Ants are driving me mad!!!

[sundaymorningstaple]

It's the little house gecko's, pale coloured, you see behind picture frames, laying eggs in wall sockets. caught in the door frames or fridge and/or toasted in the toaster/fried in the microwave. Totally harmeless and love to eat ants and mozzies and other insects. if you try to catch one, you will be left holding a wiggling tail as that is their escape mechanism (the tail will grow back). I wouldn't be without them in my house and I've been here almost 4 decades now. I had one trained back in the 1990's when I live in my old black & white. I could get it to approach me at the table with a grain of unseasoned white rice on my finger and it was slowly and patiently make it way to the finger and take the rice. If you have hanging pictures on the wall, you might occasionally see little string of shit on the wall beneath the photo frame where they like to rest and hide. Please do not kill them. They are natures pest control.

[malcontent]

The easy way to catch them if you want to remove one from your home is to use a plastic container - the kind you get when you ta bao food.

Obviously, the gecko needs to be on an open flat surface. Slowly try to get as close as you can, and then cup them in the container with one quick jolt.

Once you have them in the container, you can then carefully slip the lid or a piece of card stock under the opening and you’ve got him.

[sundaymorningstaple]

As I live on the 2nd floor of my HDB unit, and do not have or used Aircon, we have plenty of flow through ventilation, which brings with it a variety of critters seeing our bedrooms face a park with lots of vegetation. So my HDB is much like my old Black & White in as much as we have a number of resident geckos here. I got one who's reasonably friendly and pops out from behind my 29" monitor as it makes it's way back and forth across my office/den at least once or twice a night as I sit here on the PC.

[lonewolf88]

We used to have that issue, got pest control to come in and solve the problem.

How long does it take to solve it? Did the problem ever come back?

I sprayed the drainage with pesticide, for a few days no ants, then today I saw them popping up from a cracked tile.

[x9200]

We used to have that issue, got pest control to come in and solve the problem.

How long does it take to solve it? Did the problem ever come back?

I sprayed the drainage with pesticide, for a few days no ants, then today I saw them popping up from a cracked tile.

These gel/baits type of things do not work for you? I mean where the ants get a piece of poisoned food to carry it to their nest what eventually kills the whole colony in a few weeks. It always worked for me.

[lonewolf88]

We used to have that issue, got pest control to come in and solve the problem.

How long does it take to solve it? Did the problem ever come back?

I sprayed the drainage with pesticide, for a few days no ants, then today I saw them popping up from a cracked tile.

These gel/baits type of things do not work for you? I mean where the ants get a piece of poisoned food to carry it to their nest what eventually kills the whole colony in a few weeks. It always worked for me.

I tried before, it worked at first but subsequently they just bypass the baits. Pesticide is sure proof at the current moment. I use eco friendly pesticide from bio-x.

[Lisafuller]

We used to have that issue, got pest control to come in and solve the problem.

How long does it take to solve it? Did the problem ever come back?

I sprayed the drainage with pesticide, for a few days no ants, then today I saw them popping up from a cracked tile.

So far so good. Sometimes you need to bring out the big guns and have professionals handle it.

[Lisafuller]

We used to have that issue, got pest control to come in and solve the problem.

How long does it take to solve it? Did the problem ever come back?

I sprayed the drainage with pesticide, for a few days no ants, then today I saw them popping up from a cracked tile.

These gel/baits type of things do not work for you? I mean where the ants get a piece of poisoned food to carry it to their nest what eventually kills the whole colony in a few weeks. It always worked for me.

Ants are much more resilient in my house. Ordinary bait and and ant poison does not work for me, just makes the house sticky but does nothing about the actual problem.

[Lisafuller]

It's the little house gecko's, pale coloured, you see behind picture frames, laying eggs in wall sockets. caught in the door frames or fridge and/or toasted in the toaster/fried in the microwave. Totally harmeless and love to eat ants and mozzies and other insects. if you try to catch one, you will be left holding a wiggling tail as that is their escape mechanism (the tail will grow back). I wouldn't be without them in my house and I've been here almost 4 decades now. I had one trained back in the 1990's when I live in my old black & white. I could get it to approach me at the table with a grain of unseasoned white rice on my finger and it was slowly and patiently make it way to the finger and take the rice. If you have hanging pictures on the wall, you might occasionally see little string of shit on the wall beneath the photo frame where they like to rest and hide. Please do not kill them. They are natures pest control.

I see, had no idea. We don’t have those in our house, our daughter is terrified of all creepy crawlers so our windows are closed pretty much 24/7. We ventilate the house once in a while, but have netting installed on all the windows so even a mosquito could not get in.

[Lisafuller]

The easy way to catch them if you want to remove one from your home is to use a plastic container - the kind you get when you ta bao food.

Obviously, the gecko needs to be on an open flat surface. Slowly try to get as close as you can, and then cup them in the container with one quick jolt.

Once you have them in the container, you can then carefully slip the lid or a piece of card stock under the opening and you’ve got him.

We’ve taken a different approach, had insect netting installed on all our windows so nothing can get in. Before, we would have quite a few lizards come in and make themselves at home. Our daughter was terrified, so we’d use this method to catch them, before releasing them outside.

[Lisafuller]

How long does it take to solve it? Did the problem ever come back?

I sprayed the drainage with pesticide, for a few days no ants, then today I saw them popping up from a cracked tile.

These gel/baits type of things do not work for you? I mean where the ants get a piece of poisoned food to carry it to their nest what eventually kills the whole colony in a few weeks. It always worked for me.

I tried before, it worked at first but subsequently they just bypass the baits. Pesticide is sure proof at the current moment. I use eco friendly pesticide from bio-x.

Not surprised. Conventional ant bait is not as effective as it used to be, pretty sure the ants have evolved and now are no longer tempted by it.

[Sunjackal]

It is also important to be very tidy with respect to food droppings. We are somewhat OCD about making sure crumbs, dropped food etc is cleaned up ASAP.

If there isn’t an obvious food source, the ants will find somewhere else to invade.

Once they’ve decided you are a good food supply, they’re a b*st*rd to be rid of.

[Lisafuller]

Definitely. Same reason we don't eat in the car, once there are crumbs, the critters will come.

[lonewolf88]

I wonder if this thread is still active..
Ants are back. They seem to travel along electrical lines. Coming out from light switches and openings with wires exposed.
I am desperate. Any baits failed last time. I had success with Bio X but I can't possibly spray everywhere in the house.

[malcontent]

I was telling my dad how bad the ants were here and how the ant poison they sell here is almost useless… so while I was back in the US he bought me some Terro brand ant bait.

When I came back here I just put one out and after a week there were no more ants and haven’t seen a single one since (it’s been months). The bait is still out there in case any more come along, and I’ve got a few more baits if needed.

Not sure if you can get your hands on Terro brand ant bait, but I can vouch for it - the stuff works great.