Ants are part of Ma Natures recycling machine so are a normal part of the world. Ants, however, do not belong in our houses and in some instances can be just pests while in others they indicate serious problems.

If the ants in the house are the small buggers looking for a food source, wandering around the kitchen say, a good cleaning and barriers of either lemon juice or peppermint oil (the real stuff, not the fake stuff) will deter them and those can be used to slowly move the ants back outside where something to attract them (a feeding station) needs to be set up to distract them from the house.

If the ants are big, black Carpenter Ants they may well indicate a serious problem in the house that needs to be investigated and corrected. Carpenter Ants prefer wet wood and wet wood in a house is not a good thing to have because that means there is a leak somewhere and that is destroying the structure.

kimmq is kimmsr

Good basic info.

I'd like to hear some personal experiences in dealing with sizable colonies of ants.

At the moment, what we're seeing is some sort of red ant colony that seems to be primarily quartered under some outdoor stone steps, which are heavy and seated into a hillside. Their main quarters are about 25 feet from the deck that runs along the south side of our house. They have a pathway between the stone steps and the 6x8 wood pillars of the deck; so they stream up and down the pillars. They are sometimes biting people's feet and legs when walking on the deck.

By far, the safest and most effective form of ant control would be baits. The ants work tirelessly to take the particles deep into the nest, where it is eventually fed to the larvae and the queen. Even large colonies can be controlled with a good bait.

Look for organic baits containing the active ingredient spinosad. Labeling should contain the words ant bait, organic, granules. You'll have to become a label reader because there are many brand names.

I use a spinosad bait in my vegetable garden when fireants appear. Read and follow the directions carefully; try not to disturb the ants when applying the product or they may simply desert the nest rather than feed on the bait. Granular ant baits don't work immediately but, when used properly, are extremely effective.

If your ants have a powerful little sting, then they might be European fire ants, which have been marching through BC and parts of Canada.