Home Improvement → Ants in metal frount door.

I am using Raid Bug Barrier too rid of the ants along their path to the door but I need something better. Maybe something that is like a paste that will stick to some of the areas. We think that the ants have made a nest in the fiber fill in the door. The raid does not stick enough to have the ants carry it into the door. We can see where the ants ar going in and it is obvious that they are though out the door.

Any ides?

Ants like either sweet or grease. Borax laundry detergent mixed with sugar and also mixed with peanut butter. They carry the borax mix back to the colony, eat it, and all die. Even though it may appear that the Borax has been fully liquified during the recipe process, the ants will eat the sweet or greasy Borax, yet they can't digest it, hence the toes up results. It's a very old and very effective method you can deploy two ways - something like coffee can lids filled with the mix, or a spray bottle of liquified sugar and Borax.
The very simple recipes are at google.

As an added bonus, you can use the remainder of the $6 a box Borax in your laundry.

Not that you asked, but, with two grandchildren roaming our nest, I've become sensitive to not leaving toxic trails around. I discovered that rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle kills many pest insects. It's not quite as effective as a retail insecticide, but I can sleep easier knowing the kids aren't walking in poison. The alcohol evaporates so quickly that over spray should all but disappear. I recall a neighbor's small dog chewing on a towel with retail insecticide over spray on it. The dog barely survived.

it sounds more like you have termites that would explain why they are making a nest in your door, instead of making a nest underground like normal ants...

I found some ant-jel and I think that it will do. I was looking for a paste that would stick to a vertical surface.

Could be carpenter ants! I had to replace most of a French door frame a few years back because those little black bastards ate a lot of it. No underground nests for them. They might like the fiber fill in the door as much as wood frame fiber. If it's not fiberglas, it may be an organic fiber that they're after.

combat ant gel works great for sweet eating ants. It sticks anywhere.
»www.amazon.com/Combat-An ··· 00BQT5IG

You can mix it with peanut butter if they are in the protein phase not sweets. I've had great success with the Combat gel.

I never trusted how long a bug killer spray last, traps send ants running.

I never trust those traps. I can't see if they are actually eating the bait and if so how much.

What kind of ants? It matters.

Small brown.

I always use Terro gel on ants. Works great.

Soon to be dead ants !

»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ph ··· raoh_ant

They like protein more so than sugars and saps. 9/10 traps don't do crap to them.

The Problem is solved. I had sprayed Raid Bug Barrier all along the route the ants were taking to get to the ground and I had a contractor come over to look at it because the trim {doorstop?} for the door was wet or had been wet and a couple years ago he had to tear out a window, replace the window after tearing out all the studs around the window as they were dry rotted. He took everything out down to the drywall and glued and screwed it all back together and put a new window in. What started this was ants that farmed the dry rot areas, so I was concerned about the front door. He removed the door and with a short piece of 2x4 beat it with a hammer and then sprayed Raid Bug Barrier in every crack and crevice very heavily. Spaying the path the ants used to get to the ground and ant gel fixed the problem. The day after the contractor left my wife started to count the dead ants on the foyer floor. After separating seven piles of forty she decided that there were hundreds. We had a few show up for the next few days but less each day. The first day the ant gel disappeared but after the second days ant gel is still there.

Now, some weeks later there is no evidence of ants. They were inside my metal front door.

What would work well for something like that is also the dry powder that you puff into the spaces. It clings to them and between insecticidal properties and the cutting effect of the main portion of the product (which dehydrates).

Realistically, pest control usually ends up being multiple layers of defense and control.