Ants - tips for dealing with an infestation

After the storm several days ago, an army of ants decided to leave their garden homeand occupy my apartment instead - all at once. When I came back form work, the place was so scary - with hundreds of ants going from the balcony to the kitchen and all over the place, that I even forgot to make the pictures, run to Lidl like a maniac as it was 8:55, spent ages trying to explain in german the guys that worked there that I need something to stop the ant invasion, and then spent rest of the night trying to get rid of it ...I almost felt like it was 1940 or smth like that...However, the bloody spray didn't help - it kills them instantly, but the promised effect of 4 weeks somehow doesn’t match the reality... So I decided to approach them with a new strategy - a vacuum cleaner!

After days and days of whipping each little fella one by one, the situation looked promising - at least the kitchen, the bed and a table were regained.

BUT it didn't last too long - my balcony and all the roses and plants are now attacked by these super turbo ants, and they are now walking on my desk and I do not know what to do anymore - it's becoming very very annoying.

I've never seen ants in the apartment before. and so resistant ones.

What should I do!?!?!?

Thanks for all tips in advance .

I had the same problem at the beginning of April when I moved in to the new place... just couldn't believe my eyes... ants all over. They would wake up in the same time with me in the morning and start coming out of the computer... be all around my bed, around my desk... in the kitchen - crazy and annoying, I know.

Now look what we did here.
First, we placed these ant traps in the kitchen - can be found in WalMart - circular box and it has some hormone inside that drives away ants... not harmful for humans, you won't smell it, don't worry.

Second, we made sure that there is no food left outside... no biowaste uncovered, and... in general, nothing that they can eat. Clean the place thoroughly through, corners, too... for once.

Looks like the two methods combined proved to be a success cause now there are no more ants... I haven't seen any since two months.

And if you want to kill them in masses... don't use spary, it is a waste of chemicals and it may be also toxic for your nose... use a window cleaner... one that contains alcohol - with a pump spray - it kills them in seconds and you can also clean the surface with that liquid afterwards, cause it disinfects the place.

Good luck and may God help you out of that terrible invasion, I know how bad it is, we are there with you, keeping fingers crossed!!!

at my exes house in the country to stop ants coming into the place we used "Nippon Ant Killer powder". Just put it on the outside of all window sills and door steps, stops the fuckers coming in. Those already inside got a good shower and lung full of Windowlene (as Julia suggested). Works wonders.

Nippon ant killer

I bought a plant but hadn't realised that an ant nest was inside. I was told that sprinkling baking powder on the soil and around the plant would do it. Basically they eat the baking powder and then when they drink fluids, they explode Anyway, dunno about exploding but it got rid of them!

I vote for the Nippon stuff as well. Apparently the ants don't die instantly but take it back to the nest and it gets destroyed mwahahahahaha. And as Julia said, make sure you never leave any food or crumbs around to atract them. After a few weeks just hoover up the powder and hopefully they won't come back!

Hy everyone, and thanks a lot for the tips and all the constructive ideas I would definitely like to check out that Nippon, but still long time till the weekend comes... Maybe the baking powder could be found in Lidl in the meanwhile - do you maybe know what's the German word for it? and for the baking soda?

I can recommend the Nippon stuff too. I have not had a problem here but I did have problems at my house back in England. I found that I had to put ant powder all around the house to blocks all possible routes (it looked like some sort of black magic spell) - otherwise the ants would find another route around the powder and back into the house. Once they have a route, they mark it chemically and in my house they used the ducts for the warm air heating as motorways... Bastards! Anyway, I won in the end...

The enviromentally friendly solution would be to get an ant-eater, but they´re probably difficult to come by.

Backpulver

Julia got baking powder; baking soda is called Natron or Kaiser Natron, and it normally comes in paper packets and not yellow boxes. Backpulver also comes in paper packets and not convenient tins.

woof.

...managed to get a backing soda, but those little guys are becoming smarter&smarter every day...evolution taking place - at my place...

I'd say if it were getting that bad then hoover them up. Then napalm them. Or both. However you might get into a discussion such as House spiders - a moral dilemma if you did.

Good luck!

anybody got any idea what they call this in Japan?

In Japan they probably call it: "haik ant crawl nix mehrrr"![i]

...less ants now, but ant eggs all over my flowers anybody nows how to effectively get rid of the eggs?!