How to Get Rid of Black Ants

Keep your home free from black ants.

It may seem near impossible to get rid of black ants that are infesting your home. No matter how many worker ants you kill, the nest continues to breed and your ant problem continues. To get rid of black ants you must prevent them from entering your home and, if they are nesting in your home, you must kill the queen.

Things You'll Need

• Caulk
• Door flaps
• Sealing strips
• Disinfecting cleaners
• Insecticide

Instructions

1. Seal up cracks and gaps in your windows and doors with caulk. Add door flaps or seal strips on the bottoms of your doors to close off gaps between the doors and floors.

2. Clean on a regular basis with disinfecting household cleaners. Clean especially in the areas where you have spotted the black ants. They leave pheromone trails for others to follow, which you can eliminate by cleaning. Pay careful attention around baseboards, along the edge of your counters and under doorways.

3. Treat along the edges of floorboards and other areas where you've seen the ants, with an insecticide labeled to kill black ants. Follow the directions on the label. On kitchen counters, set out ant traps so the worker ants take some and send it back to the queen.

4. Watch the ant trails to pinpoint where they are entering. If they are carpenter ants, they are likely nesting in your home. Spray an ant insecticide into the entryways, often in your baseboards. However, you may want to call in an exterminator to remove the nests.

References

• Utah State University Extension; FAQs; Diane Alston; February 2005
• University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Ant Control; Barb Ogg; May 2008