At TERRO®, we're swooning over all there is to love about ant control products that get the job done. For better or worse, knocking out an ant invasion is a "love-bait" relationship, and with a little patience and understanding, this relationship has all the makings of a happy ending.
Baiting Inside the Home
Want to know how to bait ants? The solution is simple: you need to be armed with effective ant bait. Kiss unwanted ants goodbye for good, by using TERRO® Liquid Ant Bait. This bait is formulated to quickly attract ants, which means you're initially going to see more ants – a lot more – when you place the bait in areas where ants have been spotted.
As ant foragers search for food, they are drawn to the sweet liquid ant bait and consume it in large quantities. Then, they head back to the nest to share the tasty (but lethal) bait with the rest of the colony and queen. As they travel back to the colony, the ants leave behind a 'pheromone trail' that lets all the other worker ants know where to find the tasty food supply. This explains why, at first, you will see more ants when using TERRO® liquid ant baits.
Killing the Entire Colony
You have now reached the point where it's going to take some patience to make this 'love-bait' relationship work. Here's why – borax, the active ingredient in the TERRO® ant bait, interferes with the ant's digestive system, slowly killing them. This slow kill is needed to allow time for the foraging ants to make several round trips to the bait and deliver enough back to the nest to eliminate the entire colony.
Will my Ants like the Bait?
I bet by now you are thinking, will my ants like the bait? Good news! Many common household ants love our TERRO® Liquid Ant Bait. The sweetness in the bait allows sweet eating ants and many others to take some and pass it around to the colony. These ants include the following:
- Acrobat ants
- Allegheny ants
- Argentine ants
- Big headed ants
- Cornfield ants
- Crazy ants
- Ghost ants
- Little black ants
- Odorous house ants
- Pavement ants
- Pyramid ants
- Thief ants
- White footed ants
- Other sweet eating ants (except fire ants, pharaoh ants, carpenter ants, and harvester ants)
Every relationship has its low moments and quick fixes. But TERRO® is in it for the long haul with its "Bait, Wait and Eliminate" method of ant control. Baiting ants takes some time to get to the heart of the matter, but in the end, bidding a fond farewell to an ant invasion is a labor of love.
Didn't we say this relationship would have a happy ending?
Getting rid of ants is a ‘love-bait’ relationship. See video above to learn how a simple 3-step process - Bait, Wait, Eliminate - works to eliminate ants for good.
Do you have any other questions about baiting or killing ants inside or even outside? Let us know when you visit TERRO® on Facebook. Learn more about ants in our insect library, too. For more on fighting pests or to receive exclusive updates on TERRO® products, subscribe to our eNewsletter.
