Ants!

larryw · September 21, 2002, 11:02 PM

OK, here's one for you.

My loading (and cleaning/puttering) bench in the garage has ants. They are nowhere else around the house, but always on the bench. Not a lot, just a few who look to be on recon.

Are they attracted by the ground walnut shells, powder, Hoppe's? Food and drink are never on the bench and garbage cans are outside: nothing on the bench that I think would attract them.

thanks,
LW

Jeeper · September 21, 2002, 11:18 PM

Maybe they are ARMY ANTS looking to stock up

Sorry for the horrid attempt at a joke

C.R.Sam · September 21, 2002, 11:35 PM

Jeeper....I don't think it is horrid at all.

Just be glad they aren't fire ants...
Not good around powder.

If just a few scouts, maby they tryin to figure out if worth doin a full scale raid or just goin somewhere else.

Recon is sometimes just on spec.

Sam

blades67 · September 21, 2002, 11:45 PM

They're inspecting the quality of your reloads before ordering any.

Zorro · September 22, 2002, 12:08 AM

Crush One.

Notice a rotten Coconut Smell?

Jeeper · September 22, 2002, 12:16 AM

CR Sam

I thought my joke was bad!

larryw · September 22, 2002, 12:33 AM

Sheesh, guess that's what I get when I post a serious question to you "experts" on a Saturday night...I'll repost on Monday when you've all sobered up.

If they're prepping for a full scale attack, they best get on with it, because they've been showing up for a month-and-a-half and I'm heading to the hardware store for some ant traps...

Blackhorse · September 22, 2002, 12:43 AM

Time for some of that chemical warfare.

zanthope · September 22, 2002, 07:43 AM

Maybe they like the lanolin from your case lube?

Combat for ants works best for me. You don't have to "do" anything like spray or dust or hunt for openings.....just put it out and let the bio-magic do all the work.

Could they be rabid, left wing, gun-grabbing ANTi's?

braindead0 · September 22, 2002, 08:39 AM

We used to kill fire ant mounds (in the middle of the desert) by putting a ring of blackpowder around the mound for a few days. Apparantly they love the stuff, and will take it into their burrow for storage.. this means BP gets all the way down into the depths of the burrow. A pint of gasoline and a match and run like heck.

Makes a nice show, and totally eradicates the mound. Perhaps they are taking bits of powder?

Quantrill · September 22, 2002, 08:45 AM

I would think, just off hand, that they are attracted to the Hoppes. You specifically mentioned Hoppes and I remember an old class at Camp Perry where Hoppes was mentioned as containing certain fruit oils (bannana in particular). Don't know this for a fact but worth considering. Quantrill

sven · September 22, 2002, 02:49 PM

Terro works best for me. Lay it down on cardboard squares and watch them stuff themselves and take the poison back to the colony... takes a couple weeks of persistance to wipe out the community.

Also, wipe up their chemical trails.

Lastly, Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap kills ants dead. Make a solution and wipe up those trails... even pour some down their nest if you find it.

Yodar · September 22, 2002, 08:28 PM

Zorro might have been on the right track...I believe it's the Harvester ant that smells like cocoanuts when crushed...

neverthe less this is my BIDNESS..

There are two ant species from HELL...one of which is 1/8" long black with very long antennae and legs, the other is smaller, cinamon colored and walks in a line.

If you DONT do the right treatmrent, the cinnamon colored ant that walks in a line will disperse and multiply! The pharoah ant should NEVER be treated with pesticide, only BAITS labled for that ant. Use MAXFORCE or COMBAT granular ant bait-small granule size.

Terro works for sweet-eating ants, but will not wipe out fire ants (maxforce/combat/amdro will) Terro will not wipe out argentine ants...only a professional product from Whitmire labs called ADVANCE ant grghost ants and other anules (small granule size)

ADVANCE is EXPENSIVE! ($1.75/oz)

You can SPRAY argentines but they reproduce so effectively they NEVER go away unless they are properly baited.

TERRO IS A SUGAR BAIT WITH BORIC ACID whic is a stomach poison and kills the ants BEFORE theyt get back to the hive. Terro is NOT shared with the hive. Do NOT use Tero with pharoah antsd, they die too soon and no sharing occurs with terro.

The granular baits I discuss ARE.

ROTSA RUCK!

Yodar

Steve Smith · September 23, 2002, 09:01 AM

Yodar, I remember that in the "old days" you could buy ant syrup and put it on a cotton ball. I think it had arsenic or cyanide in it. These days, everyone's afraid their husband/wife/ex lover is going to poison you with the stuff, so you can't find it at the hardware store.

Where can I get some? This stuff WORKED on ants!

Elkslayer · September 23, 2002, 10:43 AM

Isn't saltpeter one of the ingredients in blackpowder? Hmmmmm, I wonder if these ants aren't feminists and getting it for their significant others!

jack pringle · September 26, 2002, 11:49 PM

i have found that sprinkling a little cinammon around puts these little intruders at bay. smells good. non poison. works on my ants. must be a thousand or more different kinds of ants. yours may think you have provided them with desert (sp), is that one or two s's. i meant the sweet stuff anyway.

Chemistry · September 30, 2002, 10:55 PM

As a chemist, I would bring home liquid nitrogen, and dump it down the ant hill. The nitrogen would sink, and start suffocating the ants that were trapped down there.

Some of them did get out, and I was waiting for them with either a spray bottle of ammonia and water, or if I really felt nasty, a spray bottle of acetone.

The ammonia is toxic to them, and kills them quickly. The acetone dissolves their exoskeletons. Choose your poison!

Steve Smith · September 30, 2002, 11:15 PM

I sent Yodar a PM about this, but no response yet. Do you guys know where to get the old fashoned ant syrup? That stuff WORKED.

Guy B. Meredith · October 1, 2002, 12:18 AM

Steve,

I too have looked for the arsenic syrup. The company that made it switched to boric acid or some such.

When we were kids we made photographic flash powder. Like the 1800s era photographers in the movies and silent comedies going up in clouds of smoke. It is also used in firecrackers, cherry bombs, etc. Like braindead0 we would pile it on the hole, blocking the light and path and let them dig it out from the inside. When they broke through we dumped on more. When they had moved a suitable amount we would light off the powder and clean house on the little buggers.

If my memory serves right flash powder is 3 parts aluminum dust (magnesium might be a tad less stable), 2 parts potassium perchlorate (do NOT use chlorate--the other stuff is bad enough) and 1/2 part sulfur. More sulfur for a righteous stench and lung drying fumes.

Art Eatman · October 2, 2002, 06:47 PM

The cheapest deal I've found for killing far aints is to put about a half-cup of gasoline with a half-cup of the cheapest liquid diswashing soap you can find in five gallons of water. Takes about a gallon or so, sprinkled on a mound, to ruin their day. May need to repeat in a day, for larger mounds...

But I really like the black powder deal, with gasoline.

Will ants eat dynamite? Or, carry little bits back home with them?

Art

September 21, 2002, 11:02 PM	#1
larryw Senior Member Join Date: January 17, 2002 Posts: 336	Ants! OK, here's one for you. My loading (and cleaning/puttering) bench in the garage has ants. They are nowhere else around the house, but always on the bench. Not a lot, just a few who look to be on recon. Are they attracted by the ground walnut shells, powder, Hoppe's? Food and drink are never on the bench and garbage cans are outside: nothing on the bench that I think would attract them. thanks, LW

September 21, 2002, 11:18 PM	#2
Jeeper Senior Member Join Date: November 1, 2001 Location: Gilbert, AZ Posts: 776	Maybe they are ARMY ANTS looking to stock up Sorry for the horrid attempt at a joke __________________ Gun control theory - A woman raped and strangled is morally superior to a woman with a smoking gun and a dead rapist at her feet.

September 21, 2002, 11:45 PM	#4
blades67 Senior Member Join Date: April 22, 1999 Location: Chandler, Arizona, USA Posts: 6,014	They're inspecting the quality of your reloads before ordering any. __________________ Guns cause crime like spoons cause Rosie O'Donnell to be fat! I hunt, therefore I am.

September 22, 2002, 12:16 AM	#6
Jeeper Senior Member Join Date: November 1, 2001 Location: Gilbert, AZ Posts: 776	CR Sam I thought my joke was bad! __________________ Gun control theory - A woman raped and strangled is morally superior to a woman with a smoking gun and a dead rapist at her feet.

September 22, 2002, 07:43 AM	#9
zanthope Senior Member Join Date: November 20, 2000 Location: Ohio Posts: 258	Maybe they like the lanolin from your case lube? Combat for ants works best for me. You don't have to "do" anything like spray or dust or hunt for openings.....just put it out and let the bio-magic do all the work. Could they be rabid, left wing, gun-grabbing ANTi's? __________________ We are born naked, wet, and hungry. Then it gets worse.

September 21, 2002, 11:35 PM	#3
C.R.Sam Senior Member Join Date: October 29, 1999 Location: Dewey, AZ Posts: 12,858	Jeeper....I don't think it is horrid at all. Just be glad they aren't fire ants... Not good around powder. If just a few scouts, maby they tryin to figure out if worth doin a full scale raid or just goin somewhere else. Recon is sometimes just on spec. Sam

September 22, 2002, 12:08 AM	#5
Zorro Senior Member Join Date: October 28, 2000 Posts: 1,072	Crush One. Notice a rotten Coconut Smell?

September 22, 2002, 12:33 AM	#7
larryw Senior Member Join Date: January 17, 2002 Posts: 336	Sheesh, guess that's what I get when I post a serious question to you "experts" on a Saturday night...I'll repost on Monday when you've all sobered up. If they're prepping for a full scale attack, they best get on with it, because they've been showing up for a month-and-a-half and I'm heading to the hardware store for some ant traps...

September 22, 2002, 12:43 AM	#8
Blackhorse Senior Member Join Date: April 9, 2002 Location: Idaho Posts: 597	Time for some of that chemical warfare.

September 22, 2002, 08:39 AM	#10
braindead0 Senior Member Join Date: February 28, 2002 Location: Canton, Oh Posts: 896	We used to kill fire ant mounds (in the middle of the desert) by putting a ring of blackpowder around the mound for a few days. Apparantly they love the stuff, and will take it into their burrow for storage.. this means BP gets all the way down into the depths of the burrow. A pint of gasoline and a match and run like heck. Makes a nice show, and totally eradicates the mound. Perhaps they are taking bits of powder? __________________ DoD# 2223 Meum scapha volitare plenum anguillae

September 22, 2002, 08:45 AM	#11
Quantrill Senior Member Join Date: February 28, 1999 Location: Arizona, USA Posts: 725	Ants I would think, just off hand, that they are attracted to the Hoppes. You specifically mentioned Hoppes and I remember an old class at Camp Perry where Hoppes was mentioned as containing certain fruit oils (bannana in particular). Don't know this for a fact but worth considering. Quantrill

September 22, 2002, 02:49 PM	#12
sven Senior Member Join Date: January 4, 2002 Location: Palo Alto, California Posts: 532	Terro works best for me. Lay it down on cardboard squares and watch them stuff themselves and take the poison back to the colony... takes a couple weeks of persistance to wipe out the community. Also, wipe up their chemical trails. Lastly, Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap kills ants dead. Make a solution and wipe up those trails... even pour some down their nest if you find it.

September 22, 2002, 08:28 PM	#13
Yodar Member Join Date: January 20, 1999 Location: WinterPark,Fl. USA Posts: 89	an ant professional Zorro might have been on the right track...I believe it's the Harvester ant that smells like cocoanuts when crushed... neverthe less this is my BIDNESS.. There are two ant species from HELL...one of which is 1/8" long black with very long antennae and legs, the other is smaller, cinamon colored and walks in a line. If you DONT do the right treatmrent, the cinnamon colored ant that walks in a line will disperse and multiply! The pharoah ant should NEVER be treated with pesticide, only BAITS labled for that ant. Use MAXFORCE or COMBAT granular ant bait-small granule size. Terro works for sweet-eating ants, but will not wipe out fire ants (maxforce/combat/amdro will) Terro will not wipe out argentine ants...only a professional product from Whitmire labs called ADVANCE ant grghost ants and other anules (small granule size) ADVANCE is EXPENSIVE! ($1.75/oz) You can SPRAY argentines but they reproduce so effectively they NEVER go away unless they are properly baited. TERRO IS A SUGAR BAIT WITH BORIC ACID whic is a stomach poison and kills the ants BEFORE theyt get back to the hive. Terro is NOT shared with the hive. Do NOT use Tero with pharoah antsd, they die too soon and no sharing occurs with terro. The granular baits I discuss ARE. ROTSA RUCK! Yodar __________________ Yodar

September 23, 2002, 09:01 AM	#14
Steve Smith Senior Member Join Date: December 9, 1999 Posts: 4,131	Yodar, I remember that in the "old days" you could buy ant syrup and put it on a cotton ball. I think it had arsenic or cyanide in it. These days, everyone's afraid their husband/wife/ex lover is going to poison you with the stuff, so you can't find it at the hardware store. Where can I get some? This stuff WORKED on ants! __________________ Favor the X. Steve Smith NRA Life Member

September 23, 2002, 10:43 AM	#15
Elkslayer Senior Member Join Date: January 23, 2002 Location: Wyoming Posts: 132	Isn't saltpeter one of the ingredients in blackpowder? Hmmmmm, I wonder if these ants aren't feminists and getting it for their significant others!

September 26, 2002, 11:49 PM	#16
jack pringle Senior Member Join Date: February 27, 2002 Location: west coast of arkansas, near the beach Posts: 123	i have found that sprinkling a little cinammon around puts these little intruders at bay. smells good. non poison. works on my ants. must be a thousand or more different kinds of ants. yours may think you have provided them with desert (sp), is that one or two s's. i meant the sweet stuff anyway.

September 30, 2002, 10:55 PM	#17
Chemistry Senior Member Join Date: September 23, 2001 Location: Central Alabama Posts: 158	As a chemist, I would bring home liquid nitrogen, and dump it down the ant hill. The nitrogen would sink, and start suffocating the ants that were trapped down there. Some of them did get out, and I was waiting for them with either a spray bottle of ammonia and water, or if I really felt nasty, a spray bottle of acetone. The ammonia is toxic to them, and kills them quickly. The acetone dissolves their exoskeletons. Choose your poison!

September 30, 2002, 11:15 PM	#18
Steve Smith Senior Member Join Date: December 9, 1999 Posts: 4,131	I sent Yodar a PM about this, but no response yet. Do you guys know where to get the old fashoned ant syrup? That stuff WORKED. __________________ Favor the X. Steve Smith NRA Life Member

October 1, 2002, 12:18 AM	#19
Guy B. Meredith Senior Member Join Date: August 29, 1999 Location: Salem, Oregon Posts: 1,581	Steve, I too have looked for the arsenic syrup. The company that made it switched to boric acid or some such. When we were kids we made photographic flash powder. Like the 1800s era photographers in the movies and silent comedies going up in clouds of smoke. It is also used in firecrackers, cherry bombs, etc. Like braindead0 we would pile it on the hole, blocking the light and path and let them dig it out from the inside. When they broke through we dumped on more. When they had moved a suitable amount we would light off the powder and clean house on the little buggers. If my memory serves right flash powder is 3 parts aluminum dust (magnesium might be a tad less stable), 2 parts potassium perchlorate (do NOT use chlorate--the other stuff is bad enough) and 1/2 part sulfur. More sulfur for a righteous stench and lung drying fumes.

October 2, 2002, 06:47 PM	#20
Art Eatman Staff in Memoriam Join Date: November 13, 1998 Location: Terlingua, TX; Thomasville, GA Posts: 24,798	The cheapest deal I've found for killing far aints is to put about a half-cup of gasoline with a half-cup of the cheapest liquid diswashing soap you can find in five gallons of water. Takes about a gallon or so, sprinkled on a mound, to ruin their day. May need to repeat in a day, for larger mounds... But I really like the black powder deal, with gasoline. Will ants eat dynamite? Or, carry little bits back home with them? Art