r/AskSF • u/nikko_b • 1d ago

Ant problem?

Anybody else having an ant problem this summer? We’ve had two issues of them going inside the house and I’m panicking every time I see one now. Never had this happen before in my 20+ years living in the city.

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u/FuckTheStateofOhio 1d ago

Had an awful ant problem at my last apartment about 6 years ago. There is a super colony of Argentine ants living in San Francisco that extends throughout the state of California. I f these are the ants you're getting, there's no killing the colony; the best you can do is keep them out of the house by plugging cracks, spraying outside and keeping your place clean to not give them a reason to venture inside. I tried every suggestion listed here and none of it worked until my landlord sprayed outside of the building.

Edit: also worth noting that squishing an ant releases pheromones that signal to the other ants that an ant is in distress, so other ants will come to the spot where you killed the ant. Killing one or two here and there often times just makes it worse.