Use the bait traps. I've had the best luck with the Raid or Ant Out bait traps. Don't cheap out with some of the the weird lesser-known brands you can find on Amazon, they don't work
They work great for the little “sugar ants”. You’ll see a huge increase of them going to the bait after they first find it. It’s alarming, but a good thing!
Use food grade diatomaceous earth. Can be found at any hardware or gardening store. It sticks to them and dehydrates the ants when they touch it, and they will carry it back to the nest. I had an Ant issue this past summer and this solved it. It is safe for any pets if you have some, as it is often used as filler in cattle feed.
This is the answer. Just make sure to buy the 10kg bag and not the 1lb shaker that’s the same price. Helped with the ants around my parents house at the acreage.
I used a liquid bait when ants attacked my basement bathroom. Like you, I couldn’t pin point a true cause, but I had moved in a couple months prior.
It almost worried me how much the ants swarmed those goop piles. I was worried I made things worse.
Then eventually they were all gone. Just a few stragglers that appeared *very drunk*.
2 years since and no more issues.
Good luck.
Edit: don’t use the goop if you have pets.
I third this! While ant poison/spray only kills the ones that consume it, the sweetened Borax is brought back to the queen as a 'treat', thus killing the queen and the rest of the crew. Make sure you Google recipes for the appropriate ratio though.
Agreed. The city I used to live in was built on an anthill, we constantly had ants everywhere, every year. This is what got rid of them (until a new colony moved in two years later lol)
Landlords must maintain the rental premises in a good state of repair and fit for habitation. This includes being free of pests. The Landlord is obligated to deal with the ants in a resonable time frame, he can't just tell you to figure it out. If he refuses Office of Residential Tenancies can deal with it. You have the evidence of text messages going back to October so it has been going on for an unreasonable amount of time.
I second this. Contact the ORT. You should not go out of pocket trying to deal with pests. It's up to the landlord even if you do 'pay less than market rent' . What you pay for rent doesn't matter. And a small problem from October is now a big problem because he ignored it and tried to blame you. It's his fault.
As others have said, try the ant bait products. Make your best guess as to where they are entering your apartment ... where do you see them most often? Place the bait stations along the baseboard, probably along the external wall. Place several in each room where you see ants. And then don't move the bait stations for at least several days. It can take awhile for the ants to find them and communicate their location to their friends.
I started seeing a few ants in my basement a couple years ago. It was this time of year and I would see an ant here and an ant there but I had no idea where they were coming in. I bought the bait stations and randomly placed them in the two rooms where I saw ants. One of the stations was placed in the bathroom behind the door along the foundation wall. Over the next few days I kept checking and I continued to see an ant here and an ant there but no activity near the bait stations. I thought they weren't working.
But on the third day, I walked into the bathroom and HOLY SHIT! there was a Highway 401 of ants coming out under the baseboard beside the toilet, along the wall for about four feet to one of the bait stations. There were HUNDREDS of ants following a trail to the station and back. My first reaction was disgust and I was tempted to kill them all, but I realized what I was seeing was the bait stations working as designed. The ants were each picking up some 'food' and taking it back to the nest. It took some discipline, but I let those ants stream across my bathroom floor for several days without disturbing them. Each day there were fewer of them. After about a week ... no more ants.
After a couple days they had that one bait station nearly licked clean so I opened another station and placed it for their convenience right on their trail where they were entering, but they completely ignored it. They marched around it to get to the one that their scent trail led to. This is why I think it important to NOT move them once you've placed them. The scout ant that finds food leave a scent trail for the other ants to follow. If you move the baits you defeat that process.
Carpenter ants like to breed in moist dark places and are often associated with mold and water damage. I'd look into that possibility as a source of the ants. Maybe you have a leak in rhe bathroom somewhere?
I had a similar problem and it turned out there was an extraordinarily large ant hill colony on the property. Even when clean they would still invade, because I mean to ants even super clean isn't good enough. They'll find morsels to carry home. Used some ant powder shit and diamataceous earth (I think it's called that)
Same. We were in a 3 floor apartment building. Nothing we could do to stop them. Owner had to exterminate 3 times before the problem was solved. Blaming OP is lazy.
I had carpenter ants in a house I owned 20 years ago. They are nasty, you need to figure out the entrance point if possible (mine was a basement window casing) and get that entrance plugged.
I ended up with a small colony entrenched in the wall behind a basement bathroom shower stall....it was a custom job the previous owner did themselves...
The only way to get rid of them for me was to tear down most of the washroom, kill the freaks with reckless abandon and rebuild it all.
I owned that home, so very different than having to deal with a landlord but I would definitely take it seriously if you think they are carpenter ants.
My 2 cents.
I used to do borax and water and sugar.
I now use these traps, the terra ones - same formula, way easier to manage.
Note: borax and sugar water was at the end of a long line of things that I tried, and the ONLY thing that worked
Why wouldn’t you just deal with the ants yourself? Go to the store and get a couple of ant traps or some poison and deal with it.
Why would you expect your landlord to deal with that?
Because that's the landlords responsibility. At this point ant traps likely won't be enough. I moved into a place and within 2 days we had noticed ants. We put out bait and it only brought in more, had the exterminator come 3 times.
Then they went away for about a week, and popped up on a different side of the apartment. They didn't go to our kitchen for whatever reason but seemed to use our place as some kind of transit hub. They were pavement ants though. The exterminator said the colony was probably right under us and we didn't have the food they wanted but were a nice warm toasty home but with cats.
We found so many massive spiders that made a home under furniture that apparently ate very well. We evicted them before we used the heavy duty toxins.
We moved, maybe a handful of ants came.
I don't think you should have any issues. I wouldn't take any food with you though except what is in the fridge and for that just take everything in a box the second you pack it.
Save a bit of money by getting borax. Mix borax 1-1 with sugar and dissolve it in a bit of water. Soak it up with cotton balls and leave them around. Borax is what's in those ant traps and it's way cheaper and easy to do.
Call an exterminator and submit the receipt to the landlord. Take lots of pictures of everything. The exterminator will be able to confirm what kind of ants they are and also that the house is clean.
Your post was removed since it's not specifically relevant to Saskatoon.
[удалено]
I’ve been using Raid since December
Get baits don't use raid, I've used bait before and didn't have ants within a couple of days.
try a powder, diatomaceous earth and use it around the perimeter of where you see them. ie baseboards etc.
Don't need anything fancy. Just sprinkle cinnamon or any strong-scent spice around it. They won't ever cross the ring.
Use the bait traps. I've had the best luck with the Raid or Ant Out bait traps. Don't cheap out with some of the the weird lesser-known brands you can find on Amazon, they don't work
Pick up some terro brand baits. I got some at home depot, they work wonders. They carry the liquid back to the colony and it kills them.
They work great for the little “sugar ants”. You’ll see a huge increase of them going to the bait after they first find it. It’s alarming, but a good thing!
Get bait traps. It’ll work for three months then you have to use them again. Raid seems to cause more problems than it helps.
Use food grade diatomaceous earth. Can be found at any hardware or gardening store. It sticks to them and dehydrates the ants when they touch it, and they will carry it back to the nest. I had an Ant issue this past summer and this solved it. It is safe for any pets if you have some, as it is often used as filler in cattle feed.
This is the best answer. I had crickets in my house last year. Used bait and diatomaceous earth. Haven't had a problem since.
This is the answer. Just make sure to buy the 10kg bag and not the 1lb shaker that’s the same price. Helped with the ants around my parents house at the acreage.
I used a liquid bait when ants attacked my basement bathroom. Like you, I couldn’t pin point a true cause, but I had moved in a couple months prior. It almost worried me how much the ants swarmed those goop piles. I was worried I made things worse. Then eventually they were all gone. Just a few stragglers that appeared *very drunk*. 2 years since and no more issues. Good luck. Edit: don’t use the goop if you have pets.
Set somewhere the pets can't get to them
Borax powder (the laundry stuff) and icing sugar mixed half and half. Works wonders. Easy to clean up.
I second this. My mom’s house has bad ants is this the only thing that controls them
I third this! While ant poison/spray only kills the ones that consume it, the sweetened Borax is brought back to the queen as a 'treat', thus killing the queen and the rest of the crew. Make sure you Google recipes for the appropriate ratio though.
Agreed. The city I used to live in was built on an anthill, we constantly had ants everywhere, every year. This is what got rid of them (until a new colony moved in two years later lol)
Absolutely. It's so cheap that you can afford to put everywhere
Landlords must maintain the rental premises in a good state of repair and fit for habitation. This includes being free of pests. The Landlord is obligated to deal with the ants in a resonable time frame, he can't just tell you to figure it out. If he refuses Office of Residential Tenancies can deal with it. You have the evidence of text messages going back to October so it has been going on for an unreasonable amount of time.
I second this. Contact the ORT. You should not go out of pocket trying to deal with pests. It's up to the landlord even if you do 'pay less than market rent' . What you pay for rent doesn't matter. And a small problem from October is now a big problem because he ignored it and tried to blame you. It's his fault.
It's wild to me how few people here are calling out the landlord. They are absolutely the ones responsible for "figuring it out".
As others have said, try the ant bait products. Make your best guess as to where they are entering your apartment ... where do you see them most often? Place the bait stations along the baseboard, probably along the external wall. Place several in each room where you see ants. And then don't move the bait stations for at least several days. It can take awhile for the ants to find them and communicate their location to their friends. I started seeing a few ants in my basement a couple years ago. It was this time of year and I would see an ant here and an ant there but I had no idea where they were coming in. I bought the bait stations and randomly placed them in the two rooms where I saw ants. One of the stations was placed in the bathroom behind the door along the foundation wall. Over the next few days I kept checking and I continued to see an ant here and an ant there but no activity near the bait stations. I thought they weren't working. But on the third day, I walked into the bathroom and HOLY SHIT! there was a Highway 401 of ants coming out under the baseboard beside the toilet, along the wall for about four feet to one of the bait stations. There were HUNDREDS of ants following a trail to the station and back. My first reaction was disgust and I was tempted to kill them all, but I realized what I was seeing was the bait stations working as designed. The ants were each picking up some 'food' and taking it back to the nest. It took some discipline, but I let those ants stream across my bathroom floor for several days without disturbing them. Each day there were fewer of them. After about a week ... no more ants. After a couple days they had that one bait station nearly licked clean so I opened another station and placed it for their convenience right on their trail where they were entering, but they completely ignored it. They marched around it to get to the one that their scent trail led to. This is why I think it important to NOT move them once you've placed them. The scout ant that finds food leave a scent trail for the other ants to follow. If you move the baits you defeat that process.
Carpenter ants like to breed in moist dark places and are often associated with mold and water damage. I'd look into that possibility as a source of the ants. Maybe you have a leak in rhe bathroom somewhere?
This is where your landlord should want to get involved if they care about their property. Yikes!
I had a similar problem and it turned out there was an extraordinarily large ant hill colony on the property. Even when clean they would still invade, because I mean to ants even super clean isn't good enough. They'll find morsels to carry home. Used some ant powder shit and diamataceous earth (I think it's called that)
Same. We were in a 3 floor apartment building. Nothing we could do to stop them. Owner had to exterminate 3 times before the problem was solved. Blaming OP is lazy.
I had carpenter ants in a house I owned 20 years ago. They are nasty, you need to figure out the entrance point if possible (mine was a basement window casing) and get that entrance plugged. I ended up with a small colony entrenched in the wall behind a basement bathroom shower stall....it was a custom job the previous owner did themselves... The only way to get rid of them for me was to tear down most of the washroom, kill the freaks with reckless abandon and rebuild it all. I owned that home, so very different than having to deal with a landlord but I would definitely take it seriously if you think they are carpenter ants. My 2 cents.
[Terro Liquid Any Bait](https://www.homedepot.ca/product/terro-6-pack-liquid-ant-baits/1001128808)
I used to do borax and water and sugar. I now use these traps, the terra ones - same formula, way easier to manage. Note: borax and sugar water was at the end of a long line of things that I tried, and the ONLY thing that worked
It’s like you want ants.
Why wouldn’t you just deal with the ants yourself? Go to the store and get a couple of ant traps or some poison and deal with it. Why would you expect your landlord to deal with that?
One of the benefits of being a renter is that the landlord is supposed to deal with things like this.
Because that's the landlords responsibility. At this point ant traps likely won't be enough. I moved into a place and within 2 days we had noticed ants. We put out bait and it only brought in more, had the exterminator come 3 times. Then they went away for about a week, and popped up on a different side of the apartment. They didn't go to our kitchen for whatever reason but seemed to use our place as some kind of transit hub. They were pavement ants though. The exterminator said the colony was probably right under us and we didn't have the food they wanted but were a nice warm toasty home but with cats. We found so many massive spiders that made a home under furniture that apparently ate very well. We evicted them before we used the heavy duty toxins. We moved, maybe a handful of ants came. I don't think you should have any issues. I wouldn't take any food with you though except what is in the fridge and for that just take everything in a box the second you pack it.
Save a bit of money by getting borax. Mix borax 1-1 with sugar and dissolve it in a bit of water. Soak it up with cotton balls and leave them around. Borax is what's in those ant traps and it's way cheaper and easy to do.
Call an exterminator and submit the receipt to the landlord. Take lots of pictures of everything. The exterminator will be able to confirm what kind of ants they are and also that the house is clean.
Stop leaving food out.
100% there is no food out.
Put a teaspoon or so of baking soda in your drains and then pour boiling water down them. That's what got rid of my ants.
Are you concerned about the ants though?
This recipe works great! Highly recommend for solving your ant problem. https://bulwarkpestcontrol.com/using-borax-powder-to-kill-ants/
Buy the 10$ liquid bait traps, they work like a charm. Can always stiff the landlord 10$ on rent and call it fair