[sscsamui]

Try corn starch... they take it back home and share it and the puff up and.... the end

[udonguy]

use the 'chalk' available everywhere - I have the larger, biting, ants out side and the chalk is the most effective. They ignored the green plastic boxes after 2 days and simply walked round them.

Edited January 7, 2012 by udonguy

[BlaMuek]

Whatabout when there's no trail, or mass gatherings... just the rugular visitors popping up out of nowhere to give you a kiss and a cuddle.

[richard_smith237]

These little critters are incredible. My wife and I go away for a month and return to ants in the cupboards, they have penetrated sealed packets of crisps and ritz crackers etc... The only solution we have found is to place any food item (sealed or not) in the fridge. This of course is highly impractical.

I have found that we can mitigate the extent of invasion with powder-poisons and spraying back to their 'hole' of origin... but we can never completely eradicate them from our homes.

Edited January 7, 2012 by richard_smith237

[Kanada]

Fill a spray bottle with 50/50 vinegar and water mix. Spray your counters etc…..ants won’t come around vinegar! 
That’s all I did and they vacated the premises permanently…haven’t seen an ant inside the house since we started to spray that mix….good disinfectant and cleaner too and you don’t have to worry about getting it on dishes or silverware etc.

[Berkshire]

On 1/19/2022 at 6:43 PM, Kanada said:

Fill a spray bottle with 50/50 vinegar and water mix. Spray your counters etc…..ants won’t come around vinegar! 
That’s all I did and they vacated the premises permanently…haven’t seen an ant inside the house since we started to spray that mix….good disinfectant and cleaner too and you don’t have to worry about getting it on dishes or silverware etc.

Interesting.  I used the vinegar/water mix in my garden to keep cats out.  Appears to work.  But it smells pretty bad....which is why I only use it outside.  You sprayed vinegar inside your house?