Ahhhh Ants

[antproblems]

I live near Davis Square, and I've recently realized that I've got a carpenter ant problem - the little jerks came out of nowhere, and now they're exploring all over my apartment. They are not focused on any one area (no trail to follow), and they are concentrated in a few rooms (with crummy windows), so I think the nest may be outside. Any recommendations to go back to an ant-free existence?
Edit to add: I do have a cat, and would prefer not to poison her.

Comments

[nonelvis]

I had Best Pest in a few weeks ago to deal with those little jerks, and I haven't seen an ant since. FWIW, I have two cats, and the exterminator assured me they'd be fine; at the level of dilution they have to use for the spray poison, the cats would have to eat hundreds of ants to notice anything.

[keithn]

I used Terro to deal with carpenter ants a few months ago and it worked very well. There wasn't any food for them out in our house but they were still scouting anyway. For 2-3 days there were an insane number of carpenter ants at the bait stations taking the bait, but then they all just disappeared. My understanding is it has low toxicity for pets, but you could try placing it outside if that's where they are coming from to be extra safe. Keep in mind that if it's inside you have to live with the extra ants for a few days and let them live so they can take the bait back to their nest.

Pest control companies will in addition spray your foundation to prevent the ants from crawling into your home. You can buy some products that you can spray on the foundation yourself at hardware stores. You will probably need to have access to a garden hose and outdoor water supply to use them.

[3rdragon]

I haven't tried on carpenter ants, but I have always solved ant problems with a borax/sugar/water mixture (like so: http://www.mashupmom.com/yes-borax-got-rid-of-the-ants/). You wouldn't want your cat to eat it, but you ought to be able to set it up in a cardboard box with a small hole cut in the bottom edge, or something like that that she couldn't get into.

[nacht_musik]

This is the advice I was going to give.

[teko]

Same here. I tried ant traps with no success. Cotton balls soaked in borax/sugar/water got rid of them in just a few days.