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MarilynW
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| Posted: June 06 2007 at 8:30pm | IP Logged
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We have started getting tiny little black ants in our kitchen - in the dishwasher and now some on the countertops. We do not have crumbs or anything sweet on the countertops. We sweep after every meal. I have started putting the dishwasher on rinse if it is not full. But - the ants are still there and increasing. I have tried using cinnamon but to no avail.I cannot tell where they are coming from. I am chemical phobic - really do not want a chemical solution. Does anyone have any solutions?
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Marilyn
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JennGM
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| Posted: June 06 2007 at 8:37pm | IP Logged
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I haven't gotten them this year, but I tell you the way the floor isn't getting cleaned lately, I keep thinking I'll wake up to a mob.
I don't like chemicals, either, but I wasn't comfortable putting out powder or anything that my hands-on child would definitely touche. My cry for help last year got advice to get those simple black ant traps/motels. I laid out several and they stopped coming in almost like magic.
The thread has other alternatives. You don't need to put them in the dishwasher...there's some entrance. Is your kitchen on ground level that you could put something outside, too?
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MarilynW
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| Posted: June 06 2007 at 8:49pm | IP Logged
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Thanks Jenn - I will ask Steve to get check out the boxes. I too have a very hands on 3 year old and can only imagine what he would do with anything lying around!
I also have Borax - I will try it out.
We have never had ants before (but until I a few years ago I used to have a pest co spray - but I have changed to being more afraid of chemicals than bugs!!) - I am so tired that it is really frustrating me!!!
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Marilyn
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Bella
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| Posted: June 06 2007 at 9:04pm | IP Logged
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I just set out the ant traps today in my bathrooms of all places! 
In the past, I have used the Borax powder, and syringed(sp?) it(with a medicine dropper!) in the cracks closest to where I saw them....totally out of the way of dc and pets.
Good Luck...never fun those ants! 
Christy
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juststartn
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| Posted: June 06 2007 at 10:25pm | IP Logged
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I ahve them. I had them coming in one spot in my kitchen, and used a bait trap, they took it, and mostly stopped appearing. But I think that there was more than one "hill" coming in, and now I don't know WHERE these other ones are coming in and where I ought to put a bait trap.
I also get them in my bathroom, my living room, and my dds' bedroom. I know where they are coming in in the living room (right around the front door--a bad place to put a bait trap....cause of 3yo dd)...but the bedroom and the bathroom is more problematic. They are coming in looking for water. THAT I know. But I just can't plunk a bait trap down in my dds' stripped down bedroom. And I don't know where to put it, for sure, in the bathroom, cause I mostly see them on the side of the tub, but not enough of them at a time to decipher their entry/exit point/s. UGH.
They drive me NUTS. I smush them when I find them. One at a time....fortunately I have white countertops and a white bathroom...lol. At least I can see them and smush them.
SIGH
Rachel (who is really tired of smushing ants...)
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KackyK
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We have found that plain black pepper can work. I go to Costco and buy the big big container of it. When spreading it, make it a thick line...they supposedly don't want to cross the pepper line. You need to make it a decent thickness, you know something they'd have to really crawl over, not just avoid the granules. So around the edges of the inside of under the sink area, by any door thresholds and you said dishwasher, so possibly by the dishwasher edge on the floor.
Anyways, we've had that work and hopefully it can work again!
I hate ants...I have had serious scary nightmares when we have had ants in the house. It's usually the same thing, I dream I wake up, go downstairs and find ants all over the couches and carpet and toys...I always wake up frightened! I have ant issues my husband says... 
KackyK
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Sarah
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| Posted: June 07 2007 at 9:08pm | IP Logged
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TERRO in the orange box is the only thing to use. Get it at the hardware store (some grocery stores, too) and set it where you see them most. Be sure not to have it down where littles can get it.
They're dead within days. . .
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Sarah
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PS I read about not wanting chemicals. I agree when it comes to spraying. These are fully contained in little plastic traps, they eat it and share it and die. . .no chemicals for your family to come in contact with if placed out of reach.
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juststartn
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I like the Terro traps. The problem is that the liquid bait can be squeezed out...and I am not sure where to put it around my place (that's the kind of trap I can use when I know FOR SURE where they are coming in at).
That's the thing at my place. Might work well for someone else. Still have the box of traps waiting underneath the kitchen sink, though, just in case
Rachel
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Sarah
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| Posted: June 08 2007 at 11:21am | IP Logged
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juststartn wrote:
I like the Terro traps. The problem is that the liquid bait can be squeezed out
Rachel |
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I agree. . .and they can spill . They really are for a place where no one can get them. But they sure work if the infestation is bad.
Another option is to ignore them. . .they might move on. I've had them just phase out before after I killed everyone I saw and wiped their trail with vinegar.
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juststartn
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Yeah, Sarah, I agree. That's pretty much all I can do...squish and spray, squish and spray.
I just wish I could figure out where they were coming in at.
Rachel
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Lissa
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| Posted: June 09 2007 at 10:46am | IP Logged
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Baby powder!!
Our pantry was overrun with ants last weekend, and I thought it was going to be an endless disaster, but we googled, and saw the talcum powder suggestion, and WOW.
You sprinkle baby powder on the ants and they die. (Poor things.) Trace them to their entry point and dump a lot of powder there, and they'll not be able to get back in that way. And it smells good!
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juststartn
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| Posted: June 09 2007 at 6:41pm | IP Logged
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But that's a part of the problem--not being able to find their entry point...
SIGH.
I know this thread isn't about me, but man, I hate not being able to figure out where to go to kill the darned things.
Gr
Rachel
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MarilynW
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| Posted: June 12 2007 at 8:32am | IP Logged
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We have tried the Terro - seems to be working a little. Still trying to figure out where they are coming in.
I will also try the Baby powder - thanks Lissa.
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Marilyn
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Topic: Help - teeny black ants in my kitchen
