<p>My backyard flooded last night, bringing the ants indoors. I’ve got ant traps out but need a better (read: faster) way to eliminate the problem. Any tips?</p>
<p>Terro liquid is effective; it does take about a day. Buy it at Home Depot.</p>
<p>When I lived in Florida you had to go hardcore.
In California we have small bothersome ants. We use windex and some orange cleaning spray from the grocery store. Wife also used boric acid but i think that worked better on cockroaches when we were in houston</p>
<p>Thanks for the tips. The ants are the SoCal little explorer type. Haven’t had an ant problem in years. I’ll take a look at Terro.</p>
<p>do you know where they’re coming in? sometimes you can put down a layer of dishwashing liquid around the entry point and they go away.</p>
<p>Terro. Terro. Terro. The stuff is miraculous.</p>
<p>If you find the crack where they’re coming in, stuff some soap-soaked tissue paper into it.</p>
<p>Google borax and ants - that mixture works for me like magic.</p>
<p>Terro works – you want to get the liquid ant baits that come in the little clear plastic enclosed trays. (You do NOT want the liquid that comes in a bottle – its the same stuff, but messier to work with).</p>
<p>The ants will swarm all over the tray for about 2-3 days, and then they will all be dead. (Its really sweet and they carry the stuff back to their nest, and then they all die).</p>
<p>Because they all swarm, you end up with more ants at first, so you want to put the trays where the ants will find it, but preferably in a place that will lead them away from open areas of your house. (In other words, a corner behind a table is a lot better than out in the middle of your kitchen counter).</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I discovered that puppies also like to eat the stuff. Fortunately, it is, according the poison control, a very “mild” toxin and does not kill puppies or even make them noticeably sick – but you do have to put the ant bait out of the reach of pets.</p>
<p>When we had an ant problem our pest control guy gave us some gel stuff that you smeared across their “route”. I guess they take it back to their nest. It was very effective. Don’t know what it is called though…</p>
<p>not in SoCal, so I don’t know about those ants, but when the get in my kitchen, I use windex. Kills the active ants and seems to do enough to their chemical pathways that no new ones come in. Your jokes about My Big Fat Greek Wedding are welcome now.</p>
<p>Been battling ants for the past couple weeks. Windex does help keep them under control.
Dragonmom: every time I use it for the ants I think of the father in Big Fat Greek Wedding too and it makes me laugh out loud 
Anyway, I use it in conjunction with bait traps. It usually works within a few days.
I never seem to be able to find the point of entry when this “explosion” happens…</p>
<p>Thanks for the mention of Terro at Home Depot. I’ll also check it out.</p>
<p>You can make your own version of Terro by mixing borax powder with corn syrup. You leave dollops of it on pieces of thin cardboard, and the ants come to collect it. It felt weird to buy “20 Mule Team Borax” - something I remembered from commercials as a child - but the stuff really works.</p>