Since we have had all the rain in the past week I am being overrun buy little ants on my kitchen counters. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get rid of them? I have sprayed them with orange oil but all that just kills the ones it hits and an hour later they are back in masses.

I've had the same thing happen this week--they're fast little things, and I'll lift a damp towel or wash cloth and find a whole bunch of them underneath.

I've gone over the counter top and cleaned it completely, and I need to move the microwave to pick up crumbs under there as well, and then I'll bring in the can of Soil Mender Crawling Insect Killer. It's that really fine grained diatomaceous earth that Howard talks about all of the time. The straw goes into the top of the can and then you puff a very light dusting of it out in the areas where you've seen the ants. I dust it right along where the countertop meets the wall, and that's all I need to do. They don't like to cross it and though you have the dusty look for a while (I leave it out for a couple of weeks to get any stragglers) it really does a very good job. And there is no chemical to bother you, your pets, or any of the household and cooking activities that take place on those countertops.

You can use the other diaomaceous earrth (not the pool stuff, but the other gardening types) as well, they're not quite as fine, but ants don't like any of it. The refillable puff can is just the easiest way to distribute a really fine layer of the dust.

Back in the 70s I had excellent results with the following recipe:

Mix this goo together and smear some onto a piece of cardboard along the ants' trail. It can take awhile for the ants to realize there is some excellent food up there for them but they will. Once they do they will be attracted to it and ignore everything else. It has to be the yeast that kills them but I'm not sure how. My theory is that they return the yeast to their nests and there the yeast "infects" or contaminates the rest of their food supply killing them. Once they found the goo it took them several days to clean it up. I reapplied (dripped in my goo) before they forgot where it was. After the second app I noticed there were fewer and fewer ants visiting. Eventually they all disappeared. I'd guess it took two full weeks, but I didn't have an any problem after that.

That's a slow kind of messy way to kill them. I think the DE also kills them, but for whatever reason, they don't want to cross it, so simply spritzing the powder around is enough to get rid of them.

I agree it was slow and messy. It was a lot messier than I anticipated but I would not hesitate to do it again.

On Friday evening I ate a can of kippered snacks, and neglected to wash and stash the can in my recycling bin. The oil attracted tons of ants from out of nowhere to my countertop. Saturday morning I washed the can with soap to disarm it and then attacked the ants. I wiped up as many as possible but they were still everywhere. I brought the DE puffer in and puffed at the spot where I thought they were coming in and put a very light dusting of it on the counter top and the tile backsplash around it. I haven't seen another ant since. In a couple of days I'll wipe up most of the light dust (you have to look to see it) and I'll leave the dust near the entrance point. That's out of sight anyway.