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mountainlion
Trad climber
California
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May 22, 2013 - 09:13am PT
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Be glad they are not biting you!! the fire ants in the Philippines begin biting as soon as they are on you and it BURNS LIKE HELL!! the next day you will have little "zit" where they bit you.
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Topic Author's Reply - May 22, 2013 - 09:37am PT
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Pretty funny Steve.. they are insidious and will find any weakness in the perimeter.
So..er Steve.. Nice house.. Might want to take a level to that garage though.. it appears to be leaning to the right in that photo. Is that so you can park the sports-car on the right and the SUV on the left? ;)
Ancient thread bump BTW. We're gearing up for ant season again. Mid summer is usually when the real battle resumes. Mr E is pretty passionate about ant abatement. Hunts the scouts down one at a time to give them the squishing-finger-o'doom and obliterates any trail he finds. We've since repaired a pipe under the house that evidently had been leaking for years creating a nice moist ant summer-haven in addition to the sink hole that nearly swallowed my laundry room (you see.. I do know a little about off-level houses).
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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May 22, 2013 - 10:53am PT
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JTM, just wait til the newly discovered Phillipine Pirate Ants get here!
YAAR!!!!!!
Scientists have discovered a strangely patterned new insect in the Philippines, dubbing it the pirate ant because of a dark stripe over its eyes that makes it look like it's wearing an eye patch.
The formal name of the newfound creature is Cardiocondyla pirata, and belongs to a group of species that are found from Thailand across the whole Indonesian-Malaysian region.
"On a collection trip to the Philippines we looked for different species of the genus Cardiocondyla that is known for its astonishing morphological and behavioral diversity of male ants," Sabine Frohschammer, a doctoral student at Germany's Universität Regensburg, said in a statement.
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brotherbbock
Trad climber
Alta Loma, CA
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May 22, 2013 - 11:38am PT
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Pics please.
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Don Paul
Big Wall climber
Colombia, South America
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May 22, 2013 - 11:48am PT
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My office is in the jungle, in Apartado, Colombia. The ants rule and that's just how it is. When you're eating, a row of them will climb up the leg of the table and onto your plate. You only have about 15 minutes before they smell your food and then you have to watch what you're eating. What I do to combat them is to put some kind of ant poison on their trails, this makes them turn around and go somewhere else. To protect food on a table, you put a bowl of water under each table leg. The ants cant cross the water.
We also have huge cockroaches and a lot of mosquitos. They carry various diseases like dengue and malaria. I think its instinctive to be grossed out by them, but they're not going to go away. Maybe where you live they might but insects really thrive in heat and humidity.
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benzo
Big Wall climber
tacoma wa.
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May 22, 2013 - 11:59am PT
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ants do not like citric acid... (who does really). toss your orange peels about around their entrance holes when you find them.
purely a deturant, not a solution. $.02
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steveA
Trad climber
bedford,massachusetts
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May 22, 2013 - 12:48pm PT
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Justhemaid,
The garage is very level, on a poured concrete foundation. It must be the photo. Hope you beat the ant problem.
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G_Gnome
Trad climber
Pebble Wrestling.... Badly lately.
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May 22, 2013 - 03:04pm PT
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Skip, prior to 1994 we had a terrible ant problem with 12" wide lines of ants in the house all the time. After the Northridge earthquake we don't have any ants anymore and we haven't for almost 20 years. We don't know if the vertical movement of the earthquake crushed all of the hives but it has been great not dealing with those little black buggers for the last 20 years.
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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May 22, 2013 - 03:09pm PT
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Simple Green for a quick and simple short term solution for wee simple folks before the long term solutions.............................
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Anastasia
climber
Home
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May 22, 2013 - 03:23pm PT
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What is up with bugs these days?
Luckily we are doing good here "for now." But at the old apartment. We had some new renters and wham... Bugs... At least three types of cockroaches had moved in with them overnight. The company had an exterminator there spraying the place down almost every other week. It did look like they were winning, slowly. When we moved... We unpacked outside just to make sure we weren't bringing anything here.
Scary stuff... The fact that they were taking care of it and... We still had problems. Craziest stuff I have ever experienced.
I think they are adapting to the poisons, seams we are poisoning ourselves more than them.
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Elcapinyoazz
Social climber
Joshua Tree
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May 22, 2013 - 03:33pm PT
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I use a lactic acid based general purpose cleaner on them and it works a treat. Kills virtually on contact and ends the trail. Combined with regular poison baiting outside, I rarely have any issues here.
ants do not like citric acid... (who does really). toss your orange peels about around their entrance holes when you find them.
purely a deturant
Don't know about that one. I remember leaving a bowl full of grapefruit carcass on the vanity one day in my JT house, and a few hours later it was covered in ants.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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As a youngster I'd take a rubber mallet and work my way down the bottom 2 x 4 of the back fence and smash the little formic felons IN THEIR HUNDREDS. Well, trespassers.
Later days, they got gasoline poured into the holes and lit off. Ain't sayin' where, but it doesn't satisfy like a rubber mallet.
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Maidy
I've never had problems with ants in Denver once I started dusting
my doorways with talcum powder. They don't seem to like to cross it,
and my cats avoid it. . .might be worth a try for you guys.
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phylp
Trad climber
Millbrae, CA
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There is something up with the ants this year. Over Memorial Day week, I saw a few solid lines of them in the middle of a couple of routes in the Owen's River gorge!
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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I've heard people in Colorado dust the edges of their decks with talcum powder to keep the racoons off as well.
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 3, 2013 - 08:52pm PT
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We actually use diatomaceous earth to keep them at bay.. works pretty well.. similar to the talc. I think it clogs up their little respiratory systems. Ants no like and doesn't kill your pets.
I actually broke down and called an exterminator for the first time in my life last week.. not because of the ants.. because of the f*#king giant cockroaches that had completely taken over the back yard. We had a sewage line break under the laundry room 2 years ago and now we've got roaches. Citric acid's no good on them.. they are feasting on my grapefruits every night.
I can tolerate the ants.. there's actually a method to their madness.. Huge damn roaches invading from the yard.. I proclaim the chemical warfare is on. Let the napalming begin. I've run out of patience with eco-freindly alternatives.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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I'd say I'd volunteer to smoke them roaches, but that would be false advertising, because I'm not really an Exterminator but I am a qualified, certified and certifiable volunteer instigator.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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We've had big invasions by the Argentine illegal immigrants at the shop in the past.
The Combat brand gel slow acting bait seems to be the most effective solution. Don't put any other poison or spray out and let them take it all back home.
Since the Argentinians are effectively one gigantic hive from Baja to Monterrey, you will never get completely rid of them, only control them.
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Dr. Christ
Mountain climber
State of Mine
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fuk the poison... use diatomaceous earth... tis mechanical, not chemical. Might fuk up your lungs if you breath it... just don't breath it.
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