"Terro" is formulated for sweet-feeding ants. You will have to identify the other type and obtain a bait aimed at them. I would have to refresh my memory but for some ants, one has got to choose a different bait depending upon the stage of development. I will try to post the relevant information after I have ascertained the facts.

Thank you for your reply!

The darn things are everywhere and I am not about to try and spray them. There are just too many and I don't want to contaminate my kitchen with poisons. What I like about Terro is that they take it back to their nest and die there.

jt

At www.bugclinic.com you will find useful information. ID the ant and then choose a gel formulation which contains either Abamectin (derived through a biological process) or Hydramethylnon (a synthetic product).
The determining factor is going to br whether the ants will take the bait. You have seen that they have turned up their antennae at 'Terro'.

What you want is to get those wee buggers out of your kitchen and just killing a few will not do that. They are there because one found a food and or moisture source so you need to look closely to determine what that might be. Using a cleaning product that contains real lemon juice (cannot be artificial, ants know the difference) or peppermint oil will repel them, ants do not like either one. Find where they enter your house and, after you have driven them out of the house (with either the lemon juice or peppermint oil), plug those entry points with a good caulk. The guy that wrote "Dances with Ants" says also to put an ant feeder outside with a mixture of water and molasses to draw them away from your house.
People that tell you to put various poisons out to kill ants are telling you to treat the symptom of a problem, not the problem.

kimmsr, that final statement of yours is true, with the rather important exception of products that are manufactured as baits. These end up being carried by the industrious ants to the primary nesting chambers and fed to the larvae and queens. There, they act as stomach or nervous system toxins, hormonal interrupters, or physical (by abrasion) killers.

Thanks again for your help. I bought some Grant's bait this morning. Says guaranteed to work on all ants on the box. The ants weren't attracted to it either. The good news is that there are far fewer this afternoon than there were 6 hours ago. Very small dark colored ants. I can't see them well enough to ID. Maybe tomorrow they will be gone. Will wait and see.

Please look for the active ingredient on the product and observe all the precautions.

I did quite a bit of research on this subject recently, as I get a conga line of ants to my kitchen and bathroom sinks for a few weeks every April.

It is worth trying to find out what kind of ants you've got, because if theyr'e carpenter ants, you then need to figure out whether they are nesting in the house, or coming in from an outside nest foraging or looking for water. If there is an internal nest, you want to try to track them back to it, as you'll want to fix any water damage. (Unlike termites, carpenter ants build only in rotting wood.) The most useful site I saw on dealing (or NOT dealing) with carpenter ants was http://unexco.com/carpants.html They advise you to not panic -- carpenter ants do not suddenly eat your whole house, and a lot of people will try to scare you into buying a monthly pest control plan. (Some, apparently, even mistake other ants for carpenter ants...)

In addition to repellents and baits, there are evidently other treatments, originally developed for use on termites, that are used on some ants. (I know they are used for carpenter ants, not sure about other species.) Evidently a lot of pros (I gather from chatter on a pest control site) swear by a combination of products called Phantom and Termidor, which need to be applied by licensed professionals. These are sprays that leave a residue that the ants walk through and take back to the nest, as they do with baits. They can't detect these poisons, though, and they are (like baits) slow-acting, so it is designed to wipe out the entire colony. Nota bene: I haven't used them, I'm not a pest control professional, I'm not recommending them, I'm just saying there is another method out there that is worth checking up on.

Another good resource for researching pest control issues is a message board of the Integrated Pest Control Network, http://www.ipconetwork.org/fmb/cboard.mv

Good luck with your ants.

The small ants were not attracted to the Grant's bait or the Terro, but disappeared anyways. The larger ones that were attracted to the Terro have not returned.

Guess problem is over!

Thanks for all the help.

We often get little ants in the kitchen when the warm weather starts. I have used ant baits with mixed results. This year I bought Grants & they didn't even look at the bait things. So I used Old Reliable--half & half 20 Mule Team Borax (laundry aisle of market)& sugar. Sprinkled where kit counter meets backsplash (the ant highway). Nailed em in two days.
Can't use this if you have pets that will lick the sugar, and can't use it on the floor if you have a crawling baby, etc. It's bad for more than ants.