Ants in my house

It was right around the May long weekend that I first noticed a few ants on a desk in the basement. So I squished the little dudes, Windex'd the desktop and vacuumed the carpet. Next day, a few more ants on the desk and a few on the coffee table. First step: Get rid of whatever is attracting them. Drips of sweet drinks on the table or floor, crumbs - I cleaned everything and wiped down the baseboards.

Second step: I found the trail. I know this sound hysterical, but - I marked each location where an ant was found to see if I could trace back where they came from. They live somewhere outside and are coming into the basement in search of food.

Next I placed drops of ant bait (killer) near the entry points. This is the stuff that comes in a little squeeze bottle and they say one drop will do.

The next morning I went ballistic! Ants all over the bait drops (fifteen drops too many?), tons of them. I was thinking, this bait is attracting even more ants than I had before. It totally creeped me out, so I cleaned up all the bait drops and killed as many ants as I could (squishing).

Next phase: With all entry points identified, attractants gone and a general cleaning done I sprinkled a little bit of Chemfree Insectigone (Indoor / Outdoor) Ant Killer along the baseboard where they were coming from. Insectigone is also a bait and killer.

Next day: Nothing. No ants. I'm not sure if it was the Insectigone, the cleaning or the original bait drops, but they're gone. Later in the month a few more showed up, so I traced their route back to an entry point (this time a crack in between the wall and floor of the basement). I cleaned the trails and dusted with Insectigone around the crack and it seemed to work. Success?!

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