[RadiantRatties]

My house is absolutely infested with ants. I am stomping on them left and right and there is no end to them. I don't know why they're everywhere or what to do. I obviously would not spray raid on my rats, but if I sprayed it around the edges of the rooms in my house would my rats be safe? How about my cat and fish?

 

[Rattenstein]

According to them, you need to remove pets and children before spraying and keep them out of the room for a couple hours so it can dry and open a window to ventilate.
Ants hate vinegar, you can spray that around safely first and see if that works- kill them with the vinegar and spray vinegar where they're walking and any entrances you can see. That Terro ant killer is good too if you can keep the cat away from it.

 

[Mene]

Or you can sprinkle food grade diomataceous (sp) earth around...it'll work and it's safe. Just don't get it wet or it won't work. I would sprinkle that around the perimeter and use vinegar to clean.

 

[Phantom]

You can use baking soda for ants. You can also use ant traps and place them on the sides of some of the walls that the ants are crawling up on. This way your ratties can't get to the bait, and the ants will bring the bait back to their queen.

 

[Tao.and.Laughter]

Pah to ant traps - Those things I blew ridiculous amounts of money on and they didn't work for me at all :-/ I'm in a townhouse and we're suffering ants as well (last summer there weren't any, I don't know why we've suddenly gotten them). I sprayed Raid around the outside of the door and walls where we could best guess them coming in from, but I had no idea about the vinegar - Apple cider? White? Diluted or straight?

 

[Rattenstein]

I use straight white vinegar, spray it and the ants RUN from it. They HATE it. It also kills them if you spray it on them, but they'll flee from the stench alone, and even after the smell wears off for us humans, they can still smell it and will avoid the area it was sprayed.

 

[Fu-Inle]

You should also find out where they are coming from and block the holes.

 

[Rat Daddy]

Ant traps (bait stations) do work, but some brands work way better than others... I can't recall which ones worked and which ones didn't. And yes, some brands were useless, maybe it depends on the size and type of ants you have as to which type works? Same thing is true of live catch mouse traps, some work gang busters others are just ugly decorations and they all pretty much look alike and do the same thing.

 

[Dan203]

I've always found it best to get the granules and sprinkle them around the outside of the house. It's not as instant as raid, but it's more effective long term.