Pests: ants & geckos

[the lynx]

The queen ant might be rather unhappy about having her hole sealed up.....

[zzm9980]

Are they carrying the little white thingy while they do that (those are eggs, larvae and pupae)? Chances are they are moving nest or budding off old nest to form new subnest...

Best bet to solve it permanently is to trace them back to the holes/cracks they come from and seal up them up.

The problem is I can't quite tell in a lot of spots where they're coming from. I'm going to get some of those traps mentioned above. In the mean time, I just spray down their marching lines with some all-purpose citrus kitchen cleaner and then wipe the whole area down real good. Kills a bunch of ants and removes their pheromone trails for a while.

[BillyB]

The queen ant might be rather unhappy about having her hole sealed up.....















I'll get my coat & hat, and bumbershoot......

WTF is a bumbershoot?!

[nakatago]

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bumbershoot

[Splatted]

Surface insecticide spray does the trick.

All you have to do is spray outside, around the frame of the windows, and doors, and any garbage chutes. This will prevent ants coming in for around 6 months.

Also, if you want to be thorough... also spray the bottom 10cm of legs of tables if you normally like to leave cooked food on table over night

[JR8]

Surface insecticide spray does the trick.

All you have to do is spray outside, around the frame of the windows, and doors, and any garbage chutes. This will prevent ants coming in for around 6 months.

Also, if you want to be thorough... also spray the bottom 10cm of legs of tables if you normally like to leave cooked food on table over night

Didn't help in our case, the nest was inside and undetected for a looooong time.

[AndyWillie]

Best way to deal with 'em f***ing ants is to seal up the nest, any form of chemical would be enough to deter their movements, such as your kitchen cleaner, freshener etc.

[the lynx]

Just to summarise:

1. To hit right into the ant colony (if you are unable to locate it to spray directly), using a good bait will solve the root of the problem because the foraging ants will pass the bait to the rest of colony members including the queen and the immatures so that they all will die.

2. To prevent them from crawling all over, just like AndyWillie said, wipe decent cleaner or anti-bacterial solution, or even use hot water to clean all over the kitchen counter and even the floor. It works in thoroughly removing food stains you may not notice, which will attract ants (works very well against pesky houseflies too!).

3. Spraying pesticide (preferably non-pyrethroid - check the label) meant for crawling insects along the perimeter, entrance, window frame occasionally (like what Splatted suggested) as a form of barrier to prevent ants or other crawling insects from crossing over into your house.

Just a quick note, sprays work in killing but it doesn't solve the actual problem if you are trying to kill social insects like ants. Even if you kill few foraging ants that you see, there are thousands more from where they come from and you will find them again.

[zzm9980]

BB, there is no way you can find a nest, especially when you stay at a multi-storey building. Baiting would be able to help you to hit the ant colony right at the core.

Using ant bait encased in a baiting station helps to prevent non-target animals from contact and from accidentally ingesting the bait.

http://www.combatbugs.com/ant-products/
I personally find that Combat works well and you can find it in any supermarket (Sheng Shiong, Fairprice, Giant, Shop & Save - not sure about CS though).

Sealing up the holes where they come from is always a good idea.

Do these baits also work for those little tiny tiny ants that seem to be everywhere in the kitchens lately? Or just the larger ones?

[the lynx]

BB, there is no way you can find a nest, especially when you stay at a multi-storey building. Baiting would be able to help you to hit the ant colony right at the core.

Using ant bait encased in a baiting station helps to prevent non-target animals from contact and from accidentally ingesting the bait.

http://www.combatbugs.com/ant-products/
I personally find that Combat works well and you can find it in any supermarket (Sheng Shiong, Fairprice, Giant, Shop & Save - not sure about CS though).

Sealing up the holes where they come from is always a good idea.

Do these baits also work for those little tiny tiny ants that seem to be everywhere in the kitchens lately? Or just the larger ones?

On the contrary, larger ants (something like weaver ants and fire ants) prefer solid food source rich in protein (like smaller insects or bait granules). Small ants like the ones you see around human dwellings prefer baits in liquid, gel or at most, tiny pelleted form.

[rajagainstthemachine]

One of the girls in the office has bed bugs in her bedroom, I suggested boric powder but I think its banned.
Can someone suggest a remedy to get rid of bed bugs? the girl has 3 children so a poison non toxic to humans would be what I'm looking for.

[sundaymorningstaple]

One of the girls in the office has bed bugs in her bedroom, I suggested boric powder but I think its banned.
Can someone suggest a remedy to get rid of bed bugs? the girl has 3 children so a poison non toxic to humans would be what I'm looking for.

To be effective, it's going to have to be a combination of waterbased but hazardous (short term) 3 pronged approach otherwise they will just come back as they can lay dormant for a very long time plus you need to kill the newly hatched as well. This isn't something you can buy in the local NTUC. A combination of an aerosol bomb (trigger release in a sealed room - inhabitable for 4 hours and needs to be aired out for at least 2 more hours. Before that though a wet spray and an HVLP mister should also be used. Between the three there shouldn't be a re-occurrence.

[offshoreoildude]

One of the girls in the office has bed bugs in her bedroom, I suggested boric powder but I think its banned.
Can someone suggest a remedy to get rid of bed bugs? the girl has 3 children so a poison non toxic to humans would be what I'm looking for.

Big problem if it's bed bugs. She needs to take all of her laundry (linen and carpets and mats) to a laundromat and heat it for an hour in a dryer at high temp.

She probably needs a new mattress and pillows.

There's a whole raft of info on beg bugs on the net and personally I'd hire a professional. They can survive nuclear war those things.

As for geckos - to get rid of them - catch an cricket - put it in a soda bottle (plastic) with the cap off (and empty). Leave in your house and it will attract geckos in who you can then release into the wild.

[sundaymorningstaple]

We do this for a living. It's expensive to replace all the mattresses and pillows, etc. and that isn't any guarantee as they hide in crevasses in wardrobes, in nightstands, headboards, and cracks in mouldings/baseboards around the room. If you have surface mounted electrical conduits (the square plastic stuff, they will also hid behind that stuff as well. Curtain hems as well. And, as noted before, you need something to leave a residual for the eggs when they hatch. Use professionals. At least, then you have recourse if there is a recurrence. The problem it that if you allow "sleep-overs" of her friends, they may well transport them in again. Also, if you buy used furniture be sure it's sprayed well before you bring it into your home. If there are BBs in the bedroom, it might be a good idea to also spray the rooms closest to the infected area as well. If it's a child's room, the parents room would be a good preventative option as well and moms tend to take little girls into the bedroom all the time. It's better to do it right the first time as if you don't, the survivors will literally crawl out of the room and infest other parts of the house. Home remedies rarely work long term.

[the lynx]

One of the girls in the office has bed bugs in her bedroom, I suggested boric powder but I think its banned.
Can someone suggest a remedy to get rid of bed bugs? the girl has 3 children so a poison non toxic to humans would be what I'm looking for.

Complicated. I'd say hire a professional. Look at SMS's link for recommendations.

Whatever she does, she MUST not remove her luggages, bags and other articles out of the infested room, unless she has satisfied herself that there is no single bed bug inside the seams etc. She'd better not create cross-infestation in other rooms at this point of time.