Crazy ants - anybody got tips for dealing with them?

[dos0711]

https://www.amazon.com/TERRO-T300B-...hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584207590265995&psc=1

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[Rusty PW]

OP, you sure you don't have any rotting whale meat in some forgotten place in your jeeps?

 

[AstroZombie]

don't let the wife and kids eat in there!!

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Ants are drawn to electrical currents , had to replace the motherboards in my home air conditioners twice last year , they are drawn in and then fry themselves . I spray weekly and put andro around them once a month now.

Likely to the magnetic fields that surround active wires? It's thought that they use the earth's magnetic field for navigation.
Some ants like fire ants, aren't attracted.
I've noticed for years that wasps, part of the same family, are attracted to heat pumps and other items with electric fields. Wasps seem to seek out and build nests in AC units, heat pumps, minisplits and PTAC units.

 

[BlueScapegoat]

My other expensive hobby is building high end PCs and when it was still profitable I had a decent size crypto mining operation. Not a problem for me being in MN, but the topic of these "crazy ants" would come up pretty frequently in the those circles. People would get their PCs and server rooms infested with them.

What an annoyance.

 

[charliez]

This ---> The liquid ant bait from Terro works

 

[ShadowsPapa]

This ---> The liquid ant bait from Terro works

Nice thing is that it gets carried back to the rest of the group and ends up killing more than just the visitors. I've got a small bottle of it and put it out on slick cardboard now and then around the house, especially in the spring. Dry seasons, droughts, like we've had means ant populations explode - they don't get drowned out like in normal years. They are everywhere this year, all types of them, mounds in the yard, mounds of dirt on the expansion cuts in concrete, our patio block walkway. Ugh. I know there's a purpose for them but let them to deal with that purpose out there somewhere LOL

 

[AmosMoses01]

Funny to see an old thread get new life...

I did get rid of them suckers - what I ended up doing was a combo of the diatomaceous earth suggestion, plus Talstar P Insecticide, which pretty much nuked them. I sprayed the Talstar P around the driveway surrounding the vehicles, and the diatomaceous earth in the dirt at the edges of the driveway.

 

[PuddleJumper]

Here in Central Texas we've got a smorgasbord of insects, but I'm having the dangdest time dealing with crazy ants. They don't seem to have rhyme or reason to them, but they do appear to like both my new JT as well as the Mrs' JLU, finding them inside, outside, every which side. We don't have or keep any food items at all in our vehicles, so it isn't food that is drawing them. We don't have a garage to put them in, so the Jeeps both have to live outside, and our driveway is under oak branches, so we have that going against us.

In the past I had these dang things make a nest inside the top's drain tube of my Miata, which was an epic pain in the rear to clean out. In that car's very tiny cabin, I sprayed a bunch of peppermint oil where I found them nesting, after reading they don't like the stuff. That proved effective - but I don't know where I'd put it in the much bigger Jeeps, especially since I haven't found a nest. Spraying inseciticide inside the vehicle doesn't seem like a good idea.

I may just have to start spraying the perimiter of all the tires with Talstar Pro (pretty potent insecticide, appropriately diluted of course) on a consistent basis, but maybe y'all have some pointers or other ideas that could help out. Thanks in advance for any ideas or suggestions.

chili pepper oil or peppermint oil. dilute 10 to 1 with water and lighty spray on fabrics and tires. Bugs hate that shit. Its how we keep from using insecticides on garden vegetables. a light misting will do.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

chili pepper oil or peppermint oil. dilute 10 to 1 with water and lighty spray on fabrics and tires. Bugs hate that shit. Its how we keep from using insecticides on garden vegetables. a light misting will do.

Never thought of that for our red raspberry plants. We get those really pretty - but really hungry, beetles in late summer the last couple of years. I hate spraying chemicals on ever-bearing berries.

I was told by the ISU extension service years ago that a mix of tabasco sauce and water in a spray bottle worked against rabbits eating young trees and such.

 

[PuddleJumper]

Never thought of that for our red raspberry plants. We get those really pretty - but really hungry, beetles in late summer the last couple of years. I hate spraying chemicals on ever-bearing berries.

I was told by the ISU extension service years ago that a mix of tabasco sauce and water in a spray bottle worked against rabbits eating young trees and such.

it does wash off with rain so reapplying is needed every other week.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

it does wash off with rain so reapplying is needed every other week.

Rain? I'll have to look that up.......... didn't have hardly any last year. Could have gone almost a month.
But i get your point - yes, being water-based (at least in part) it would wash off. But that's ok - don't like chemicals on our berries - many of them don't even make it to the house LOL

 

[PuddleJumper]

Rain? I'll have to look that up.......... didn't have hardly any last year. Could have gone almost a month.
But i get your point - yes, being water-based (at least in part) it would wash off. But that's ok - don't like chemicals on our berries - many of them don't even make it to the house LOL

I live in VA we get rain every month of the year

 

[Labswine]

I sometimes have an ant problem in my house...one of my rooms, the set up their conga line across the floor

A product that I have found to be really effective against ants is Zivo.

It's a totally natural spray that kills them instantly. In the house, it's a bit of a pain as one of the carriers is mineral oil, but it's really effective. Some of our indoor plants seem to get infested with them so I spray it onto the soil in the planters and no more ants.

So, I'm guessing that you can spray around the ground and on the under carriage or your vehicles with it and it'll hang out for quite a while, but you'd probably have to respray after a rain storm if the mineral oil washes away.

The product is totally safe to use around pets and kids and actually smells kind of nice. Amazon carries it.

 

[Farmer Fran]

Ardvark?

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