Ants In Our Bathroom-Need Bug Spray-Help

[123glldd]

This has been going on for over a week now and I kindly ask that you read this whole message. I do not want "natural" remedies. We've tried plenty before they never work. Dish soap is fine temporarily but we have to keep putting it around the bathroom and it's messy and won't keep them out forever. We need a perimeter spray that's gluten free. We use to use home bug spray and now i'm scared to death about gluten and salicylates (another reason I don't want to use all natural...essential oils etc could make me ill i think I don't want a stench.) What the heck are we suppose to use? Someone else asked this question and they never got an answer that i saw so I'm asking again...someone here must know. Sometimes you just need bug spray because nothing else works but i don't want anything that's going to make me ill from chemicals either *sigh*

[123glldd]

OH yes and we bought ant traps...they go into them but they are not taking the bait.

[kareng]

Ok. I'll try. This is based on many years of experience in fighting ants.

Is it warm where you are? I'm hoping it is and the ants are coming in from the outside. If its cold there, the ants have made a home in your walls or floor.

If they are coming in from outside, you need to find where they are coming in. Look carefully for ants climbing up the house wall or foundation or coming in under the garage door. It may take a bit of time to find them as they may only come in in the a.m. Or the afternoon. Who knows what they are thinking. Use a little clear silicone bath tub caulk and fill the hole. Then use any ant spray and spray the wall well. This is outside so it shouldn't bother anyone inside. This is only a temporary fix. You need to follow these ants back to their ant hill.

If you cannot find where they are coming in, get down on the ground and look for ant hills or ants walking in lines.

Once you have found the ant hill, you dig it up, douse it with a good amount of Dawn dish soap ( won't hurt your lawn, plants or the water shed) and drown them with the hose.

spraying is only temporary.

Your real problem is if they have made a home in your walls. You may need an exterminator for this. If you can see where they may have their home, you could try to take off a little dry wall or pull out the insulation and get it out. Otherwise, you will have to shoot a bug spray up in there. They are all chemicals that will stink.

Good luck! Those ants are annoying. Try to eliminate anything they are looking for - food crumbs or water ( dry the shower, fix the dripping sink). Ant bait encourages them to come in as they think its food. Many will look in another part of the house thinking there must be good stuff everywhere.

[pricklypear1971]

I only had luck with putting Terro (I think that's the brand) outdoor baits outside the house and essentially "bribing" them to eat outside. The baits were borax/sugar water. I put a whole box out near where they came in. Refill regularly.

The interior baits only encouraged them to eat inside...

And caulking helps, but if they are deteimed to find water/food they will find a way.

[123glldd]

This is the weird thing about these guys....they don't seem to have any rhyme or reason to what they are looking for. First they went for the garbage can. We took that out of there. Then the storage unit that stands on the floor. Wiped it off and took everything off of it. Then they went to the toilet. They just wander aimlessly.

[123glldd]

And we're currently in the cold...snow on the ground.

[pricklypear1971]

That's not good news. You need an exterminator.

They'd do an invasion in the dry months in AZ. It was clearly a food/water thing.

[kareng]

That's not good news. You need an exterminator.

They'd do an invasion in the dry months in AZ. It was clearly a food/water thing.

Yep!

Prickly and I agree, the ants are living in the house walls or someplace. This needs an exterminator. Are they tiny ants? That's annoying but not too bad. If they are big, Run, don't walk to the phone and call an exterminator. They can spray in the a.m. And you can go out for the day.

[123glldd]

Yep!

Prickly and I agree, the ants are living in the house walls or someplace. This needs an exterminator. Are they tiny ants? That's annoying but not too bad. If they are big, Run, don't walk to the phone and call an exterminator. They can spray in the a.m. And you can go out for the day.

Does what they spray have any gluten to worry about though?

[kareng]

Does what they spray have any gluten to worry about though?

I doubt it. It's sprayed on the ground or the surface from a few inches away. Your not going to eat it. If they need to spray where your plates are, which is unlikely, you can take them out or wash well after.

I would find out if you are dealing with termites or ants or both, first. Find out where they are going to spray and then pick up the extra stuff around.

I was afraid this is where this conversation was going. I'm done.

[123glldd]

Yes you're right. This is where the conversation is going. Because people walk into the bathroom and trek gluten around possibly. I know plenty of people who talk about this type of cross contamination. I have had a hard time health wise so naturally I'm going to ask. Don't want to see it then don't answer me I have every right to worry about gluten being spread around my place. Don't worry you don't need to be done. Because I am. All the best.

[psawyer]

Does what they spray have any gluten to worry about though?

In this case, rather than worry that there might be gluten in the insect poison, you should consider that it is POISON to everyone, not just to people with gluten issues. You don't eat it. You try not to touch it. You don't (I hope) lick the floor. You make sure it doesn't get on your kitchenware or toothbrush. Sheesh.

Same thoughts apply to Lysol. The manufacturer is the best source of information. They say it is gluten-free--why would they lie? Even if the manufacturer is lying what does it matter--disinfectant spray is another thing that is intentionally toxic. Even if you don't have an issue with gluten, it is not something you want to ingest or even come in direct contact with.

[123glldd]

Because sometimes you need poison to get rid of pests in your house. Nothing else works for this along with my other condition (salicylate) where i can't be smelling oils, strong smells etc until I get my health all figure out. Sometimes it's a necessary evil unfortunately. Lysol we're using because we've had contact with norovirus and soap and water is sometimes simply not enough to kill viruses like that. As I said before I'm done with this thread. I was concerned about gluten accidentally getting on shoes and being tracked onto our living room carpet etc and being picked up somehow. Yes poison is a big concern but it's something we may just have to do or be overrun by ants okay? Call me paranoid I don't care. I think anything that can be tracked in like that that can be prevented should be. I have every right to think that way and I'm sick and tired of being told to stop asking. I have a right to ask if something is likely to be gluten free or not. I wanted to know if super sensitives ever had issues etc. Because as I said before...a lot of people say gluten free. Over all i trust lysol on that but I wanted to know peoples thoughts because as I've learned and I"m sure you have...sometimes people react differently. Anyhow. Threads done i just wanted to point that out. I'm gone.

[Jestgar]

I can't imagine any reason for there to be gluten in a poison spray - it would be so much easier and cheaper just to make it with chemicals. Do the spray, and if you're worried about either chemicals or gluten, have someone else clean it carefully. If you're really paranoid (as I would be with poison because of my cats) put a pair of slippers jut inside the door to be used only inside that bathroom.

[dilettantesteph]

What kind of ants are they? If they are carpenter ants, they are an indication of wet wood in your house. The cause for this needs to be repaired before you have serious rot issues. That is a more serious problem than the ants themselves if they are carpenter ants - the big ones. You may need a contractor as well as a bug expert. We had carpenter ants in a rental The shower was in an external wall and the whole wall was swarming with ants when it was opened up. All the wood was completely rotten. What a sight! We saw only the occasional ant in the house before that.

[Takala]

Yo, Wendybird ! You are talking to the QUEEN of ant invasions here, listen up ! 2 years ago I got tired of my hub's version of ant control, which the ants intrepreted as "Motel 6 Left The Sugar Solution Out For Us." What a nightmare!

You need "Bronco" Horse Flyspray, available at any farm feed store, and "Febreeze" enzyme fabric deodorizer, available almost anywhere in the laundry dept. Bronco is a citronella scented, mild pyrethrin family (derived from chysanthemum family) bugspray that does not work well on flies anymore, but it is absolutely kryptonite to ants. Bronco, Spritz, Whammo, they Die. You use the Bronco flyspray on ants, where it is relatively safe to spray a bugspray, but Bronco, unlike Raid and other nasties, can be applied directly to horses and pets, because it is milder- so that shows it is much less toxic. If something doesn't raise a rash on me, it's mild. ( Caution: do not ever mix Bronco with Deet. Synergistic reaction, bad ) You use the Febreeze fabric enzyme spray to kill them just a little bit more slowly in areas you wouldn't dare to spray insecticide, like on your sink or along your interior floorboards. You can dilute the Febreeze with water in another spray bottle, as it is potent and strongly scented.

Don't let pets get into the Febreeze spray, as in do not apply it where they are going to walk unless you wipe it up with water and paper towels. Don't put in on your kitchen counter on a work surface. But Febreeze, since it can be applied to clothes and then washed, and spritzed on furniture to dry, is obviously less toxic than regular insecticide. Febreeze still will dispatch ants in about a minute, maximum. You can also put it on a paper towel or cotton balls to go after just a few ants by hand, but here is how to get the best effect:

Ants come in your house from the outside, using trails they establish. They love to follow water pipes, then create passageways inside the walls and pop out at joints. When you see a trail of ants marching along, singing the Tolkein Movie Dwarves Theme, take a flashlight and trace back that moving line of ants along the passageway to the crack in the floor or ceiling where they are coming out of. THAT is where you hit them with the Bronco horsespray. That kills the ants coming and going out of the hole. Then, you take your Febreeze, and spritz along the chain of ants, not only quickly dispatching them into Ant Heaven with enzymes, but you are messing up their scent trail. THIS is the beauty of the application. Because if you miss cleaning up a few ants, the other ants try to carry their little dead compatriots back into the walls.... and they then get Febreeze'd, if they can make it past the entranceway you just Bronco'd.

Then, when you have waited awhile, you can clean up the trail of dead ants, but don't be in a hurry because there will be stragglers, which you need to run into the Febreeze.

I keep a bottle of this diluted Febreeze in the bathroom, so I can zap them anytime they show up. Febreeze on the trail. Bronco at the entrance hole. Ants no more. One can sometimes see the live ants the next day still trying to rescue the little deceased ones- whoops. I want them to do this, it works a LOT BETTER than the boric acid sugar solutions and the commercial bait boxes.

Now you must cut the little ********s off at the pass. Go outside and study carefully your house foundations and lower walls, wherever there is an opening, like a heating duct air intake, water pipe, window sill to a crawl space, garage door sides, etc, and look for ants running like crazy from the ground to the house. Where the ants are entering, THAT is where you Bronco- spray the surfaces and all around that opening. and trace the ants down the sideway or whatever, and get them there, too. Ants will keep coming back to the same entry spot on your house, and they Bronco themselves before they can complete their Middle Earth journey to your kitchen or bath.

In the spring, when the ants are busy trying to establish colonies in your house for the fall, repeat the search and Bronco each potential entryway that you found. Repeat again in the fall, and anytime you find ants trying to sneak in. Don't forget to look up, I've found a trail crawling down from a tree touching the roof, which were trying to enter the garage where a hole was in the wall for a cable. Just spritzed around the hole, that did it.

After 2 years of this, there were a LOT FEWER ANT invasions at my house this year.

P.S. If you have a fruit tree near the house, don't leave the dead fruit around for the ants to eat, pick it up.

As the clerk at the feed store said, "that is amazing you found a use for this stuff, because it doesn't work on my flies."

[Takala]

More on ant control techniques:

The ants which come in and are "wandering," are looking for where ants have been before. They want a new place to colonize near food and water, that is why they are exploring kitchens and bath areas and where food scrap is left out. They also like pet food dishes. And inside house plant flowerpots. Old shoes with a trace of garden soil stuck to them.... If you study them, you notice that they tend to start these invasions in the wee hours of the early morning, at least here where I live. It can be dark, except for the nightlight, dawn is breaking, and you turn the lights on, and it's The Horror Show going on and the side of the dishwasher, where it meets the cabinet, is emitting ants. Which are heading for the coffee maker. Like they're sending out the scouts to case the place. They seem to want to get a head start on things. Notice how the trail goes both ways. They're running back into the walls to bring out the others. This is why they also like diluted Febreeze, because you can get different types of really pleasant smelling fabric enzyme cleaners now, in Pet Food Stores, which ants find very attractive, because it smells like the things we want to keep them out of, instead of bad. So if you want to substitute a Pet Store type of enzyme deodorizer for the Febreeze, because you like that fruity smell better, that will also work. Same thing with the Bronco, ants are attracted to it, because it smells very citronella- lemony, which repels flies hardly at all, but repels mosquitoes a great deal better.

The reason the "boric acid in sugar solutions" don't work is that the boric acid must be dissolved thoroughly in the sugar solution, or the ants just get a hit of sugar water. So you need to do this with very hot water when it is mixed up. Still, it is just training the ants to look for sugar water, as the theory is they take it back to the old nest, and die. Maybe in the next century....

I have also taken diatomaceous earth and applied a good dusting of it to my entire back deck area, paying attention the back of it where it touched the house, and I will dust crevices with it sometimes where the pets frequent. It is good for dry areas, and we put some under the deck last summer where the dog was repeatedly laying down and getting bugs. That stopped it. We had ants in that area but I could never find the entry path, so I went for the diatomaceous dust here to avoid exposing the sensitive dog to chemicals. This is just fossilized sea life powder which looks like powdered chalk, which kills insects by cutting their exoskeleton and then dehydrating them. It also works on fleas if you dust it on pets and in their crates. Won't hurt the pets or humans, but do NOT get this on your eyeglasses unless you rinse them off carefully, as it will scratch them.