Fire Ants in My House

When I see ants in my house, I panic.  I’m not sure why.  I picture, in my head, all of those tiny, germ carrying feet crawling all over everything… and I cringe.  And then I remember that many types of ants, even ones that aren’t fire ants, bite, and I react.

I try to hide my fear, but my kids are both tiny heroes, at 1 & 3, stomping every creepy crawly thing they see, for me.  So… I don’t think I hide it well.

This fall (or spring #2, as we jokingly call it in our house,) we had ants start migrating inside again.  This time, however, they didn’t act like sugar ants.  And they didn’t look like sugar ants to me.  So, we called the pest guys!

I’m going to take a minute to tell you that we use HomeTeam Pest Defense – click on their logo to the right to check them out.  We couldn’t be happier.  Lucky for us, our house was built with the Taexx system, but… we live in Texas, so despite regular pest prevention services, we get a few visitors from time to time.  So, they come out in between services and “Teach those bugs to show a little respect,” as the tech put it today.

Back to the bugs… the technician came and it didn’t take us long to find a few ants to show him.  He confirmed that they were fire ants.  Yikes!  I had, mistakenly of course, put fire ants into the meat-eating outdoor pests category in my head, not considering that they seek out moisture and food just like “normal ants.”  I immediately realized that the random fire ant bites that the kids have been showing me were probably from playing INSIDE, not outside.  How awful!  I mean, you assume your kids are safe, inside, right?

The technician put down some bait (supposedly safe for the dogs and kids,) and then sprayed our backyard and the perimeter of the house thoroughly.  The fire ants like to nest under our patio slab, right by our back door… and we poison them periodically, but they tend to move and rebuild.  I really despise them.

Why am I telling you?  Mostly, I didn’t realize that Fire Ants would come into a home.  But they DO!!!!

Within 6 hours of the treatment, it began to rain.  Correction: it began to POUR!  And it pretty much kept up for 48 hours, off and on.  We were pretty bummed, fully expecting the treatment to be wasted.  We did our research, in the interim.  We have long used Boric Acid (usually marketed as Roach killer) along doorways and trim lines, with good success.  Boric acid kills all kinds of critters, not the least of them earwigs.  Just FYI.

A mom I met at the park suggested that I sprinkle Borax on the carpet, throughout the house, and let it sit for a little while and then re-vacuum.  So, while we waited, hoping that the poison that the pest guy used actually stuck, I also did this through our upstairs.  I vacuumed thoroughly, sprinkled Borax, let it sit for 1+ hours (it varied per room) and then re-vacuumed as suggested.

I’m delighted with the results!  Not only have I not seen ANY creepy crawlies, but I think it also deodorized my carpet at the same time! Hooray for Borax!!

For more information about Fire Ants, see the below links!  Best luck, if you have these meanies in your home.  I know I have them in my raised garden beds too, but that’s a whole different battle.

http://www.noble.org/ag/soils/fireantinvasion/ & http://fireant.tamu.edu/news/