When the Ants Come Marching In

Q. Anne-Marie in Swarthmore PA writes: "SOS! We have a small brown ant invasion. (The ants are small; the invasion is not!) They come over our porch and converge into one entrance under the front door. We have not been able to find the hole from which they are emerging.

"We have been trying all the organic control methods: bleaching all trails and entrance ways on the concrete slab, putting down borax, endless vacuuming in the kitchen they have invaded. We did use some bait traps in the house, but the ants crawled around the traps. We have one more trick to try this afternoon - borax mixed with sugar and water in a cap placed in their trails, which re-form a few hours after bleaching. We also have been using Windex for spot massacre outside, but the hordes continue.

"They have only entered the kitchen at this point, but have made a playground of the floor and countertops. We've decided to call an exterminator who understands organics and the mysterious life of these invasive little brats.

"We intend to ask any potential exterminators what "chemicals" they will be using. However, we don't know which chemicals should be avoided, and which would be acceptable. We know we need to eradicate the main colony, and certainly don't want to encourage them to blaze new trails into the house, especially up the walls and into windows.

"You know the overabundance of information on the web, and who knows what might be true. We left messages with three different offices at Penn State Extension Pest Management, none of which have responded. We've spoken to the few "organic" friends we have, and they have either managed to end the problem with borax, traps and bleach, or are also hunting for an exterminator.

So, HELP! We don't want any chemicals or awkwardly placed devices in the house, since there are people with severe vision problems involved. We hope you will be able to help us. Five days of chasing the buggers off the porch with Windex and shop vac-ing the kitchen every hour is for the birds! (Oh wait, maybe they'd help get rid of the pests!...)

A. First, you need to relax. You seem to be in an ant frenzy panic and have thrown everything but the proverbial kitchen sink at these little buggers. Yes, there is a lot of information and mis-information on the Internet about this problem, and the variety of suggestions is mind-boggling. I don't blame you for being confused. So, let's help you sort through some things.

First, you do NOT need an exterminator. They would either spray a toxic pesticide inside the house and where the ants seem to be entering (leaving you to inhale said pesticide 24/7; remember: if you can smell it, it's getting into your bloodstream) or place the traps I'm about to recommend, which you can do yourself and save a lot of money.

I also want to point out that there's nothing organic about bleach. It's a World War I trench gas that was used to kill millions, and when airborne, still has a highly negative effect on human and pet health. It baffles me that so many people recommend it. (And no, gardeners, you don't need to bleach your seed-starting supplies. Honestly, I've never even washed mine and haven't had a problem in thirty-five plus years. But if you feel you MUST clean them, use household vinegar.

Now, you may have already solved your problem, as long as you used the correct amount of borax and left the ants alone after that. The first line of ant defense should always be boric-acid based bait stations. Pre-packaged stations are readily available and inexpensive, and there's no guesswork about getting the potency right.

But then comes the hard part. The low dose of boric acid in these traps does not kill any ants immediately. And you must allow these ants to travel freely back to their nest, where they will feed the slow-acting poison to the Queen. After a few days, the ants will get sick and within a week the Queen and her colony will be dead. Killing the ants one by one is counter-productive; you MUST let them come and go freely during this process. THEN you can erase their pheromone trails with soap and water or white vinegar. Ditch the bleach!

There's no way of telling why this Queen settled near your home; these things appear to be random, and often occur at the change of seasons. But you also shouldn't tempt them to hang around: Don't leave pet food on your patio or porch and take down any seed feeders for the birds in the front yard; the mess that falls underneath the feeder is great at attracting ants as well as more dangerous mice and rats.

Note: Boric-acid is a refined form of the element Boron (Atomic Number 5), so the traps' labels may identify their active ingredient as boric acid, boron, borax or sodium tetraborate. At the end of the day, it's all based on boron.

And finally, instead of an exterminator, it sounds like you need to call a handyman to apply caulk around the areas they're currently using to enter the home.