The General Chat Thread (2024)

The effing 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 🐜 are back. :banghead:

What is it about that electrical socket?

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It's now taped to for the night again! It's the only way to stop them.

I've just spent 10 minutes hovering then up again. I redid the anti-ant poison today as well.

There's a whole load of expletives I'd love to throw at them but. Grrr sigh
 
badjak said:
you need a tame ant eater
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I've not seen our echidna recently.

These 🐜 are actually living inside the wall space in the house. They've been causing problems all season. We've found a poison that works really well, but the next colony just takes over the old colonies home from the looks of things.

I can't imagine the fun that's going to happen when we get new windows in January or February.

I fear we may have to get professionals in at some point. Thing is, it is only this power socket, not the other one on the same wall. And they do electrocute themselves in the process. The pile of dead ants on the carpet under the socket is the give away.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
I fear we may have to get professionals in at some point.
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That’s probably your next step. They may find a giant nest in the walls. Sorry for that image.

We have/had one in our crawl space. When we first bought the house, the inspector said, “You’re going to need to get that addressed sooner or later,” which to me was the same as saying, “Nothing to see here, move in tomorrow!”

It’s been a frequent battle over the years, but we may have finally won. This has been the longest I’ve gone between DIY treatments.
 
I use 20 Mule Team Borax, sodium tetraborate, to kill them. It takes a few days to work but it kills the queen too so it DOES kill the colony.
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I mix 1 Tbsp of that with 1/2 cup warm water and 1 tsp honey and put it where they'll find it. I don't have them inside but that's what I use in the garden area. Stir them up to create work/effort and then pour on the poison...
 
Barriehie said:
I use 20 Mule Team Borax, sodium tetraborate, to kill them. It takes a few days to work but it kills the queen too so it DOES kill the colony.View attachment 122046

I mix 1 Tbsp of that with 1/2 cup warm water and 1 tsp honey and put it where they'll find it. I don't have them inside but that's what I use in the garden area. Stir them up to create work/effort and then pour on the poison...
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Borax works on any insect with a hard exterior, whether they inhale the dust or consume it. There's something in it, don't remember it's been so long, that keeps their exoskeleton from hardening. When DD and her family came to visit once, they walked their dog in rest areas on the way, and guess who ended up with a tick infestation in the house afterward. We used Borax and other non-toxic things to get rid of them since we couldn't spray in the house due to my allergies and we were breeding the Emerald Tree boas at the time, so had lots of expensive snakes in the house. Oh, we spread it in the carpet and underneath furniture cushions, and on hard floors underneath furniture.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
I've not seen our echidna recently.

These 🐜 are actually living inside the wall space in the house. They've been causing problems all season. We've found a poison that works really well, but the next colony just takes over the old colonies home from the looks of things.

I can't imagine the fun that's going to happen when we get new windows in January or February.

I fear we may have to get professionals in at some point. Thing is, it is only this power socket, not the other one on the same wall. And they do electrocute themselves in the process. The pile of dead ants on the carpet under the socket is the give away.
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Surely it's your landlords responsibility 🤷‍♀️ and the cost's on them?! 😬
 
Barriehie said:
I use 20 Mule Team Borax, sodium tetraborate, to kill them. It takes a few days to work but it kills the queen too so it DOES kill the colony.View attachment 122046

I mix 1 Tbsp of that with 1/2 cup warm water and 1 tsp honey and put it where they'll find it. I don't have them inside but that's what I use in the garden area. Stir them up to create work/effort and then pour on the poison...
Click to expand...
This isn't a case of the queen not being killed. She was last time around.

Now other colonies are moving in. Two nights ago we had winged ants in the air. It's that time of year. This is just a case of a neighbouring colony having found an empty nest and expanded into it.

We also have to be careful that other beneficial insects, plus chickens, chicks and native wildlife can't access the poison which really limits where it can be put down.
 
Barriehie said:
Probably not! Boron and borax are two totally different compounds and often spoken about interchangeably. Borax is sodium tetraborate and boron is a metallic element.
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To confuse matters (hence my question)
Borax is a brandname for a borium containing fertiliser
I would post a link, but I've only found Dutch sites sofar
 
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