Ant traps, depending on the design and principle of operation, can be both quite effective and completely useless means. At the same time, almost nothing depends on their price and modern design - their effectiveness is determined primarily by the principle of operation.
And in this regard, a homemade trap made of plastic covers can be more effective than imported funds for several hundred rubles.
Trap principle
All traps from ants in the apartment are aimed at the destruction of insects penetrating into them. All these tools can be divided into several types:
- traps in which the insect is attracted by the smell and, reaching the bait, smeared in a poisoned powder or liquid. In the future, the ant returns to the nest, where it scatters poison or poison itself, trying to clear itself.As a result, he dies not immediately, but after some time, ideally after penetrating the nest. There the poison will destroy other individuals, including the uterus. Such traps for domestic ants are most effective, and they can also be made independently.
- Bait with a poison, called traps just because they are in special plastic packaging to protect pets. The bait ants willingly bear in the colony to feed her uterus. These devices are also very effective.
- Traps in which insects die - with stickies, with electrical discharge or too strong poison. Despite the obvious effect against ants such traps are less effective, since the destruction of working foraging individuals will have almost no effect on the life of the colony.
The purpose of the fight against ants - the destruction of the uterus (or queens) in the colony. Without it, the working ants very quickly die out. If the uterus remains to live, foragers will be constantly selected from the anthill to search for food.
Accordingly, the goal of any effective trap is to force a working ant to be carried to the nest of poison.
On a note
The main charm of the action of such delayed-action traps is that in order to destroy an anthill with them, it is not at all necessary to know where it is located. Working ants are well aware of this, and the task is to entice them into a trap.
Therefore, before you buy traps for ants, it is necessary to understand well how the purchased product works. If it's just a sticky tape in a package or a house with an insecticide that will kill an insect on the spot, it’s better to refrain from buying.
On a note
All insecticides used in modern traps are of low risk to humans and domestic animals. Only when eating large quantities - more than a teaspoon at a time - are allergic reactions and vomiting possible. But in traps usually even for the whole package there is no such amount of poison.
In any case, traps do not give an instant effect., and even with their maximum use, the ants will disappear from the apartment at best in a few weeks.
In order to get the result from the traps, you need to be able to apply them correctly.
Trap Rules
The ant trap is somewhat similar to an expensive restaurant in Moscow: the main three rules for its effectiveness are location, location, and once again its location.
Indeed, the trap, located where the ants run most often, alone can help to destroy all the ants in the room. But even a few dozen of funds, placed at random, but just not interfered under their feet, will be a waste of money.
The best places to install traps in the apartment are as follows:
- ant paths - they are clearly visible with an abundance of insects in the room. Ants usually move along routes marked with a smell, and on paths line up in whole rows. The trap must be placed either directly on the path, or as close as possible to it, so that the insects smell the bait.
- The joints of the floor and walls, baseboards and the edges of linoleum - usually here are microscopic holes, which are the gateway to the world of pests.
- Space behind kitchen furniture, rarely cleaned and easily dusty.
- Floors in storerooms and on insulated loggias.
- The walls bordering the front or garbage disposal.
- Ventilation shafts.
Of course, each dwelling is unique, and the place of movement of ants, as well as the location of their nests, can be completely unpredictable.There are cases of insect settlement in the system units of computers and jacket pockets in cabinets.
Here, the better the hostess knows her apartment and the more observant she is, the more opportunities she has to properly place the means of exterminating insects.
Important!
Ant traps are almost useless for use in the garden or in the garden. Even if it is possible to destroy with their help one anthill, the total extermination of a large number of them (taking into account the fact that ants inhabit the open ground that never come to the surface) is impossible.
All traps need to be checked with a certain regularity. It is desirable - at least once every two weeks. From one insects can completely endure the whole poison, in others the active substance dries out, in the third the number of dead ants becomes so great that they cover the insecticide itself.
If, when checking, it becomes apparent that the trap is no longer working, it should be replaced.
Ant traps can be bought, or you can do it yourself. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages, and both with the right approach will be effective.Today there is a whole list of the most popular traps designed specifically for fighting ants, affordable and reliable.
Pitfall Combat Superattack
The Kombat trap of ants is a Korean-made tool. According to the manufacturer, it will help to clean the house of ants in three months. When tested in real conditions, ants disappear within 4-5 weeks.
An important advantage of the ant trap is Combat Superattack - safety for animals and children: Hydromethylnon as an active ingredient is inaccessible neither by fingers nor by tongue.
Buy traps for Combat ants can be one by one or in bulk from 4 pieces per pack. In the first case, the price will be about 150 per one item, in the second case - about 450 rubles for four traps.
Feedback
“I used to hound ants in a house for about three months. Pencils all sorts of boric acid. In reality, they only became smaller after buying Kombat ant traps. A week later, they began to come across much less frequently, and a month later they met only one in the bathroom. It turned out even faster than the manufacturer promised. ”
Tatyana, Ryazan
Pitfalls Raptor
Raptor cockroach traps are also quite effective against ants; they are often sold in combination with aerosol insecticides and gels from the same manufacturer.Very effective, because in the best traditions of traps focused on the spread the ants themselves in the anthill.
Feedback
“I bought a Raptor kit. It had two traps and a spray can. The spray was not even useful: I put traps near the cracks in the waiting room, from which the ants climbed, and a week later they disappeared. ”
Oksana, Lviv
Raid traps
Raid - the most ineffective ant traps, although the easiest to buy them. They are designed to fight cockroaches and are focused on the destruction of the insect that ate the bait.
It is very difficult for ants to carry pieces of such bait in an anthill, and the Raid trap nests have practically no effect on the life of the nest. From other domestic insects such traps are effective only against cockroaches.
DIY traps: what and how they are made
A very effective analogue of import traps can be made by hand from available means. The basis of them is borax or boric acid.
- Boric acid mixed with other ingredients to get bait. In a separate article on our site are recipes for such mixtures (see. "Ants in the apartment").Ready lures are packaged in matchbox covers and laid out in places of encounters with ants.
- Pure boric acid or borax is poured on a special saucer or in a simple plastic lid so as to completely cover the bottom, and honey or jam is dripped in the middle. The ants who get to the sweetness, get smeared in the poison and take it to the anthill.
In the manufacture of baits, it is important to properly withstand the amount of poison in the recipe. At the same time, an ant trap for yourself will always be cheaper than what you bought on the market.
And it should always be remembered that ant traps, even the most effective ones, do not give quick results. If you need to remove pests here and now and at the same time know the location of the nest, it is more rational to use insecticides in the form of aerosols.
Preparation of poison bait for ants based on boric acid
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I do not know how with the ants, and the Combat destroyed the cockroaches perfectly. A couple of weeks - and not a single creature left.
Thank you for the wonderful and sensible explanation. We live in a private house, there were ants. They tried to bring out the Great Warrior gel - after about a week they were almost not visible, but then they appeared in huge quantities, penetrating into plastic bags with products. When living in the Arctic in Vorkuta in a city apartment the same disaster was cockroaches. No "Masha" and powders did not help.But the Kombat traps VERY QUICKLY saved us from these creatures. We fastened them (on the trap body there was a special velcro for fixing) under the bathtub at the baseboard, under the sink and behind the hob. Literally in 2-3 days, they almost disappeared, and a week later they were not at all! And suddenly, thanks to your article, we learn that there are similar “Kombat” traps from ants. Will seek! Thank you very much for such large-scale information!