FL Residents Help!
 

Any advice from my fellow Floridians on those pesky sweet ants (little red ants)? We get them everywhere & don't leave anything out, even toothpaste. Even get this problem when on vacation. Anyone found a product that works really well? I must tell you I hate critters & these are getting on my nerves! Any help? Sorry to post here, but if you know of another website/message borad that could answer this question, the address would be greatly appreciated!

They are back!!! They were all over the place im my house. Summer is here!. What we have found that works best is a mixture of water, sugar, and Borax. You mix this into a paste in a heated saucepan then pour it into something. I use old yogurt caps. Put then around the house where the ants are. Then they are gone within a few days. I don't have the exact recipe here with me at work but I will put it up tonight.

Don't laugh at me but......draw a line of chalk in front of the door entrances. For some reason the ants won't cross it. Another thing is to sprinkle red pepper flakes at all the door entrances, again, they won't cross it. My Uncle lives in Bradenton and does this and it seems to work for him. When I visited and saw the chalk lines I asked about it. He told me his real estate agent told him to do this when he bought the house. Good luck!

The cure: A product called Ant-Kil (I think it only has one "L" anyway). It comes in a small bottle and you only leave out a few drops where you see the ants. The sugar ants love it, and will immediately start sipping it up. The good news: they take it back and share it with all their friends! Sometimes it's hard to find, but I have seen it before at both Winn-Dixie and Publix.

Thanks for the help so far! I will definitely try some of these & hopefully the ants will head out. I recently moved here from Arizona and not happy about all these critters!

Just be thankful that it's the little red ants and not Fire Ants. "pesky little critters" is not the term you'd use to describe them!

True! Fire ants in our garden is my next mission after these sweet ants!

One word for fire ants. Amdro.<BR><BR>I'm going to look for Ant Kil for the sugar ants, thanks! This is the first year we've had them and what a nuisance. Now...anyone got anything for Black Racers? :&gt;

Leave the black racers, rat snakes, golden orb spiders, lizards and geckos alone. They'll take care of their fair share of rats, mice, roaches and flying insects. <BR>

Live and let live, but not in our patio where two have taken up residence. The local Mockingbird agrees. It has attacked the snake twice in the last 3 days. Last time the snake took shelter under a potted bougainvillea for protection from the crazy bird. <BR><BR>And what the heck kind of snake which our non Englsh speaking maid can only tell me is yellow and when I ask her the size, she puts her two index fingers and thumbs together to indicate the width, is living outside our front door??

If it's all yellow, it's probably just a yellow rat snake. They're harmless, but can get nasty if you try to catch them.

No worries there! They are *that* big?

We just chased a small copperhead out of our Orlando screen room, and they're very agrressive. I'll take the black racers anyday!

From what I've just read, I'm not so sure I want to move to Florida! My husband just got a job transfer for us to move from Nashville to Orlando & I can handle the small critters, but I don't know about snakes. Yikes! I'm deathly afraid of them & we just bought a home with a pool there & I was so looking forward to working out in the yard & enjoying the pool. Someone please give me some comforting words. I do love Florida, but don't want snakes around. How can one avoid them?

It greatly depends on where you live. We have no snakes and none of the little red ants (thank you, Mr. Extrminator). We do have a few, not a lot, of the fire ants. Only major problem is lots of black widows and a handful of brown recluses. But if you don't go where they go, it's not a big deal.

If you live in an area that has been developed for awhile, you're ok. If it has recently been built up (a large portion of Florida) then you have a better chance of "experiencing wildlife". When they tear down the woods next door, the critters have to go somewhere!

My folks live in St. Petersburg and their neighborhood is a well matained 30 year old type spot. They gets lots of ants and those palmetto bugs and if you have fruit trees then there is the rat problem that no one speaks of. Every once in a while you will see a snake but nothing that would hurt you. I think having the house treated monthly is the way to go. Mom wraps all her foods up tight and stores her crackers and such in the refrigerator and vacuums every night to rid the ant population. Nice weather brings bugs. We here in Seattle have no problems with bugs. The rain drowns them all.

Hey, Judy. Wish you'd posted earlier. Just paid a lot for extermination of those hideous teeny ants. But they are so annoying and into everything!<BR><BR>And Janice - if you hate snakes, wait til you move to Orlando and see the alligators! I live in Gainesville and the yard man just killed a rattler next door - a 20 year old established neighborhood with lots of dogs, cats and kids and still we have rattle snakes. I have a couple little green snakes in my yard - and occasionally the rat problem as well with heavy rain or bad drought. Nature - it's gross!!!! But we just can't seem to get away from it.