How to Get Rid of an Ant Infestation

Ants are everywhere

Learn the best ways to get rid of those pesky critters. Ants are possibly some of the most frustrating pests to control.

Things You'll Need

• Broom, dust pan, vacuum, rags, cleaning supplies
• Windex
• Ant traps
• RAID Ant spray
• Willingness to change some habits and aspects of your lifestyle

Instructions

1. 

   I seem to have been able to deal with ants effectively after some frustration and experimentation. Here is what we do:

   First, cleanliness is next to godliness. Ants are attracted by one thing: FOOD. They don't come inside for shelter or to keep warm. They come into your house and kitchen for crumbs and all things sticky. Clean your house ... especially where you are having the most trouble with ants. Wipe down surfaces, vacuum carpets and along walls and doors, pick up after yourself and don't leave food sitting out. In the kitchen, keep foods in air-tight containers. Forget the chip clip, use a zip-lock bag or other container to store foods. You will find that as available food disappears, so do the ants.

2. 

   Kill any visible ants with Windex. Spray it all over the place ... especially along trails that ants tend to follow or where you suspect they are coming and going. Windex is fairly harmless- Go ahead and spray it generously.

3. 

   Do the same thing with RAID Ant killer spray except that you need to be more cautious and less generous with its application. Spray only where ants are coming into your home. Be careful not to spray around kids or pets and not on surface that come into contact with food.

4. 

   Place ant bait traps strategically around your home, especially where you have noticed ants in the past. Most of the good ones will even eventually destroy the nest by having the ants carry the poison back to share with everyone else before they die. Replace them as needed or when you notice that they are no longer effective.

5. I am not endorsing the use of any particular brand product. Any reputable brand insecticide will work fine. This is just what we used. Also, we only noticed success when all of these steps were followed concurrently. In other words, be prepared to go all out, or be prepared to be disappointed.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't give up if the problem doesn't go away at first. Just keep following the steps as faithfully as possible. It took us about a month to start noticing real sucess.

• Be prepared to spend a little money and time on this. If it is important to you, then a little sacrifice is required.

• Step #1 is the most important of all of them.

• Insecticides can be harmful and even fatal to kids and pets if ingested.

• If a problem occurs, call 911 and/or your local poison control center.

Resources

• How to get rid of ants