Ant Baits

Sugar Ants also known as Odorous House ants; and Pharaoh ants, an even smaller, lighter colored ant; do respond well to baits.  Carpenter ants, Moisture ants, Argentine ants and other ants do not.  Manufacturers complete baiting trials that would never work in your home, or in the wild, and make outrageous claims about their baits.

Carpenter ants eat other insects and the secretions made by aphids as they eat leaves and other plant matter.

Most over-the-counter baits contain boric acid and boric acid is mild and that's ... just about it.  The boric acid in most of these baits are anywhere from 2 to 20 times higher than they should be.  These little ants aren't very smart, but when they start dying off in huge numbers from foraging in one area: THEY STOP FORAGING THERE.  This does not mean that they stopped nesting in your home.

They reacted to the baits and they went and found food somewhere else.  You will think they are gone, until you leave a fruit juice box or slurpee cup in some other area of your home.

One thing to know about all ants is that when spring first starts, typical ant foods: other insects, plant nectar, insect secretions, and etc. are scarce.  Ants don't really want your food.  They usually only invade for two to six weeks until their normal outside food sources come on line.

So baits, household cleansers, over the counter sprays, all seem to work - but most of the time, what really happened is the materials applied were repellent, noxious to them, killed off a few, and at the same tim, the ants real food started becoming more easily available, so you stopped seeing the ants that were still nesting you home - all along.

We use slow acting, nearly non-toxic baits placed in cracks and crevices that the ants can get to, but that are safe from children and pets.  Foraging ants pass these materials back into the colony killing other workers and egg layers. We combine these very effective baits with super low toxicity, no odor, no fume, non-repellant ant sprays and ant dusts that the ants cannot sense. 

Due to their habit of re-infesting, and the fact that your ants may be part of a much larger super colony, we often recommend follow-up services to prevent your home from being re-infested from this pest.

The professional quality baits we use are Optigard Ant Gel Bait and Advion® ant gel.  We test the ants at each home to see which bait the ants prefer and then we make sure to put out lots of placements in lots of areas, because the ants to switch off from feeding from time to time.

These are clear liquid gel baits. While their labeling may make claims that, they too, work against every ant every known, our experience has shown that they do not.

As stated earlier, we never rely on baits alone.  However, a combination of interior baiting and the use of super low toxicity, no odor, no fume, non-repellent ant sprays on the exterior only is often successful for moderate to small infestations of Odorous House ants.