Ants Invaded My Boat

I discovered a highway of ants navigating in both direction across Big Duck's galley counter. I traced them back to a hose that I had used earlier, which now rested against the sheer. The ants were coming up the hose to get on the boat and into the galley.

I have several different kinds of ant traps in various places already, but the ants didn't seem interested in any of them.

The first inclination is to kill all ants in sight. I had been doing just this in the shop by dousing an occasional visitor with denatured alcohol from a spray bottle. It's very satisfying to see the mist stop them dead in their tracks. I was tempted to do this with the ants on the boat, but I got to thinking...killing a few ants, or even a couple hundred, isn't going to solve the problem. I needed to take out the nest.

I had recently used some of those yard granules to get rid of bugs and had liberally applied them around the boat. The granules had been effective at eliminating all the other bugs so I ruled out a retreat of the same stuff. I needed to try something different. I looked for some 'dual bait' traps that had worked in the past, but they weren't available in any of the stores. I'd have to try something else.

I brought home a small bottle of Terro Ant Killer with Borax. It's liquid in a bottle - you apply drops where-ever you want. I put a couple drops on the galley ant highway and was surprised to see the ants collecting/feeding at the drops.

There's bait in that black container in the upper left corner that had been there all along, but was not at all popular with the ants.

But they loved the Terro!

Twenty four hours later, the ants had completely consumed all the Terro that I had put in several different locations, but they continued to parade across the counter, interested in food from other places. One of these places was a plastic trash bag with something they liked in it. I could see them carrying away tiny scraps in their mouths.

Fighting the impulse to wipe them out with the alcohol spray, I decided to wait/watch another couple days, leaving everything in place. I'd see if the greedy feeders had taken the bait back to the nest.

And sure enough, on day four, the ants were all gone. There was a straggler or two roaming about (maybe left over scouts), but the highway on the counter was gone, the hose was no longer being used for access and there was no sign of activity at the plastic trash bag.

So it would seem the yard granules won't rid you of these tiny black ants, but Terro will, if you have the patience.