Spiders as pest control question.

[windscorpions1]

We may or may not have an ant problem at my house I don't think ant poison is a good idea because we have a cat and a dog so what PA spider will get rid of ants we have yellow sac spiders here and what looks like furrow orb weavers will those get rid of them?

 

[Tarantula155]

We may or may not have an ant problem at my house I don't think ant poison is a good idea because we have a cat and a dog so what PA spider will get rid of ants we have yellow sac spiders here and what looks like furrow orb weavers will those get rid of them?

Yellow sac spiders do not go after ants, at least they don't from experience. I'd recommend finding some Steatoda sp. They are fantastic at catching flies and ants.

It's not that orb weavers won't eat ants, it's the fact ants don't get in their webs. Unless they can fly(male ants) or are thrown in the web. Most orb weavers are too big to go after small ants anyways.

 

[windscorpions1]

Where would I find a these spiders from the Steatoda genus?

 

[Smokehound714]

if you have an ant infestation, your only real option is manual eradication.

the best course of action is to blast the ac at night, to lower the temp and then go through your home and eradicate them.

if you have ts or scorps, move them to a warm location, first.

 

[Tarantula155]

I find most of the Steatoda sp genus in houses believe it or not. Your best bet, is indoors.

 

[Ciphor]

No spider will slow down or stop ants.

Believe it or not something you can do yourself that really works; cinnamon. Cinnamon causes severe asphyxiation on ants and they will avoid it like a plague. If it sounds silly just put some cinnamon on your hand and cup it over your mouth, then try and breathe. Its 10x worse for ants and bugs.

Find out where the ants are coming from and put a little cinnamon in the spot. Keep doing this till you see no more ants. They will mark the entries that have cinnamon with pheromones warding other ants to stay away. After you have stopped seeing ants for a couple weeks you can clean up the cinnamon and let the ants own warnings work against them. This isn't foolproof, but I've had some pretty good success with it.

Long term, check your seals on windows, doors, etc. Stop them from coming in permanently. Pesticides and everything else is only temporary and you will be burdened every year with ants and bugs unless you address the root of the problem.

 

[Tarantula155]

If it sounds silly just put some cinnamon on your hand and cup it over your mouth, then try and breathe. Its 10x worse for ants and bugs.
.

LOL:laugh:

No thanks!

 

[The Snark]

I posted this the other day. I've been sprinkling powdered laundry detergent around the perimeter of our house. It deters ants and kills vegetation. Doesn't seem to bother mammals. I have no idea what effect it would have on spiders but they are pretty resistant to alkali.

 

[windscorpions1]

Thanks for the suggestions but if we do have ants they are most likely pharaoh ants which are harder to get rid of than regular ants. They were all through the dog food that was bought new from walmart. Could the bag have been infested? There was a line of ants where we keep the food. It is good to know that no spider really hunts ants too.

 

[Ciphor]

Thanks for the suggestions but if we do have ants they are most likely pharaoh ants which are harder to get rid of than regular ants. They were all through the dog food that was bought new from walmart. Could the bag have been infested? There was a line of ants where we keep the food. It is good to know that no spider really hunts ants too.

I didn't say no spider hunts ants. Some specialize in it, most avoid them, their a risky meal and contain formic acid.

I was simply saying it would be a fruitless endeavor; ants are to numerous for a few spiders to slow down.

It doesn't matter what type of ant it is. Cinnamon causes severe asphyxiation with all of them, and they all use pheromones to ward other ants of danger.

I highly doubt a bag of dog food would be infested with ants but anything is possible I guess. You said there was a line? did you follow it and see where it was going?

 

[windscorpions1]

I didn't say no spider hunts ants. Some specialize in it, most avoid them, their a risky meal and contain formic acid.

I was simply saying it would be a fruitless endeavor; ants are to numerous for a few spiders to slow down.

It doesn't matter what type of ant it is. Cinnamon causes severe asphyxiation with all of them, and they all use pheromones to ward other ants of danger.

I highly doubt a bag of dog food would be infested with ants but anything is possible I guess. You said there was a line? did you follow it and see where it was going?

No I did not see where they went in at but there was a hole In the wall there so we figured from there.

 

[The Snark]

Thanks for the suggestions but if we do have ants they are most likely pharaoh ants which are harder to get rid of than regular ants. They were all through the dog food that was bought new from walmart. Could the bag have been infested? There was a line of ants where we keep the food. It is good to know that no spider really hunts ants too.

Unless you find a colony complete with eggs the ants are your own and came to the feast you laid out. Ours periodically invade the dog food, but on a random basis.

 

[windscorpions1]

*UPDATE* Ok I have good news and bad news. Good news is that they are not pharaoh ants they are sugar ants. Bad news is we have found more of them. This time they were all through the cats food bowl. I washed out the cats food bowl then I put cloves in places that the pets can't reach them. ( ants aren't supposed to like cloves) I also put cinnamon outside around the house. They only seem to be on one side of the house I don't know if that means something or not but please keep the suggestions coming. I also want to says thanks to the people who answered the question I had about the spiders and the people giving me suggestions on how to get rid of the ants. We may have to resort to ant poison though if the problem bats worse (we would put the ant poison in places the pets can't get in).