What can do about tiny bugs crawling around on my counter?

There is a product from RAID, that lets the worker ants deliver poisoned food to the queen.

I have never used it.

I bought Ortho Home Defense spray at a hardware store and have find it gets ride of ants. I’ve also heard that sugar ants are very problematic.

I have RAID but I’m a little concerned about spraying it on kitchen counters. May have to at some point.

@janbb The one RAID that I mentioned isn’t a spray but a container that contains poison that the workers bring to the queen. Should be safe for humans.

Wipe down your countertops with vinegar. It won’t kill them immediately; however, within a few days it kills their ability to find the route they’ve been using to go in & out. They will simply stop using that area as long as there are no crumbs. Spray vinegar around your outside doors. This stops them from wanting to enter. Between the countertop & doors, they should be gone within a few days. Spraying around the doors also repels spiders & other creepy crawlies

@RedDeerGuy1 thanks. I’ve put down ant traps before but I’m not sure these guys operate on the same principle.

You may have already done this, but google “how to get rid of sugar ants”.

Ant baits do the trick safely. They’re self-contained and you just set them out near where you see them. It kills the colony.

Well, I put down vinegar and I did have one ant trap in the basement so I put that on the backsplash. I’ll get some more. Thanks.

@RedDeerGuy1 I’ve used those before. There is a trick to using them: Bait them. They are supposed to attract the ants and as they wander through the trap they get the poison on them and take it back to the nest. I put them out and found they did nothing…until I put a drop of maple syrup on the top of it. The next thing I knew the entire nest was dead.

I’d suggest buying an anteater.

I like the anteater idea.

UCI – Anteater, anteater, zot, zot, zot!

I say one ant is a plague. Be merciless.

But squishing them? (Shudder) All those little anty-bodies. No, no.

I think the main thing is to find out where they’re coming in.

If you can examine your kitchen windows from outside, look for crevices and cracks that might be passageways in. Or just spray your RAID around the windows (while closed) from the outside. Maybe even do them one at a time and see if that stops the incoming, so you’ll know which one is the source.

When we built an addition onto our house, we unwittingly laid it directly over what must have been the capital city of Antdom. They made sure we suffered for it. But I did fight them every way I knew how, especially with ant sticks and traps, avoiding spray poisons. I think we finally won, but I still react like it’s a catastrophe if I see just one on a window frame or counter. Action!

@Jeruba These are just minuscule sugar ants and imminently squishible.

omg…Jeruba reminded me of when my niece was 5 and was visiting my (then)husband and I. We walked out onto the wooden deck and she was walking around and stepping hard every now and then. We asked her what she was doing and she proudly said, “Stompin’ ants!” She showed us the bottom of her feet and they had black spots all over. We had very large black ants outside. 8^O

Edit – I meant to say eminently, imminently although they are that too.

I have what I call sink fleas in my bathroom sinks and tub. They seem to come from the drains. I call them fleas because they jump, not fly. They can float, but a little amount of Dawn seems to drown them. It also keeps their numbers down. Fortunately, they are seasonal critters and are no problem until summer and are gone by late fall. Hopes this is helpful.

We have an ant colony in our backyard. But we also have spider problem around the house. I think the spiders are catching the scout ants, so the ants are not able to figure out how to get into our house.

@RocketGuy

“But we also have spider problem around the house. I think the spiders are catching the scout ants, so the ants are not able to figure out how to get into our house.”

How is your free pest-control service a problem?

@RedDeerGuy1 and the others who suggested it. The stick on bait trap worked and the ants have marched away. Thanks for the suggestion!

@Brian1946 – spider webs everywhere! Haunted house-level cobwebs if we don’t regularly clean them off.

Do not squish them. Apparently the scent of the dead little ant bodies attracts more ants. I used food grade diatomaceous (sp?) earth, and a non-toxic for pets spray that I found on Amazon and that did the trick.

@Bill1939 You have springtails. Here’s the link explaining it (and the title is, “Do you have jumping bugs in your sink?”).

For ants, I’ve used peppermint oil with success. You just drizzle it on rags and leave those where the ants are, ideally where they come into the house. Ants do not like peppermint oil, but it doesn’t kill them. They’ll stay outside, where they’re doing important work for the ecosystem. I’m not an expert on sugar ants, but ants in general are useful because they aerate the soil, tend to decaying matter, aid in transporting seeds, and serve as prey for larger animals we enjoy (lizards, birds, toads…). Also, whenever we introduce poison into the environment, those toxins are going somewhere. The poisoned ants will die in the soil, or they’ll be eaten. Eventually, they’ll all make it into a larger organism. It’s not a stretch to say that this is contributing to the extinction of record numbers of species.

If you can find any cracks the ants are using to enter the house, sealing those with simple clay has worked well for me. I guess that’ll be hard since yours are so tiny.