The ants come marching one by one, hurrah...

[DebbieW]

AURGH!!!!! I appreciate all the feedback but how do I choose which remedy to try??? Feeing a little overwhelmed. Maybe we can take a survey or a poll to see what works for the most people. Otherwise I guess I just have to do "eenie, meenie, minee, moe!" LOL!

[turtleamy]

I do the roach motel looking ant baits. Where we live after a few days of hard rain everyone has sugar ants that come in, doesn't matter how clean your house is. The plastic bait, with ant killer gets them everytime. It only works for a couple of days though. So if a week later, you get another colony you'd have to retrap.

[Cym Ladye]

Originally Posted by Daethen

Terro has always worked for me.

I agree with Daethen on this IF you use the Terro powder not the granular bait. The only side effect to this powder is that it stays around forever, long after it is effective, and does not wash into the pot or off the benches as easily as the Ortho ant powder. A lot depends on where you live and how much water/rain you get on a daily basis.

To keep them from my plants, I powder their trails and along the edges of my benches. If I have flats of seedlings, I will lightly powder under the flats. Gets sow bugs too which can and do eat tender young roots on seedlings.

Ants may be known in some circles as "the cleaners of the world" but definitely not welcome guests around my orchids.

CL