Rain has driven Fire Ants into my house!

[Complexity]

So my daughter looks down last night and notices ants in the house. A trail of fire ants with many large ones traveling from one side of the room to another along the border where the carpet and tile meet.

I try to follow the trail to figure out where they're coming and going, and before long, I discover they are ALL OVER the house! There are numerous trails in almost every room!

Spraying poison isn't an option so I decided to try to control them by offering them some candy to eat along two of their trails, hoping that they would congregate around the candy and stop traveling all over the house. Needless to say, sleeping last night wasn't much fun as I envisioned the ants crawling up and biting me.

This morning, the ants are still traveling all through the house, and not one ant appears to be interested in the candy! I think a mound is trying to relocate because of all the rain, and their trails are going through our house instead of outside.

I'm honestly not sure what to do. If they're not interested in eating candy, I don't think I can get them to take bait. I don't want to spray poison everywhere for obvious reasons. And if we put down poison outside the house, we're concerned we may end up trapping them inside the house. We may try to vacuum them up to at least reduce their numbers, but fire ants are known to split their mound if their scavengers are killed. If I can figure out where they are getting into the house, then I could stop them there, but they're traveling in so many trails, I can't figure out where their point of entry is.

Has anyone else ever had something like this happen before? Any ideas of what I should do? They're freaking me out.

[ddaquaria]

You may want to look at the spraying option again. We had issues with the really small sugar ants coming in during the summer. I finally bought a spray and got around all the tanks, and in several of the cabinets as well as the kitchen. After a day, I wiped down the cabinets and kitchen areas, and have not seen the ants since. I have dogs as well as fish, and I kept the dogs out of the room I was spraying until the stuff dried.

[danielp]

Find some granular Spectracide from lowes or home depot.

The ants are getting in to the house from the outside. Walk the perimeter of the slab and you should see a nest against the slab. I've seen them come in around the dryer vent.

Once found treat the mound and they should go away. This has always workwed for me. If not you may have to call an exterminator.

[ddaquaria]

Oops, forgot to mention that part... yes, I sprayed around the outside perimeter of the house also.

[danielp]

Spray is good for the inside as well as the outside.

I like the granular because it's carried back to the queen she eats it and dies and the rest of the mound goes away.

[tbui1178]

I hate ants!

[Complexity]

The numbers of ants in the trails seems to be dwindling so I'm hoping they're just passing through. If I could figure out where the mound is (or is being moved to), I can then bait them. But they are disinterested in food right now which leads me to believe they are trying to move their mound.

I'm going to have my husband get some bait anyway in the hopes that I can eventually figure out where their mound is.

I've seen fire ants travel like this outside my house, but never inside! If they ever got inside, they were limited to a very small area and easily controlled. This is freakish how they've made several trails throughout my house.

[Nickintex]

Terro Liquid ant bait. I had an infestation of carpenter ants in my apartment last year post Ike and that stuff worked. Do not bother with the other kind of bait trays, those things are a joke!
You can get it at Lowes. You may see MORE ants than ever before for a day or two before they all vanish.

[youtube]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/FP8AsEDkNZI&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/FP8AsEDkNZI&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/youtube]

[Complexity]

I looked all over the Terro website, but they do not list fire ants as one of the ants their baits control. What I have in my house is the worst ant there is: Red Imported Fire Ant. The only baits that can offer any control is specifically designed for fire ants.

The number of ants continue to dwindle, but I still can't tell where they're getting in or where they're going out (I hope they're going back out!). It's really odd that they don't want to eat the candy I put out for them. I've never had that happen before. It's making it very hard to figure out where they're coming and going.

[mahoro]

get some chocolates and make ur self some chocolate covered ants

[Complexity]

[Delock]

Are they going into walls? If so are they interior or exterior walls?

[Complexity]

They don't appear to be going into the walls. It's weird. They're just on the floor in trails, generally following some kind of border (the side of a rug, next to the baseboard, etc.). I think some may be going underneath the carpet, but it's hard to tell.

You know how you can usually follow a trail of ants to see them go into a wall or crack or whatever? That's what I can't seem to do this time. I see the ants and they are traveling in trails (although, there are few going all over), but I can't find a beginning or end to it all.

Going inside the walls is one of my big concerns which is why I don't want to start spraying poison around the parameter of the house. I could end up trapping them inside if I'm not careful.

I sent my husband to get ant baits, and he came home with a variety of them, but none specifically state fire ants. So he's going to try Lowes or Home Depot to see what else he can find. I'll set up the baits inside the house, and we can spread regular bait outside.

My hope is that baiting them will kill them off no matter where they are, inside or outside of the house.

But, sheesh, are these things a nuisance! I have never seen fire ants (or any kind of ant) literally travel through a house like this.