Ant Baits Do Not Work

As a professional licensed exterminator, I often get the call to eliminate ants in a home or business. When I get there I will see these little "Ant Hotels" and the customer will say, "we tried these but they don't seem to work."

Ants will be walking right on by the bait station ignoring it.

The problem is the freshness of the bait. Ants are amazingly intelligent, and especially sensitive to taking anything back to the colony that could hurt it.

When I store my bait in the same location as my pesticide, they will not take the bait. The ants are so sensitive that if there is any sense of a chemical that is not right associated with that bait station, they pass.

So grocery stores and box stores will put pesticide and bait right in the same isle along with herbicides like 2,4-d which we smell when we walk into the isle. If we can smell it, then it has definitely effected the ant hotel. I know that seems hard to believe, but it is the truth.

If you buy a spider barrier product and spray the ants first, then put in the hotels, again, they will not work. If you purchase a bait that has been on the shelf for two years, the effectiveness is greatly reduced.

My bait smells so sweet it's almost sickly sweet when it comes out of the container. The ants pick it up almost as quickly as it hits the ground. That is what you should be seeing.

It takes fresh bait, and fresh bait is very effective. So do not purchase Ant Bait from a store that has it in the same area as the pesticides and herbicides. Your best bet is to purchase it from an online direct wholesaler that only deals in bait and has product that was recently manufactured.

When using Ant Bait Granular, more is not better. For some reason pouring out a pile will actually turn them off from the bait. Small scattered amounts spread out over their foraging route works best.
Always follow label instructions.

As a way to stop ants, baits actually are the best, but it takes time. You have to be patient and allow the ants to still scurry about your kitchen or bathroom area as they work on taking the bait back to the nest. Then you need to wait a few days for the nest to be fed and for the chemical to take effect. If you don't have that patience, you are back to spraying. But when you spray you are only killing a few foragers and scouts, not the main nest. Which means with the next hatchlings you'll have ants again.

So the best thing to do is bait and be patient for it to work. So long as you know your bait is good.

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