ANTS!!! Attacking my buckets.

[CanadianBacon]

Went to check on my buckets fermenting and i found ants climbing all over the side. I have tried, to kill em all, clean up the trails they leave, mop, spray with just about everthing, Commet.... I need tips on keeping them out, There is an ant infestation in town and i live by a forest. Killing the nest is a no go since they have massive collonies in the forest. I would end up spending hundreds of dollers.

Can ants ruin my beer??

 

[Luis]

As far as I understood your fermentation buckets are on the floor. If they get inside of your buckets there is a possibility of infection.
I think you can use a swamp cooler filled with water so the ants don't reach your buckets (I hope it helps).

 

[Hello]

I'd use a swamp cooler for sure.

 

[CanadianBacon]

As far as I understood your fermentation buckets are on the floor. If they get inside of your buckets there is a possibility of infection.
I think you can use a swamp cooler filled with water so the ants don't reach your buckets (I hope it helps).

Actually they were on tables. I have made some things from around the house to hold soapy water and put them under the buckets for now. They are only an inch high but they should do till i can go to wallmart and get buckets to put them in. I have also dropped cinnamon at the bottom of each table leg, I will stick double sided take on each leg tomorrow am to to trap some that get past it. I cant belive they found away in my house. I must find out how.

 

[Calichusetts]

I'd so some serious spraying around the house. They come out in spring looking for food/water. Spray every doorframe/window with an ant killer, spray along all your floors where they meet the walls.

Consider borax as a cheap alternative as well. Extremely effective. I've lined the outside of my house with amazing results. You could literally build a mound around your buckets and have no worries.

Swamp cooler/fermentation chamber seem like the right move for now.

 

[pumpkinman2012]

If i'm not mistaken, pesticides are banned in Canada, if so, Borax is the way to go, if not, i'd nuke the perimeter of your house with a fairly strong insecticide.

 

[CanadianBacon]

I'm thinking of the pesticide way as well at this point. If they come back i am heading right to wall mart and getting tho's big jug sprayers. I have been using natural stuff around the house with no avail. I will bomb the basement and exterior and interior corners and doors. Beeter spend the 30 $ then losing 40 gallons of stuff.

 

[flars]

Try a cardboard ring around your fermentors. Coat the ring with vaseline. The vaseline may be sticky enough to hold the ants in place.

 

[MaxStout]

Could there be a little spilled wort on the sides of the fermenter that is attracting them in the first place? Maybe wipe down the bucket with a wet cloth to removed the sweet stuff. Then do like the others suggested and place the bucket in a swamp cooler. It doesn't have to be filled deep, just enough water to create a moat around your fermenter.

 

[DrunkleJon]

Borax will work wonders. If you can find any baits those work pretty well too though take a little while. Be fastidious with cleaning up sweet spills and crumbs and they often will go away on their own.

Some people put sweet stuff outside their houses to keep the ants from coming indoors. I kind of doubt this works though.

Ants are not great swimmers, putting the buckets in a tray of some sort with enough water to cover the bottom should work just as well as a swamp cooler, though the swamp cooler will aid in themperature control. Wiping down the chemical trails with ammonia or vinegar or something else like that should help as well.

Lastly, you should start carding them. I have not seen an 18/21 year old ant yet. You do not want to get in trouble for contributing to miners (they live in the ground, a pun get it?), now do you?

 

[Barley_Bob]

You can sprinkle Tarro around your house or in the cracks around your windows/doors. That works pretty well. And ants have a limited distance they can travel to get to a food source. It probably varies by species, but I want to say it's like 100ft? If memory serves, that at least applies to the odorous house ant. So, you don't have to nuke the entire forest so much as find the nests close to your house. I always get ants in the spring, and that's how I approach the problem - sprinkle tarro around the house outside and inside the house at entry points, and then I target the nests I can find.

Also...

 

[DarthCitra]

Build a moat!!!!

 

[Smellyglove]

What about double sided tape around the fermentor? I've read threads about ants and worms today, the fermenting world as we know it is coming to an end.

 

[bleme]

Every year I spray the outside perimeter of my house, a couple inches from the ground, with Spectracide Bug Stop Home Barriers. That has always worked pretty well.

Last year was particularly bad so I spread Spectracide Triazicide on my lawn as well. I'm not sure if it helped or not.

This year I have added something new, mostly to get rid of the roaches that are showing up on the back porch, but it should help with ants too. I mixed 1 cup of powdered sugar with 1 cup of Borax and spooned it into the cracks in my concrete. It seems to be working so far. For about 3 weeks I would see a bunch of dead roaches scattered around the patio in the morning. By the time I got home from work they would be gone. From what I understand, the Borax shouldn't harm the birds that I assume ate them.

 

[flars]

I should have mentioned this in my first reply post. We have bark mulch around our house with landscape rocks. Each year I go around the house and turn over the smaller rocks. This is where the ants like to build nests. I'll dust under the rocks with ant poison. The ant nests are mainly at the front of the house. In the front I pull back the mulch and dust the entire length, then replace the mulch. No more ants until the next spring.