Let's talk about ants...

Let's talk about ants...

“Kelpguy's” reply in another post made me think more about ants, we have lots of plants in our place and not much concrete. The most common ant is by far the “Sulum” (any Filipino name I use for the ants is my own spelling), it's a medium sized, black ant that, when you squeeze them and you inhale with your nose, the smell coming of them, it will be mildly irritating and it smells of Formic Acid, they are good rain indicators, getting very active and trying to go up to dry places when there is rain coming. We control(try to)them with “Malation” a insecticide that I spray on the tree trunks close to the house where they travel up down to prevent them entering the buildings, They are not interested in sweets at all...
The next one is a bit smaller and skinnier but they have “Soldiers” that are different sized and the biggest ones are about ½ inch with big pincers, they are called “Hakok”, I call them meat ants because they are crazy about fats and meats, they live underground and usually collect seeds, they are very hard to control if they are attracted by something, another annoying thing is, they will attack you as soon as you disturb them, they will pinch you sometimes a long time after you leave their territory. They are also not after sweets...
This next one is about 1mm in length and is slow moving, that's the one that gives us the most problems, this one lives inside the buildings, especially in the kitchen, they are very interested in anything cooked, but not in the sugar, this one we use the “Ant Chalk” but it takes only a few days until they overcome the barriers that we created, another problem with them is that they love to build their nests in the stacks of rags and napkins or in the radio on top of the refrigerator, they destroyed some of my MC tapes, they leave a sticky residue after you manage to kill them, that's hard to remove...
There are many more but that's the ones we have to deal with on a daily bases, my favorite is a larger sized ant that has a body that looks like “brushed stainless steel” and lives in the “Champagne Palm” in front of the kitchen...
We don't have the “Red Ants” that are very mean pincher...
I have not encountered the mean “Pissing Ants” that we have in Switzerland...

 

Ants... wow

 

To Simple Mind,
Thanks for sharing. I just send somebody to buy Malathion Insecticide the Agri-vet store said that its already abolished in the market. Where did you buy yours? I have massive Black ants "Sulom" partying since 5 months now! I didn't use any sort of chemicals because i have beloved cat, free birds plenty of them and lovely butterflies! But, This Black ants are invading the walls and the terraces. I just realize that i need your Help.

 

I seem to have strung a nerve with some of you, the "Malation" we usually buy at the store left hand side from "FEMAS" Agrivet, it's not rated poisonous for Humans and large pets/animals in weak concentrations but for the ants you need to make quite a strong one and if it's rains after you sprayed it on, you will have to reapply again the following morning. I fight them for a long time and now I am at the point were I go around in the morning and do a inspection round and spray as needed, before I waited until they were at the buildings.
This concerns only the "Black Sulom", in the kitchen I usually wipe the small brown ones off with a moist rag, it takes them a while to reestablish their tracks, I wait for a few minutes and pick the ones that are stranded, they will be back somewhere else in a matter of a few hours...
I look at it as a game and I want to be a step ahead of them, works for me but beware if I am not around for a few days...

 

Ahhh, so what you really mean is, you have WAY too much free time on your hands. Ever thought of a hobby?



Larry

 

really sounds like your spray

is not any better than the cr*P they sell in aerosol cans which is totally worthless except for the initial kill and few minutes protection. The best kind of ant stuff is the kind they take back to the nest and share with the colony. For sweet ants that's Terro, but as I said earlier I may have to modify the formula I am using as they seem to learn each batch and then avoid it. Also, as you pointed out some are attracted by fat, some sugar. Hell they even eat dogfood, they are not fussy!

 

Ants are no problem since we sold the dog and got one of these...

View attachment 9510

 

Don't know if it will help, but it's worth a try:

When you figure out what the particular type likes to eat, mix some of that with boric acid (it's a powder that is fairly mild and can be easily handled...just don't get it in your eyes and wash it off thoroughly if you get it on you. It won't burn your skin unless you leave it on wet in large concentration for a while.) In the US you can buy it in pharmacies as a foot soak, or in hardware stores as an insecticide. Don't know enough about the PI yet to give advice on availability there, but it is a very common chemical.

You mix it up with their food, and let them take all they want. Be patient. The ants you see are all "workers" and will bring back food to the nest, and the queen. The boric acid will eventually kill the queen (along with the workers,) but once the queen dies, the nest dies.

Worth a try. Boric acid is cheap and relatively safe, but it's probably best to set the food out away from where pets and children can get at it.