On Monday, December 20, 2010 2:33:06 PM UTC-6, NorMinn wrote:
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.

NorMinn,

Thanks for the info, and you're right on the toothpaste was something they did attack in our front bathroom. We have a medicine cabinet in the wall, and before we found the mass flow of fire ants from the sand trap they were attacking this area in masses which we did have toothpaste, mouthwash, etc in there. Also since we caulked up around our front toilet I haven't seen any in the front bathroom (knock on wood) because I'm wondering if they were attracted to the wax seal under the toilet. Go figure...

Our bug guy is coming out tomorrow to spray a different chemical in the walls where the pipes come through the foundation since the ants are just a trickle, so that should hopefully kill the few that come in that way on contact plus he'll heavily bait along the sides of the house near the foundation, so with this plus the Termidor in the sand traps hopefully that'll do the trick.

I'm definitely seeing a pattern though because it's been humid and moist outdoors the last few days (not rain, but we have a heavy dew in the morning) and I've not seen any ants in 48 hours. So hopefully they're coming out from under the house to find moisture so maybe just maybe the bait we put down tomorrow will help.

But unfortunately we've gone a week or two without seeing any ants then they come back, so I won't celebrate until we've gone months without seeing ants. Just sucks because given they've gotten in once I assume they could always get in again given the chemicals don't last forever.