New Mexico Mercury

Ants are the most common household pests in the country. They create more calls to pest control companies than most other pests combined. For being so noticeable and so persistent in your homes, they are not readily recognized beyond five generic group names: sugar ants, grease ants, piss ants, red ants and black ants. One supervisior with a very large pest control company narrowed it down to two groups; inside ants and outside ants. This is a little bit simplistic.

Ants are very successful social insects. They have small to large colonies which contain workers (sterile females), queens (one or many, secondary reproductives that take the place of queens when she passes on and winged reproductives (known as alates) whose sole responsibility is to start new colonies. Many of our most troublesome pest species are transplants from other countries. These ants are very hard to control, hence they are very successful at establishing new homes. We do have to realize that ants weren't put on this planet just to annoy us. They have been incredibly industrious for millions of years. Their productiveness nourishes the animals, plants and ecosystem. Human industry has only been around for a century or so and it has brought a decline in almost every ecosystem on the planet. As part of their daily activity, ants safely and effectively grow and harvest their own food, construct homes, farms, dumps, cemeteries, living quarters, and food storage facilities from materials that can truly be recycled. They create medicines and disinfectants that are healthy, safe and biodegradable and they maintain the health of the soil for the entire planet.

There are several things you can do to prevent ants from entering your home. The first step is exclusion. Go around the outside of your home and inspect it very carefully from an ant's point of view. Ants can sense cool air and aromatic odors emanating from your home and will try to gain access. Check around the house at ground level and look for cracks in the foundation, voids around pipes, areas under stucco, weepholes in bricks and similar areas that ants can use to gain entrance. All these areas need to be sealed, caulked, screened or otherwise altered to prevent ants from using them to get into your home. Check around your windows and doors to make sure they close tightly. If the doors aren't tight, you may have to install doorsweeps on them. Check your bushes, shrubs and trees to make sure you don't have any branches touching the roof. Don't stack firewood, bricks or anything else next to your house or ants and other insects may find a good place to nest. If you have bushes or shrubs next to your house, periodically inspect them for aphids, scales and similar bugs as ants are attracted to the honeydew they produce. The ants will get on the plants and eventually find their way into your home. Don't put flagstone or flat boards on the ground too close to your home or some species of ants will nest under them. On the other hand, mound-making ants will generally stay outside. They rarely leave their complicated and efficient homelife in the mound to enter homes. If you don't want the ants making mounds in your yard, you can flood the nests with club soda, Coca Cola, white vinegar or food-grade diatomaceous earth (DE). If you use the DE, mix 4 tablespoons per gallon of water. You can also use 1 gallon of orange juice diluted with 2 gallons of water and a dash of soap. If you prefer, you can also spread dry instant grits on the mound. The ants will eat it and not be able to digest it and die.

You can repel ants with a wide variety of products, including cinnamon, baking soda, Comet Cleanser, cedar oil, medicated baby powder, Tide, talcum powder, chalk, coffee grounds, borax, garlic, broken egg shells, bone meal, black or red pepper, peppermint, paprika, chili powder and mint leaves.

If you have ants going into your hummingbird feeder, you can put duct tape, sticky side out, on the wire holding the feeder, to deter them.

The best way to control them when they get in your home is with baits. Different species have different food preferences. Some species will take a wide variety of baits, while others are more fussy.

You can use a bait containing half baking soda and half powdered sugar and place it where you see foraging ants. You can also use instant grits, which they can't digest or use 2 packets of Equal or Nutrasweet, which contains aspartame, wherever you see the ants. If the ants have a preferred food in your home, such as apple sauce, peanut butter, canned cat food, Karo Syrup, jelly or similar products, you can mix in small amounts of boric acid or borax or. Mix about 2% of either of these products in the food. Make sure you keep these baits away from children and pets. If the ants are dying near the baits, you are making it too strong and need to make a fresh batch with less boric acid or borax.

Here is a recipe for effective, homemade ant baits/traps that use borax. It attracts ants looking for either moisture or food. You will need: 3 c. water, 1 c. sugar, 1 tsp.borax, 6 small screw-top jars with lids, such as jelly jars covered with masking tape, which will enable the ants to climb up the side. Mix the sugar, water and borax in a bowl. Loosely half-fill the jars with cotton balls or pieces of sponge or wadded paper towels. Pour up to ½ cup of the sugary mixture over the cotton balls, saturating them. Make several small holes in the lid. Screw the lids on the jars tightly. Place the jars where you see ants foraging. If you smoke, always wear plastic gloves when making ant baits or they will sense the tobacco smoke on the baits and not go to it. Ants do not like cigarette or cigar smoke.