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• Using home-made and commercial ant baits
• Ants that invade houses

House infesting ants

There are a few species of small brown ants that commonly invade homes. These house-infesting ants include odorous house ant [image], Argentine ant [image],and pharaoh ant and a few others. These small ants are difficult for homeowners to tell apart but fortunately exact identification is not necessary for effective control. The good news is household nuisance ants generally do not cause damage and pose no particular health risk.

All ants live in colonies dominated by an egg-laying queen and worker ants (females) forage outside the colony for food. Typically, ants are attracted to a variety of food types including carbohydrates (sugars), proteins (meats), fats and oils. Colonies, or "nests", are located in protected places in walls, under floors, under cabinets, and such and individual colonies can be quite large with thousands of ants.

Baits work better than sprays

Baits work much better than conventional insecticides because of the unique way worker ants feed the colony, including the queen. When a foraging worker locates food she returns to the colony and recruits other workers to the food source. The recruited workers collect food (see photo above) in a special pouch called a crop and return to the colony where they feed other ants, a process called "trophallaxis". Because of this behavior the most effective baits are slow acting, giving the worker time to get back to the nest and pass the poisoned bait to other colony members, and eventually the queen. Conventional insecticides disrupt this behavior and can render baits ineffective.

Many small infestations can be controlled with inexpensive liquid baits that are available commercially and can even be homemade (see Bait Sources and Related Articles below). Larger, difficult-to-control infestations should be treated with granular baits on the outside and gel baits inside homes. Granular baits can be used to treat large outdoor areas such as the perimeter of a building. Gel baits can be used indoors as spot treatments. See the package instructions that come with each product for use details (Bait Sources).

Every situation will be a little different but if you notice ants outside that seem to be moving toward the house then treating the outside perimeter with a granular bait such as Advance Granular or Maxforce Granular may be needed. These baits can also be used for general ant control outdoors. If you've tried liquid bait indoors and still have a problem then gel baits like Maxforce Gel, Advion Gel or Optigard Gel may be the answer. Each gel has a different active ingredient and food component so a little experimentation on your part may be needed (Bait Sources).

Liquid, Gel & Granular Ant Baits