[Familyofmonkeys]

Our rental kitchen has been invaded by these black ants. First found them about 3 weeks ago in our pantry. We used this ant poison in plastic trays, and after two rounds of that they had all disappeared. Thought that was it and the nest had been poisoned. They have now returned in full force....yuck. Luckily all our food is stored in tupperware as a precaution. It is so bad that hubby spent ages there yesterday just hoovering them as they came out of the side of our glass cooker splashback.

Is there anything else we can try to get rid of them? Is our landlord responsible for fixing the problem....has been mentioned, but it did not seem to cause any concern. Or are we supposed to deal with it as tennants?

Can't go pulling off glass panels fixed on walls to look for a nest, so not sure what to do.

[kanatakiwi]

they appear, you put out the poison, they disappear. they appear again. etc. I buy the little squeeze bottle of liquid and put out a few drops along their trails. that seems to kill them off after about two or three days. but its almost impossible to get rid of them. in Auckland because of the warm climate. any food bits at all, a spot of something on the counter top, brings them back. eventually they get less and less and we seem to have eradicated them, as haven't seen any for amonth or so, (but its winter so who knows?) We did pull our stove out from the wall and clean there and put poison out, that seemed to help a lot.
If you adverse to the poison, I think borax works.
good luck

[zardell]

I've heard that people use bleach too.

Good luck,

Julie

xx

[KerryS]

I have ant problems too - when it rains their nests get washed away and so they make their way back in again. I just use Raid to blast them - but will look at a more permanent solution in the future...

[Tia Maria]

The best thing we have used is the Robocan (the full-on chemical version I'm afraid), check out this thread:

www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=9027

Cheers

Tia

[kanatakiwi]

I just use Raid to blast them - but will look at a more permanent solution in the future...

Kerry, Raid will only kill the ones you see, but the poison and the borax will be taken back to the nest and kill many more. Do';t know exactly what horrible thing the poison does but I think the borax dehydrates them all. Anyway if you want to even try to get rid of them you have to use something that they will take back to their millions of little cuzzies in the nest.

[thepiesleys]

cheap talcum powder - honest it works - because of its texture or make up or whatever the little blighters can not walk through it, it sticks to them, or they just get stranded, just spread whre you think they are coming from, agreed they will appear elsewhere maybe - just add more talc! it is completely safe with little ones around and it smells nice. One draw back my 3 yr old spotted a nice little pile of talc the other day and decided to make "talcum angels"! just before we went out, it sticks to navy blue fleeces as well.

Sue

[Park City Partner]

We had a bad problem and found someone to come in a spray which worked pretty well. It is a chemical but they say it is safe...whatever, I know it worked.

[Familyofmonkeys]

Will johnsons baby powder work....or does it have to be cheap smelly stuff?