Which of you miserable mob have moved ants on from your property today? The bastards are partying in every spare corner at our place, and they're about as popular as Korean missionaries. We found an entire colony - workers, young queens, soldiers - trooping across the front room floor earlier, and now a separate mob of flying ants are setting up an advance post on the mezzanine landing. Seriously, I sprayed the colonists and quarter-filled a dustpan with the carcasses.

What are you spraying with? I'd avoid the commercially available toxic insect killer sprays, if possible, although they are quick and easy and tempting. I'd spray the ants directly with a detergent/lemon/water spray and use boric acid/sugar traps just outside their entry points. Worst case, I would get the commercial ant baits which are toxic but not sprayed all over. Really nasty stuff in those sprays for you and especially your pets.

Soi Dog wrote:What are you spraying with? I'd avoid the commercially available toxic insect killer sprays, if possible, although they are quick and easy and tempting. I'd spray the ants directly with a detergent/lemon/water spray and use boric acid/sugar traps just outside their entry points. Worst case, I would get the commercial ant baits which are toxic but not sprayed all over. Really nasty stuff in those sprays for you and especially your pets.

Cheers, good advice. We try not to use any sprays as I'm asthmatic (although, rejoice, apparently not in Cambodia) and as you say, the indoor pets. I unleashed with a can of napalm spray today as desperate times call for napalm in the morning, thankfully it only seems to take a squirt once in a blue moon. Those flying ants on the landing are a new thing though, I'll give your spray mix a try if they're still with us by morning. In Oz this usually means rain in three days, is it the same here?

Actually, your cats may be a large part of your ant problem. Having lived in a mega city all my early life, I detested the thought of having geckos running about my rooms in SE Asia. I treated them like insects, until I realised the more often I saw a gecko in my room, the less often I saw any insect infestation. Common sense to most, but it hadn't occurred to me.

Your cats may be chasing away/killing any geckos they come across in your property (and birds, if you allow the cats out on your balcony), thus giving the ants safe haven. I suppose some of that is true for chemical sprays too. Geckos are highly susceptible to toxic sprays and would die if they ate insects killed by toxins and avoid sprayed places altogether.

Soi Dog wrote:Actually, your cats may be a large part of your ant problem. Having lived in a mega city all my early life, I detested the thought of having geckos running about my rooms in SE Asia. I treated them like insects, until I realised the more often I saw a gecko in my room, the less often I saw any insect infestation. Common sense to most, but it hadn't occurred to me.

Your cats may be chasing away/killing any geckos they come across in your property (and birds, if you allow the cats out on your balcony), thus giving the ants safe haven. I suppose some of that is true for chemical sprays too. Geckos are highly susceptible to toxic sprays and would die if they ate insects killed by toxins and avoid sprayed places altogether.

Good news, we have a decent population of geckos in the house, although a couple are regrowing tails. We have both the small and the large ones. The cat is just too darned lazy to give them much time, they've basically got to put a tail in his mouth before he'll bite down.

First, your "flying ants" may be termites, the Cambodians call them "me plien", they don't form nests or eat wood. I suspect that the ants are entering your home in anticipation of rain. Here in the country we have already had a strong storm. When it happens before rainy season, the Cambodians call it plien khai koh(wrong season rain).

taabarang wrote:First, your "flying ants" may be termites, the Cambodians call them "me plien", they don't form nests or eat wood. I suspect that the ants are entering your home in anticipation of rain. Here in the country we have already had a strong storm. When it happens before rainy season, the Cambodians call it plien khai koh(wrong season rain).

I suspect you're right, I remember looking at them and thinking they look more like desert termites than flying ants. Do these ones eat grass like the Oz outback ones? Either way, the napalm spray had the same effect.

I really don't have any more info except that I suspect they are perhaps immature. However, when whole nests of ants start looking for a new home and higher up it's a good sign they sense an impending rain.

We got those flying bastards nearly every good rain in s'ville. They're quite attracted to light as well, and master home invaders. They slip right through closed and screened windows.

One idea i had but never got around to testing was an exterior 'bait' lamp to draw them somewhere slightly away from the house itself.

OrangeDragon wrote:We got those flying bastards nearly every good rain in s'ville. They're quite attracted to light as well, and master home invaders. They slip right through closed and screened windows.

Yep, that's the ones.