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Ants make for small but unwelcome houseguests, trailing into kitchens and bathrooms in search of food and moisture during spring and summer. There are hundreds of species, and most are completely harmless, if a little smelly. “In all of the country, the most common house-invading ant is the odorous house ant,” says Dr. Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann of Cornell University’s New York State Integrated Pest Management Program. “And it is odorous — they’re pungent if you crush them.”
Common ants are easily dealt with using store-bought ant killers. In many cases, it’s possible to get rid of them without poison. “For a quick little ant attack in the early spring, if you clean up the area with regular detergents, you’ll disrupt the pheromone trails the ants lay as they move,” says Ralph Citarella Jr., a board-certified entomologist and the president of Bayonne Exterminating Company. “They’ll get sick and tired of getting lost and potentially abandon it.” To prevent ants from entering your home in the first place, “sealing the structure to prevent ant access is important,” says Patricia Hottel, a board-certified entomologist and the technical manager at Terminix. “Practicing good sanitation, keeping trees and brush trimmed and not touching the building, and water management are all important in reducing conditions favorable to ants.”
Infestations do happen, though, which is where ant killers come in handy. Not all are created equal, and there’s a certain trick to making them work effectively. I spoke to entomologists, pest-control specialists, and fellow Strategist staffers about which ones to use and how. While you’re here, we’ve also consulted the experts and found the most effective tick repellent, the best mosquito repellents, and the best bug zappers.
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Method
While it’s tempting to attack ants with a spray can, all of the experts I spoke with said that doing so is basically pointless. This is because ants live in large colonies, and “you can’t kill a colony of ants unless you kill the queen,” says Gangloff-Kaufmann. And unfortunately, “some species have multiple queens in the same colony.” Instead of trying to kill hundreds of ants one by one, baits are the way to go. These use foodlike scents to trick ants into carrying poison back to the nest.
In order to work, baits have to be very low toxicity, adds Alex Wild, curator of entomology for the University of Texas at Austin’s biodiversity collections. “You don’t want a very powerful poison because what happens is an ant encounters it and dies rather than going back to the colony,” he explains. “You need a weak poison that ants pick up, ingest, and carry back to their colony and then pass it around so it gets to the queen.” These toxins will build up slowly over the course of at least a week. So hang tight. Indeed, it’s normal for the ant problem to get worse before it gets better when using these products — because a good ant bait will draw a crowd at first.
Scent
Most ant baits lure ants by mimicking the smell and taste of their natural food source: honeydew. This sugary scent is mixed with a slow-acting poison, usually boric acid.
If a certain brand of bait isn’t working, it’s possible that your ants don’t have a sweet tooth and are craving oils or protein instead of sugar. As Gangloff-Kaufmann explains, “Ant preferences change throughout the year — so even professionals who do pest control have to do trial and error to figure out what the ants are taking.” A good solution, says Citarella, is to lay out a number of both sweet- and savory-smelling baits, then watch and see which ones your ants are most attracted to: “Once you know which they’re feeding on, double down on it.” While our best-overall ant killer contains a sweet-smelling attractant, I’ve included a few other scent options in the list below.
Consistency
Some ant killers come in granular form, but the experts I spoke with said you should be looking to buy them as liquids, pastes, or gels. This is because ants are naturally drawn to moisture, especially during the warmer months. It’s best to house liquid bait in a covered bait station to prevent it from drying out.
Best overall ant killer
Method: Covered bait station | Scent: Sweet | Consistency: Liquid
Considered classics for a reason, Terro’s all-in-one bait stations are a Strategist-staffer favorite, being used by senior editor Jen Trolio and writer Lauren Ro to control ant outbreaks in their kitchens. They take a little while to work but are fully capable of killing entire colonies by luring worker ants with a sweet scent that mimics their natural food source. Place the stations around your infested area, then be patient. The ants will not start dying immediately, and that’s a good thing. As Hottel notes, “It’s important to have a level of insecticidal ingredient that will not kill the ants too fast. You want the bait to have time to be shared and dispersed within colony members for more effective kill.”
Best adhesive ant killer
Method: Covered, adhesive bait station | Scent: Sweet | Consistency: Liquid
Here are those same Terro bates but housed in plastic containers that can be stuck onto trickier surfaces like ceilings and doors. One note: Because the stations are opaque, you’ll have to pay closer attention to see whether your ants are actually feeding from them. If the baits are being left untouched, check out the suggestion below.
Best multiple bait station
Method: Covered, adhesive bait station | Scent: Sweet and protein | Consistency: Liquid and paste
As with humans, ants aren’t always hungry for the same thing. “Some times of the year, they’re looking for protein; some times of year, they’re looking for carbohydrates; and sometimes they’re looking for lipids and fats,” says Citarella. Unfortunately, this means that one day your reliable, tried-and-true ant-killing method “might just stop working.” To prevent that from happening, he recommends a product like this that has two different bait matrices in the same station. As a bonus, the protein bait also kills cockroaches and silverfish.
Best ant killer syringe
Method: Syringe bait | Scent: Sweet | Consistency: Gel
A syringe filled with bait paste like this one is another way you can target small and hard-to-reach areas where ants might be gathering. If you’re not putting the gel into a covered bait station, suggests Gangloff-Kaufmann, you might squeeze some into a little piece of a drinking straw. This will help keep it from drying out.
Best DIY ant killer
Method: DIY bait | Scent: Optional | Consistency: Powder
If you’re looking to cut costs or simply experiment with different attractants other than the sugar or protein scents above, try mixing up your own ant bait using moist human food and a small amount of boric-acid powder. If your ants are hungry for whatever food you’re using, the bait should have a similar impact to those above. “Boric acid works slowly — you’ll see ants for a little while — but it works,” says Gangloff-Kaufmann.
Best fire ant killer
Method: Mound treatment | Scent: No attracting scent | Consistency: Liquid
“Fire ants are a stinging ant that’s a problem in yards,” says Gangloff-Kaufmann. “They’re invasive, and their populations grow pretty quickly.” As above, you’ll want to attack fire ants as a colony, ideally by targeting their queen and larvae. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to spot a fire-ant mound and pour liquid into it, and “there are phenomenal products on the market that deal with the mounds directly,” says Citarella. This one has almost 10,000 five-star ratings from Amazon reviewers and has been our recommended fire-ant killer since 2019.
Best carpenter ant killer
Method: Pesticide spray | Scent: No attracting scent | Consistency: Liquid
Wood-chewing carpenter ants “can actually do damage to the wooden framing of a house,” says Citarella. Fortunately, they’re fairly easy to deal with and will consume the recommended baits above. As an additional precaution, they’re also “fairly susceptible” to traditional ant-killing sprays like this one.
All of the experts I spoke with emphasized that it’s worth checking for general water damage in your home because that’s what probably attracted your new ant friends in the first place. “A carpenter infestation is a reliable indicator that you have a moisture leak in your structure,” Citarella adds. Think of them as an alarm bell: Unlike termites, “for the most part, they’ll take already damaged wood and make it worse,” says Wild. “You already have a problem.”
Our experts
• Ralph Citarella Jr., board-certified entomologist and president of Bayonne Exterminating Company
• Dr. Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann, Cornell University’s New York State Integrated Pest Management Program
• Patricia Hottel, board-certified entomologist and technical manager at Terminix
• Lauren Ro, Strategist writer
• Jen Trolio, Strategist senior editor
• Alex Wild, curator of entomology for the University of Texas at Austin’s biodiversity collections
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