Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Ants and pest control

We have had MAJOR ant problems at our house for the last month or so. We tried baking soda, vinegar, vacuuming and sweeping constantly and nothing had worked so we finally resorted to calling a professional exterminator.
Luckily, there was a organic option (rosemary oil) that they were able to use and so far so good. The ants have virtually disappeared.
We used Sonoma Valley Pest Control (a local business) which had the organic rosemary option for spraying. It was 75.00 more than the "not so eco friendly" treatment cost but it seemed worth it. Especially if it works. We will see......
Another company that we looked into but wasn't able to come out as fast as we needed them to is bio-pest (bio-pest.com) which also uses the least toxic methods for pest extermination and also claims to use only cars in their fleet that get 35 mph or better. There website is interesting if you want to take a look.
I will keep you posted on our success with the rosemary treatment.

5 comments:

jellybeanmichelle said...

Please kept us informed. We have a major ant problem too. I've tried all of those things too. I finally had to resort to some Raid that we had in the house. It worked some, but I still have ants.

Jennifer Krug said...

Thanks Emily. They come and go around here, but at times it has been pretty bad, so I will keep those resources in mind.

jellybeanmichelle said...

Like I said, I sprayed. Well, these ants are smart. They have now decided to come in behind the wine tower we have in the kitchen. I would have to pull everything off to move the thing and get to the ants. I give up!!! I hope the oil works!

Eco-Mom said...

We just went through a battle, too. I found that they HATE lavender. I use a lavender dish soap and noticed their aversion. The battle was days long and I will admit to spraying a couple times. Luckily I found an any killer Terro (in orange can) that has a straw attachment much like WD-40 does, so when I do resort to spraying, at least I know it's just in the cracks I am aiming for. I only spray when the battle has lasted 3 or more days and oly in the entry and exit points in the walls. Thanks for the tip on rosemary!

Emily said...

Well, its been 10 days and we have more ants than ever. Ugh!
I was hoping to report good news. However I got a good tip from the exterminator who said that tree limbs touching the house can be a major cause of ant problems. They crawl from tree limb to roof to inside the house. We will be doing some MAJOR pruning needless to say.

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