Bugs on kitchen counter and bathroom floor. - Ask Extension
Hello:
The bugs have been on the kitchen counter and bathroom floor for over a week.
Used Home Defense and Terro Liquid Ant Bait, but little resu...
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Bugs on kitchen counter and bathroom floor. #879166
Asked July 28, 2024, 9:57 PM EDT
Hello:
The bugs have been on the kitchen counter and bathroom floor for over a week.
Used Home Defense and Terro Liquid Ant Bait, but little results.
Request info on what to use to get rid of the bugs.
Thanks
Anne Arundel County Maryland
Expert Response
Thank you for your question. We are glad that you asked.
Those are not 'bugs' but ants.
The best way to control them is not with the Home Defense product, but with the Terro liquid gel baits with the active ingredient of boric acid, which targets how ants live and work together. Ants organize themselves in social groups that communicate with invisible scent markings to places that communicate to others where there is access and food/water available to them.
Right now, we'd suggest cleaning the areas where you used previous pesticides by washing with warm soapy water.
Once you see ants arrive again, watch where they are coming and going from, which could take a while. If you already know where they are coming in, (still wash to remove the Home Defense) put the Terro bates down in each location where you see them.
Once they find it, they will come in large numbers.... let them.
The way the boric acid gel works is that it doesn't kill them right away, and as ants meet and greet each other along the paths they groom and feed each other and more from the nest follow the trail to the sweet gel. They will eat heavily and bring it back to the nest, and in a few days, all that ate will die.
Then, seal up where they came in with caulk or paint. (I couldn't even see the tiny crack where ants were coming in next to my kitchen window until I watched one seemingly disappear next to the moulding.)
At this time of year there are many, many individuals in a colony so you may need to repeat using the baits.
Christine
Those are not 'bugs' but ants.
The best way to control them is not with the Home Defense product, but with the Terro liquid gel baits with the active ingredient of boric acid, which targets how ants live and work together. Ants organize themselves in social groups that communicate with invisible scent markings to places that communicate to others where there is access and food/water available to them.
Right now, we'd suggest cleaning the areas where you used previous pesticides by washing with warm soapy water.
Once you see ants arrive again, watch where they are coming and going from, which could take a while. If you already know where they are coming in, (still wash to remove the Home Defense) put the Terro bates down in each location where you see them.
Once they find it, they will come in large numbers.... let them.
The way the boric acid gel works is that it doesn't kill them right away, and as ants meet and greet each other along the paths they groom and feed each other and more from the nest follow the trail to the sweet gel. They will eat heavily and bring it back to the nest, and in a few days, all that ate will die.
Then, seal up where they came in with caulk or paint. (I couldn't even see the tiny crack where ants were coming in next to my kitchen window until I watched one seemingly disappear next to the moulding.)
At this time of year there are many, many individuals in a colony so you may need to repeat using the baits.
Christine
