On 12/20/2010 11:24 AM, Alex wrote:
On Dec 17, 11:43 am, wrote:
But I'll post back after the plumber leaves with news of what we find
under the toilet.

Plumber came out on Friday and pulled the toilet, but it was clean --
no leak. We flipped the toilet over and I didn't see any evidence
that there was a leak or even any ants which I wasn't expecting. So
that theory went out the window.

In talking to our bug guy about it and he said if the toilet seal was
made of bee's wax that could've been attracting them. I had the
plumber caulk the outside of the toilet though so if they were
attracted to the wax ring maybe that will cut off that food supply.
Though I have the baseboards in that bathroom covered in Ortho Home
Defense I haven't seen any in there since early last week and none
since the toilet was resealed and caulked.

I do however see about 2 or 3 a day in the other bathroom, though
Ortho Home Defense is killing them as soon as they get out. My only
fear is this this bathroom backs up to one of our kids rooms, and
though I haven't seen any in there yet I can imagine there's more
coming up that I'm not seeing. Our bug guy is coming out this week to
spray Termidor inside the wall behind the sinks so maybe that'll
help. The only thing he's done back there thus far is dusted, but I
don't think the dust got deep enough to do much good.




I posted some links a few messages back which gave some very useful
information....one bit that I had not read before was that fire ants eat
only liquids....Amdro's formula takes that into account, containing oil
of some sort (don't recall all the details, but it was an authoritative
source. You keep mentioning moisture...one thing that might attract
ants indoors, aside from water, is toothpaste, especially in kid's
bathroom. Learned that with other ants. If you see live ants indoors,
you can certainly follow their trail...that's all you need to do to lay
down Amdro bait. My experience is that they go after Amdro rather
quickly, and it rid us of fire ant problems in our lawn .. may not have
killed every ant, but we were able to do a lot of yard work without
being swarmed and attacked, it took relatively small amounts and it
lasted about a year. I don't think that covering the entire interior
with insecticide will be as effective as solving what ATTRACTS them and
then baiting near their trails. Cleaning up sweets and greasy stuff
around the house is important, too.

I'm sure that you will not rid the entire property and under-foundation
of ants...just treat for the ones that are entering the house and
correct the issues that attract or allow entrance.