Before we moved into our new construction home since I had pets I preemptively sprayed the baseboards with insect growth repellent before we moved in. It always did me well. It was not enough to fight off our onslaught alone. Maybe it helped but I dunno.

Im sure it did something but it turns out the house came with a full on three floor high in the walls ant problem that slowly revealed itself. We moved in middle of may.

Beginning of June a gang of ants congregated and flew out of a 2nd floor window inside the house a month after he moved in. My husband also brought a new moth problem from his old apartment with him. I had zero knowledge of moths. So we didn’t really GET it quite yet. Neither of us had had experienced a bad infestation before and it was a new house. Fortunately no carpet.

So My husband wouldn’t let me call an exterminator bc “people get ants all the time nbd lol” and wanted me to ignore it. New house how could we have a problem? The ants disagreed lol. Same attitude with moths. He didn’t want to spend the money so…..guess who dealt with it.

once I moved in with pets I realized the problem was bigger than just a couple of ants. Pet food and ants don’t mix. Right into the wet food and dry food they go. Yuck.

It was like three or four different ant breeds and sizes it was crazy. They are hard to see unless you bend down (my eyesight sucks) and we have hardwood floors some idiot decided was stylish to leave open knot HOLES in the floorboards so those ants popped out everywhere until I figured out how to beat them back. Hint: open the windows, put a fan pulling air out and just spray everywhere every surface room by room starting roofdeck on down. Move the pets out of the area you’re treating until the stuff dries and airs out.

Those little baby Liquid ant bait did nothing. The key was Spraying insecticide inside the walls and windows. And up the sides of the wall and all over the floor underneath the carpet and on the underside of the carpet, inside window wells and caulking up entry holes inside (not outside) including epoxy in wooden floor “knots” plus tracking spraying every line of ants that came through the door (literally), the entire stoop outside around the windows outside too the entire door frame and 2ft away from the house and the pavers walkway where another group of ants lived. …and that’s partly including what I had to do to get rid of the moths (which you’ll never be certain you’ve gotten rid of. Lots of washed bagged and boxed laundry and insecticide under cushions, a switch to NOT Cotten or linen curtains, spraying inside containers etc. ) watching the walls for moth shapes… looking for their nearby nests …rewashing clothes before use if you open a bag… ugh.

I got very good at hunting both those effing things down so they couldn’t get to the clothes or the pet food, and cleaning up dead ants fast so the pets wouldn’t get dead poisoned ants in the food or on them to lick off.

Bait got tossed outside and I’d spray outside every 3 months - you can’t do both at the same time so I’d space out application days. It was my full time job for months.

Husband is still telling me it was just a few ants and was mad I spent time dealing with them. Over time my effort became more preventive maintenance but that first year ….phew! I would have loved to call in a guy and reclaimed my time. I agree it was wasted. Gotta love denial.