Safe way to commit ant genocide inside house with aquarium

NoobCannon · 24 Jul 2019 at 17:50

as above.

Ants have decided to make their way in my house, am not talking 1 or two am taking many hundreds, and powder is out of the window due to the proximity of a very expensive fish tank. Have put the gel traps down as these dont spread around like the powder

Anyone had and solved a similar situation? They appear to be coming thru the foundations, have removed the skirting board behind the fridge and it looks like they are coming out of a small hole in the concrete floor. Will seal the holes up and refit the skirting but am worried they will just come from somewhere else.

So am looking for a fish friendly way to murder ants basically.

wesimmo · 24 Jul 2019 at 18:08

Fire, the fish will be fine as they are in water.

d_brennen · 24 Jul 2019 at 18:12

wesimmo said:
Fire, the fish will be fine as they are in water.

Nah, water beats fire, didn't you learn that at wizard school?

Napalm is the answer, it floats and burns

DXP55 · 24 Jul 2019 at 21:28

We had ant's in our kitchen not long back - Got up one morning and they were all over the worktops and in cats bowl -I have some Nippon Ant control system - it's a tube of gel with two bait stations - holes in base stations are only big enough for ant's to get through - Only thing is you have to leave the ants to get on with it - just leave than - two days and they were gone and not been back since. So much better than the ant powder.

something daft already!! · 24 Jul 2019 at 21:35

I think you will have to move out and nuke your home from orbit.

Tony Edwards · 24 Jul 2019 at 21:40

You need to wash away the pheromones the scouts have left as a marker then they wont have a path to follow.

Randomface74 · 24 Jul 2019 at 21:47

I'd get a pro. That's a serious ant problem.

PlacidCasual · 24 Jul 2019 at 22:03

Diatom powder (food grade) is used to kill various insects. I’ve read it also works on ants. Correctly placed they’ll march it into nest. It’s not a poison it is very hard and sharp on a microscopic level and damages their shell/carapace. Used it on chickens before for red mite.

Terminal_Boy · 24 Jul 2019 at 22:09

DXP55 said:
We had ant's in our kitchen not long back - Got up one morning and they were all over the worktops and in cats bowl -I have some Nippon Ant control system - it's a tube of gel with two bait stations - holes in base stations are only big enough for ant's to get through - Only thing is you have to leave the ants to get on with it - just leave than - two days and they were gone and not been back since. So much better than the ant powder.

Yup, find their trail and put one of the bait stations down. They’ll swarm a little to get at the Tasty Death Buffet for a while, but they take back Tasty Death to their colony and they’re all dead in under 48 hours.

NoobCannon · 24 Jul 2019 at 22:44

Ok an update, i hoovered up all the visible ones and then let them have a hot bath in the sink. Then poured boiling water down the holes they were emerging from into the kitchen and it seems to have stopped them for now.

Still the odd flying one around as there are thousands of them in the garden, cant find my mastic gun anywhere so re fitting the skirting etc will have to wait until the weekend unfortunately.

Hopefully they don't re appear tomorrow!

NoobCannon · 24 Jul 2019 at 22:45

PlacidCasual said:
Diatom powder (food grade) is used to kill various insects. I’ve read it also works on ants. Correctly placed they’ll march it into nest. It’s not a poison it is very hard and sharp on a microscopic level and damages their shell/carapace. Used it on chickens before for red mite.

Will have a look for this as sounds like it might be a good start

LuckyBenski · 24 Jul 2019 at 23:42

NoobCannon said:
Will have a look for this as sounds like it might be a good start

Might also be labelled diatomaceous earth. Meant to be excellent long term preventative for all sorts of bugs.

FWIW I've also had success with the gel - bought a tube and placed new blobs daily for 3-4 days. The last blobs didn't get touched.

jimjamuk · 25 Jul 2019 at 07:53

as said above you want one of those poison ant traps. Pop it down and let them chow on it. They will take it back to the nest and bam they dont come back this season at least

oh and its flying ant day when they all come out

cheesyboy · 25 Jul 2019 at 08:24

We've had a recurring ant problem for about 4 years. The traps were utterly useless: the ants just ignored them entirely. Once our youngest was old enough to be trained not to pick it up, I tried the tube of nippon gel, which is much better: they swarm all over that. Putting it down consistently for a week or so seems to take them down quite well, though they sometimes start to come back a month or so later. And in subsequent years.

Not sure what they're eating this year: they've not discovered the food bin this time, but still seemed to be thriving before the nippon treatment

darael · 25 Jul 2019 at 09:09

Put a dollop of jam in the middle of a path near the ants, then surround the jam with a consistent line of ant powder. Then put a line of ant powder along the perimeter of your house outside - hopefully this won't affect your fish.

The above helped me get rid of ants when they tried to invade my house a few years ago. I only see the odd ant outside now, but when I do I just put a line along the perimeter of the house as a precaution. I am satisfied that the ants are no longer a problem any more, but you just need to keep on top of it.

the shadow · 25 Jul 2019 at 09:28

What game do ants play with elephants?

Squash

Puzzled · 25 Jul 2019 at 10:46

That's just nasty, I'd pour a load of ant killer (or gel if you are worried the power might spread) down the hole before sealing it up, will hopefully stop them trying to come back up.

Boiling water does a good job of taking a load out but unless you take out the whole nest they'll just come back again.

balls · 25 Jul 2019 at 13:22

Never had the issue before in our house,but I've gone through almost an entire bottle of Nippon ant powder in 7 different places of our house this summer... No idea why this year is worse than ever before

checjb · 25 Jul 2019 at 13:42

Another vote for Nippon bait stations. My kitchen and hallway were crawling (excuse the pun) with ants one morning. I put down two stations (bought as a twin pack from Tesco) near the entry points and by the next day there wasn't a single ant in sight. That works for me.

wolfie138 · 25 Jul 2019 at 14:40

MonkeyMan said:
That's just nasty, I'd pour a load of ant killer (or gel if you are worried the power might spread) down the hole before sealing it up, will hopefully stop them trying to come back up.

Boiling water does a good job of taking a load out but unless you take out the whole nest they'll just come back again.

they generally shouldn't; far as I know, the only come back if the original scouters return, leaving chem trails. if you can stop them doing that I don't think you should get repeated incursions.