http://www.terro.com/products.php?product=liquid_ant_bait

I read that the little black Argentine ants have taken over the ant franchise in about half the country. They're all over California. The only ants I ever see here. They're small, maybe an eighth of an inch long, and they're relentless.

Most people I know have discovered them suddenly swarming onto their kitchen counters if the wrong thing was left out. Sometimes they move into houses big-time when it rains hard, and then they put you on their circuit.

For a long time, I had good luck with Grant's Ants, those little stakes with a sheet-metal round cornered square at the end. There's a cube of gelatinous something inside infused with arsenic. Stuff used to work great for me - I'd open the thing (prohibited by federal law ) and smear a little bit into a cranny along the ant trail. Works quicker than waiting for them to find the hole. They'd go nuts for it and take it home to feed the queen and all would die, delayed reaction.

I don't know if ants can learn but the stuff is just not as attractive to them as it was. Lucky for me, I discovered this Terro stuff and the ants love it, the fools. Uses Borax which is low on the chart of toxicity to humans. Takes a few days but they're all gone in my place now.

Good thing I just bought stock in the company. Available at fine hardware stores everywhere.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

I generally use Boric Acid in powder form. I just sprinkle it around the exterior of the house, as well as the baseboards of the interior of the house. Its the same stuff used to make eye wash, and can be bought at nearly any pharmacy.

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1987 560SL
85,000 miles

I've been reading that home made ant bait is most easily made with boric acid. Same thing as borax apparently. So what attracts the ants to the plain powder?

Articles I read say that you have to get the right balance. If it's too strong, the ants die before they can take it back to the nest (colony?) and if it's too weak, the queen is large enough to withstand its effects.

Some ants once got into a container I had old bacon grease in and oh my, those ants were in orgasmic mode. I'm thinking bacon grease laced with boric acid might be the item.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

I heartily endorse the Terro liquid ant killer too. It has rid us of many an unwanted ant colony!

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-Evan


Benz Fleet:
1968 UNIMOG 404.114
1998 E300
2008 E63


Non-Benz Fleet:
1992 Aerostar
1993 MR2
2000 F250

Might try this stuff in the future...pharaoh ants are the nusiance in Texas, especially (for some reason) where there is a water source, i.e., kitchen mostly, then sparse sightings in the bathrooms.

Pest control guy already put out bait that has taken care of them, but other colonies come back within a year or so around Spring.

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2009 ML350 (106K) - Family vehicle
2001 CLK430 Cabriolet (80K) - Wife's car
2005 BMW 645CI (138K) - My daily driver
2016 Mustang (32K) - Daughter's car

This stuff works great! I highly recommend it.

I've never mixed Boric Acid into a bait. Rather, I use it in areas known to be ant areas. They walk in it and carry it back to the "nest". I'd be afraid to make a bait and end up attracting other pests...

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1987 560SL
85,000 miles

Hadn't heard of those. I see on Wiki that they're about the same size as the Argentines. Not sure if that plastic trap that Terro uses would work for the bigger ants - not too much room inside.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

My bacon grease idea could work out wrong - a dog might lick it. I'd have to put it in some sort of container with small holes. I was tempted to try something when the Grants stuff was no longer pulling them in. But I wasn't sure I could easily get ahold of arsenic or if I'd want to mess with the stuff. The boric acid sounds like a better solution.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K