Augh! Ants in my house!

**quiltingmommy** · 06-24-2008, 09:18 AM

My house is being overrun with little sugar ants. I sweep, wash the floors with vinegar and hot water and they are still everywhere! My poor kitties bowl had loads of them last night. I ended up tossing the cat food out the back door last night and re-washing her bowls and then the floor AGAIN with vinegar and hot water. I put out some sugar/baking soda but I may have to pick up some ant traps today. (I hate using chemicals, but not sure what else to do.) When I go home for lunch today, I may have to put her kitty dish in a pan with soapy water to keep the ants away.

ants!

**MirandaK** · 06-24-2008, 09:24 AM

We tried a number of home remedies for ants and nothing seemed to stem the tide. We eventually had to hire a company to come out and spray. After 2 visits out ants finally disappeared. It was expensive but we couldn't get anythign else to work. ugh. stupid ants.

**cmdarlin** · 06-24-2008, 09:36 AM

Have you tried sprinkling some cinnamon around the places you see them coming in? I've used that before and it helped on the inside but still had to put something outside to take care of the problem out of the house.

Debbie in Missouri

**imagine** · 06-24-2008, 09:40 AM

put cinnamon around kitty's bowls that will keep the ants aways from the bowl.

Ants don't like cinnamon

We also put cinnamon at the place we think the ants are entering the house. This tends to keep them at bay.

**fernykins** · 06-24-2008, 09:47 AM

We use to draw a line with chalk around the animal dishes to keep the ants out......... They put all the homes around me in grape fields that they destroyed. So we have lots of mean little ants..........
Fern

**quiltingmommy** · 06-24-2008, 09:56 AM

The cinnamon wont hurt my cat, will it? If not, I'll definetly use it. I know there is something 'green' that I can use around the foundation, I'm going to have to find it today.

**Russ** · 06-24-2008, 09:57 AM

Originally Posted by quiltingmommy

The cinnamon wont hurt my cat, will it? If not, I'll definetly use it. I know there is something 'green' that I can use around the foundation, I'm going to have to find it today.

Diotomaceous earth. I hope I spelled that right.

**familyof3** · 06-24-2008, 10:20 AM

We had them a few weeks ago like we always do around May. They drove me crazy and then disappeared as usual as the weather got warmer. Then we had a cool spell and I guess the little buggers think it's May again because they're all over the kitchen. Dh wants to spray something but I'm not a fan of chemicals so I'm fighting that option.

**favesis37** · 06-24-2008, 10:29 AM

my understanding is they are looking for either food or water. so the cat bowl is right up that line. we used ant traps, havent seen once since we put them out. good luck

**ukbb** · 06-24-2008, 12:56 PM

The handyman show I listen to suggets using borax.

Here's a link to some info on it.

http://www.getridofthings.com/get-rid-of-ants.htm

**IntlMom** · 06-24-2008, 12:58 PM

we have em too!!
Cinnamon, great idea, never heard of it, but I'm off to try it!!

**JustMegan79** · 06-24-2008, 01:23 PM

Originally Posted by quiltingmommy

My house is being overrun with little sugar ants. I sweep, wash the floors with vinegar and hot water and they are still everywhere! My poor kitties bowl had loads of them last night. I ended up tossing the cat food out the back door last night and re-washing her bowls and then the floor AGAIN with vinegar and hot water. I put out some sugar/baking soda but I may have to pick up some ant traps today. (I hate using chemicals, but not sure what else to do.) When I go home for lunch today, I may have to put her kitty dish in a pan with soapy water to keep the ants away.

ants!

someone else may have already suggested this, (I have not read all the replies yet though).

I had this problem once before with them coming in the house and climbing into my hummingbird feeders also.

For the feeders I put olive oil or vegetetable oil on the string/hanger. They cant get through it.

For the house...I used an old wives tale home remedy I found in a readers digest book. I took cinnamon (powedered like in the spice jar) and shook a good bit of it in a line across the doorways on the outside. Like on the cement right in front of the door. Ants do not like cinnamon and they will not cross it. Mine were sugar ants too.

Hope it works!

**zakity** · 06-24-2008, 01:30 PM

Diotomaceous earth. I hope I spelled that right.

Thanks for suggesting this. I was going to suggest this too, except I can't spell it either.

That earth stuff is some sort of crushed up shells and the ants don't like it because it hurts their underbellies. It doesn't hurt animals or people at all. You put a layer of it around the outside of your house. Some people have put it around the inside of the underneath of their house (against the foundation in the crawlspace type of thing). I don't know what that did for them, but they did it.

**quiltingmommy** · 06-24-2008, 02:39 PM

Thanks for the suggestions. I did buy a small thing of traps and put them where the cat cannot get to them. (under the stove, behind the trash can in the back hall, etc.) and will have my dh find the dimasceous earth tonight and spread it around. There weren't any ants in the cat dish at lunchtime but I had mixed equal parts of sugar and baking soda and put that in a plastic cover I was recycling behind the trash can. They were all over it, so I picked it up and throw it in the trash can outside. Ew, ew, ew.

**quiltingmommy** · 06-24-2008, 02:39 PM

Thanks for the suggestions. I did buy a small thing of traps and put them where the cat cannot get to them. (under the stove, behind the trash can in the back hall, etc.) and will have my dh find the dimasceous earth tonight and spread it around. There weren't any ants in the cat dish at lunchtime but I had mixed equal parts of sugar and baking soda and put that in a plastic cover I was recycling behind the trash can. They were all over it, so I picked it up and throw it in the trash can outside. Ew, ew, ew.