On Oct 20, 4:25*am, "
wrote:

Fireantshave been known to nest in electrical panels and *other odd
places...eliminate food, water and shelter. *If you've identified their
trail, bait should be placed alongside the trail. *Caulk where they
enter/leave the bath....more likely they are coming to the trap for
water or food. *Dump some poison in the trap, caulk along baseboards and
elect./plumbing entries. *Got pets? *Pet food is major attractant, and
crumbs usually available. *Also, with small children, food crumbs and
spills more common.

We keep a clean house even without the ants, but since the outbreak
we've been especially careful not to leave any crumbs. Only once did
a trail form in the living room going to some food our daughter
dropped, but outside of that they seem to be hitting the bathrooms
with on single item being attacked.

I've been closing up any spaces where they've come in, but it seems as
soon as I close or treat one area they just find someplace else. We
talked to the builder today, and the foreman is coming by today to
show us how to remove the side of the garden tub. I'll have my wet/
dry vac in hand to vacuum up any mound or ants under there, plus I'll
have a bucket of Amdro to spread out under the tub and around the sand
trap. Also the front bathroom bathtub/shower backs up to a closet, so
I'm going to get a plumbing access door and put in the closet so I can
occasionally check out behind that tub and treat as needed. We've
also had an outbreak in the kitchen, but I hope the ants were just
following the pipes from the master bath since after the bug guy
dusted under the sink we've not seen any more there.

So that's my plan... The yard has been bug free for a while now, so
hopefully if we can kill what's under the house there won't be any
more problems. I'm keeping my fingers crossed anyway What's nuts
is I've not heard of anyone in our neighborhood having this kind of
problem, nor have I seen any articles or posts like mine. Is this
just an isolated 'worse case' scenario with fire ants? Even before
the outbreak we've heeded all the warnings treating outside, keeping
floors clean, keeping yard cut, etc, so honestly I can't think back to
anything we've missed that would've brought on this invasion other
than just bad luck and the builder not treating for ants before laying
the foundation (they did confirm they treat for termites but not
ants).

Anyway, there's my tale of whoa I'll post updates as we
investigate under the tub plus some pictures if there's anything worth
seeing.

Sam Alex