Spraying for ants, safe?

We are noticing more ants coming into the house and are considering getting someone out to spray the outside of the house, or whatever else you would do to prevent ants from coming in.

I'm sure people here must have some experience with this. Is it safe to spray outside with two snakes inside the house? If they suggest treatment inside the house, is there anything we should do the keep the snakes safe? Any precautions we should take or certain chemical/pesticides to avoid using? Housing the animals at a friend/family members house is probably out of the question.

I did try a search which came up with a few instances of people having their apartments/houses bombed for bugs, but I couldn't find much on standard outside treatments/baseboard spraying.

I've found that Terro bait works great at controlling ants. If you know where they're coming in from outside you can put the bait there. Otherwise put it where they travel in the house.

The bait works because the drones carry it back to the queen and feed it to her, which kills the queen.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

I've found that Terro bait works great at controlling ants. If you know where they're coming in from outside you can put the bait there. Otherwise put it where they travel in the house.

The bait works because the drones carry it back to the queen and feed it to her, which kills the queen.

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Terro is great. I've used it indoors and out and it wipes out the whole colony in a couple days.

Please do not spray. I have heard stories of snakes dying. Get the terro bait.

Please don't spray. I had the windows open a couple inches in my viv room when my village sprayed for insects. The snakes by the window were all dead (6) when I got home. Several more were dead within the week. The vet couldn't do anything because it was diffused throughout their system. I threw out everything in my vivs: plants, vines, cork, wood.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bcr229

I've found that Terro bait works great at controlling ants. If you know where they're coming in from outside you can put the bait there. Otherwise put it where they travel in the house.

The bait works because the drones carry it back to the queen and feed it to her, which kills the queen.

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Never heard of this stuff. That's awesome. I'm getting some and putting around my house lol. I always see those little red and black ants all over in the summer time. Little buggers.

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Originally Posted by DLena

Please don't spray. I had the windows open a couple inches in my viv room when my village sprayed for insects. The snakes by the window were all dead (6) when I got home. Several more were dead within the week. The vet couldn't do anything because it was diffused throughout their system. I threw out everything in my vivs: plants, vines, cork, wood.

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Isn't that a bit different to spraying the foundation of a home? A truck driving around blasting the air with pesticides would be different right? I'm definitely leaning towards caution but the house would be closed off for a few days during and after. Ant bait has never worked for us in the past.


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If you're set on spraying then I would get some Permethrin-10 and mix it at the same concentration used for snake mite spray (6 ml per gallon) in one of those 4-5 gallon hand-pump spray containers that you just carry around. Close the windows and apply the spray to your foundation. It's not a true aerosol so it shouldn't waft into the house, and it will dry quickly. Once it's dried it's no more dangerous to your snake than snake mite spray would be even if you were to take him out in the yard and he happened to crawl through it.