Fix It: High hopes of removing ants

Help! Ants are destroying my lawn! Ants are crawling all over the dog’s dish! Ants are in my dishwasher! It’s an annual problem: When the weather warms, ants appear. But ants are more a nuisance than an emergency. Here’s how to control them.

Outdoors

Leave ants alone outdoors. “They aren’t worth bothering about,” said extension entomologist Jeff Hahn. “Any control is temporary, at best.”

As soon as the insecticide wears off, they’ll recolonize.

Remember, ants don’t cause lawn problems — they just take advantage of problem lawns. Fix the lawn and most ants will move on. Field ants, however, leave large anthills and can be a mowing hazard, so you may need to treat them.

Indoors

Most ants indoors are merely foraging for food. They tend to be sweet-eaters (juice, jelly, dessert and such), or grease-eaters (meat, peanut butter, pet food). Put away food, keep dishes clean, wipe up spills promptly and keep surfaces clean and sanitized to discourage ants.

If you have pets, place their food dish inside a larger dish filled with soapy water to keep ants away.

Carpenter ants are the ones that forage in dishwashers, said Hahn. But take note if you see large black or black-and-red ants anywhere in the house. They don’t eat wood like termites, but they do tunnel and, over time, can destroy wood structures in a home. You’ll want to eradicate carpenter ants and fix any water problems that leave wood damp.

To verify a carpenter ant problem, take a sample to your extension office, Hahn suggested. Or call a pest control company; some will identify the ant problem for free, he said.

Beat ‘em with Baits

Baits mix ant poison with ant attractors — sweets and grease. Ants mistake the bait for food and dutifully carry it back to the nest, where it kills the queen and all the young, effectively ending the problem.

Several commercial baits are available, such as Maxforce and Combat, which uses Fipronil, a common insecticide that affects nerve function. (Do not use near surface water; it’s toxic to fish.) Terro and Drax use borate-based agents (like borax). They work as abrasive agents inside the insect.

You can also make your own bait. In a small container, mix together 4 ounces each of peanut butter, sugar and boric acid. (Some garden, hardware or drugstores carry boric acid. Hahn said he finds it most reliably online.) Set it where ants congregate, but not where children or pets can get at it.

Baiting generally is more effective than spraying, but it takes time and you may need to put it out more than once.

The only real ant emergency is the fire ant found in warmer climes.