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Aug 11, 2023

The 3 Best Ant Killers of 2023

We don’t want ants in our homes, either. But if you try to kill household ants

We don't want ants in our homes, either. But if you try to kill household ants the wrong way, you can actually split the colony—and make the problem worse. That won't happen with Terro T300 Liquid Ant Baits, a favorite among homeowners because they’re simple to use, widely available, and filled with an effective, slow-acting poison that targets and eliminates the entire colony.

If you don't properly handle an infestation, you can split the colony and make the problem worse.

With the right traps in use, ants will pick up the poison and carry it back to the nest, doing the work for you.

The active ingredient in our recommended ant killer is borax—the same as in a classic laundry soap.

First, we’re sorry. Second, we have a way to fix that: Syngenta's Advion Fire Ant Bait.

Terro Liquid Ant Baits are effective, easy to use, widely available, relatively safe, and nearly unanimously recommended by homeowners. If they don't work, call a pro.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $10.

The active ingredient in Terro T300 Liquid Ant Baits is borax, a relatively safe compound that can even work as a laundry detergent. Borax has a long track record of success against indoor ants, and when mixed with a sweet, syrupy liquid, it creates an attractive meal for an ant. Unlike many competitors, Terro uses a clear bait station that is easy to monitor. Terro has a great reputation, with tons of positive reviews and excellent feedback on a variety of retailer sites. In our own small-scale testing, Terro was unquestionably the most effective ant bait we tried.

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Terro's T334 baits use the same successful toxin as the T300 version does, and they can mount on a vertical surface. Unfortunately, they cost more and are harder to monitor.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $7.

If the Terro T300 baits are not available, or if you’re looking for a more aesthetically pleasing ant-killing station, we recommend Terro T334 Multi-Surface Liquid Ant Baits. These small cartridges, the size and shape of a perfect skipping stone, are designed to blend in with their surroundings, with one side white and the other brown. They come with little adhesive strips for mounting to a vertical surface or even under an upper cabinet. This feature gives more options for placement and can help keep the bait station away from little curious hands or paws. The T334 baits contain the same sweet syrup as our main pick does, so their overall effectiveness should be identical. The downsides: The opaque bait station is nearly impossible to monitor, and the T334 baits are typically more than twice the cost of the T300 baits on a per-unit basis. These baits are nice to use, and we appreciate how they blend in, but in most cases our preference is to get as many bait stations as we can for the lowest cost, which makes it easier to stockpile baits so you have them when you need them.

Advion Fire Ant Bait can kill a fire ant colony within a couple of days, and you can spread it over a yard for seasonal management.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $42.

If you have fire ants (we’re so sorry), we recommend Syngenta's Advion Fire Ant Bait. This granular bait contains indoxacarb, which several experts told us is the fastest-acting and most effective ingredient for fire ant management. You can treat individual mounds with just a few tablespoons of Advion or spread it over your entire yard—the container has enough for an acre.

Terro Liquid Ant Baits are effective, easy to use, widely available, relatively safe, and nearly unanimously recommended by homeowners. If they don't work, call a pro.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $10.

Terro's T334 baits use the same successful toxin as the T300 version does, and they can mount on a vertical surface. Unfortunately, they cost more and are harder to monitor.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $7.

Advion Fire Ant Bait can kill a fire ant colony within a couple of days, and you can spread it over a yard for seasonal management.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $42.

To learn more about ants and how to deal with them, we spoke to a number of experts in pest control, including Robert Vander Meer, research leader of the USDA's Imported Fire Ant and Household Insects Research department in Gainesville, Florida. He has 42 years of experience and is one of the most credentialed sources anywhere in the field of ant control.

We spoke with Glen Ramsey, technical services senior manager for Rollins. He is an entomologist and provides technical expertise to services such as HomeTeam Pest Defense, Orkin, Trutech Wildlife Service, Waltham Pest Services, and Western Pest Services.

We spoke with Robert Puckett, an assistant professor and an extension entomologist for Texas A&M's Texas Imported Fire Ant Research and Management Project. He works with the Urban and Structural Entomology Program and has done international consulting work (such as in Australia) on the control of fire ants.

We also conducted multiple interviews with Stewart Clark, director of research for Terro, who has almost 40 years of experience in the ant industry, and we exchanged emails with Cisse Spragins, the founder, owner, and CEO of Rockwell Labs, which makes InTice and Maggie's Farm ant-control products.

Just one tiny ant can make the most glamorous kitchen feel like a dumpster. And fire ants can make your yard a venomous minefield that poses a serious health risk. Whichever ant problem you have, this guide is for anyone who wants to take a few simple steps before calling a professional.

If you spot a few ants indoors, don't buy anything just yet. "Ants are coming in for some reason," Rollins's Glen Ramsey said, and more often than not, that reason is food. "Typically, if you get rid of whatever they’re feeding on, the ants will go away." Wash your trash can out. Empty the cabinet under the sink. If that doesn't work, try a bait.

Our picks in this guide should work with regular household ants, including little black ants, odorous house ants, Argentine ants, acrobat ants, pharaoh ants, and white-footed ants. But if you have carpenter ants—you’d see wood shavings in conjunction with ant activity—call a pro. Time is not on your side in that case, as they are probably chewing on the structure of the house. Dealing with them is not easy, either, according to this Texas A&M FAQ: "It may be necessary to drill small holes in wall voids, baseboards, window and door sills to apply insecticides to the nest or major part of the colony, procedures best done by a professional pest management provider."

Ramsey cautioned that some ant problems are too big or too complex for a homeowner. By trying to deal with the ants yourself, "you could make it worse, you could make it better." If you put out ant bait and you’re still seeing ants after a week or two, something is going wrong in your treatment—there's an unknown food source, a hidden nest—and it's time to call a pro. Ramsey added, "If it keeps getting worse and worse, it gets more challenging for us, too."

There are a wide variety of ways to manage an ant problem, but all of the experts we spoke to steered us toward using baits. An ant bait contains a mixture of food and a slow-acting poison that worker ants—the ones you see out and about—collect and bring back to the colony to share. "You don't want to kill these ants," Terro's Stewart Clark said. "You want to put them to work for you."

Unlike other methods of ant control, such as kill-on-contact sprays or lawn-wide pesticide application, baits are specifically targeted at ants. The baits we like come in small containers, called bait stations, that have an entrance just the size of an ant. Many manufacturers also sell their bait in a syringe or tube (like toothpaste) so that you can apply it to a scrap of cardboard or directly on the floor near an ant trail, but like sprays and lawn-wide pesticides, this method increases the bait's potential exposure to non-targeted animals (or kids).

"You don't want to kill these ants … you want to put them to work for you." —Stewart Clark, director of research for Terro

We sought a bait that was effective and easy to use. Baits can work as quickly as within a few days or, for a large colony, a couple of weeks. We prefer clear bait stations, which make it easy to monitor ant activity and see if the bait is being used or if any ants are currently feeding. You can't do the same with opaque bait stations, so with those you’re left guessing about what's going on.

Sweet ant baits cast the widest net for attracting indoor ants. "Typically, the ones that would infest a home are sugar-feeding ants," Rollins's Glen Ramsey told us. Some baits are protein-based, and an ant's preference can depend both on the type of ant and the time of year: In the warmer months, a lot of ants "feed on high-sugar, high-carbohydrate things because they’re quick energy," Ramsey said. But in the winter months, they seek out proteins for "sustain[ing] energy for longer periods of time because there's less of that quick energy available."

Other control methods all have significant downsides. Kill-on-contact sprays do very little and can actually make your problem worse. Ramsey told us he would "never recommend" a kill-on-contact spray. "It's a Band-Aid to a problem. You’re killing the ones that may be there immediately, but there is no impact to a colony somewhere else," he said. Clark echoed this sentiment: "A lot of people have been trained over the years to go pick up a can of ant and roach spray and spray them … and that's what you don't want to do." Ramsey noted that some species, such as pharaoh ants, will split their colony if sprayed, "and you’ll spread the infestation around your house."

Putting a pesticide perimeter around your house is another option and one that Ramsey said can be effective, but only if you are sure the ants are coming from outside. Perimeter products are usually either baits or kill-on-contact dusts. We prefer using lower-impact, easy-to-use bait stations rather than spreading and maintaining a granule bait or kill-on-contact pesticide around your entire house.

In looking at ant-control products, we placed an emphasis on availability. It's smart to stockpile a small supply of ant baits to have on hand when you need them, but it doesn't always work like that, so we wanted to recommend products that you can find on the shelves of major big-box stores and nationwide retailers. If you see an ant on your kitchen island, you probably won't be interested in waiting a few days for a package to arrive before you start doing something about the invaders.

We also thought about safety. Most ant baits are somewhat tamperproof, but there is always the possibility of a pet or child getting into things and either exposing their skin to the bait or, worse, ingesting it. We sought out a toxin that is strong enough to wipe out an ant colony but at the same time is something that you can place around your house with confidence.

From location to location and species to species, many variables affect ant behavior, so we did not run any large-scale tests for efficacy. For that we relied on experts and published scientific data. We also considered customer feedback on various retail sites, seeking patterns of effectiveness; drawing on the wide-ranging experiences of people across the country gave us a sense of the overall worth of a bait.

As we were writing this guide, we set up a number of baits in two different houses where ants were spotted, knowing that our results would simply constitute one additional data point to consider. What we saw, though, was a single product standing far above the others. We also gathered information from a number of Wirecutter employees who have dealt with ants in the past and those who have used our recommendations.

Fire ants are different. They’re usually found only outside, they sting like hornets, and their mound colonies can take over a lawn. They’re extremely tenacious and invasive. In fact, if you live in any of the southern states that the USDA classifies as a "certain" fire ant region, there's no hope of being totally rid of them—you can only keep them at bay. And you should: USDA expert Robert Vander Meer told us that "the venom it will inject you with does have the same type of proteins you would associate with bee and wasp stings … and could result in anaphylactic shock or a very serious allergic reaction."

Fire ant bait typically comes as a granular corn grit mixed with soybean oil and a toxin. Usually you can spread a few tablespoons near an individual mound or spread the bait across an entire yard. Texas A&M's Robert Puckett explained his recommended approach: "In the fall of the year you make a broadcast application … and you reduce the population of ants as the winter comes on. Come spring, if you have some that make it through that process—typically you have very few—you can treat those individually."

Puckett also noted that spreading a fire ant bait across a lawn is very different from spreading a kill-on-contact pesticide. First, the amount you need for a fire ant bait to be successful is very small. To explain this, he said that with some products it's as little as "11 granules per square meter." This minimalist distribution combined with the exceptional foraging capabilities of fire ants makes it "unlikely that a bird or other non-target species would succumb to the effects of the toxin." He added, "We don't worry as much about non-target effects with those granular baits as we do with other treatment approaches."

Spreading a kill-on-contact pesticide across your lawn is another story. "Once that active ingredient is released," Puckett said, "there is going to be a long period of time during which it has to break down, and during that time if other non-target organisms come in contact with it, they can succumb to the active ingredient." Another method of treating a fire ant mound is to use a drench, which is a combination of pesticide and water that you pour directly onto the mound. Vander Meer explained, "Those two methods require large amounts of insecticide."

Terro Liquid Ant Baits are effective, easy to use, widely available, relatively safe, and nearly unanimously recommended by homeowners. If they don't work, call a pro.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $10.

Terro's T300 Liquid Ant Baits are easily the best we’ve used. For the active ingredient, Terro uses borax, which has proven successful against ants and is not as harmful to people and pets as some of the other pesticides out there. It's a sweet bait, which should attract most indoor ants, and the Terro bait station is clear plastic, so you can easily monitor ant activity and see how much bait is left—something we can't say for much of the competition. Of all the ant-control products we looked at, Terro has, by far, the most anecdotal evidence backing it up, with video reviews and customer feedback indicating that people use it successfully. During our own casual testing, we watched ants walk past two other borax-based baits and line up to feast on the Terro baits. Terro also has wide distribution and should be readily available at a moment's notice in a nearby big-box store or a local hardware store.

Terro kills ants with a 5.4% solution of borax (sodium tetraborate decahydrate). Stewart Clark, director of research for Terro, explained that once an ant ingests it, the toxin "stops their ability to digest and process food." Death is a slow process, giving the ants time to return to the colony to share the food with the young and ultimately the queen. Borax (and boric acid) have a well-known track record (PDF) against ants, and at least one study (PDF) used Terro specifically, concluding that it was one of "the four baits yielding the highest mortality." Borax is not unique to Terro, and other companies such as Rockwell Labs use it, as well.

But what appears to be unique to Terro—and what sets them apart—is the recipe for the sweet sauce they add to the borax to attract the ants. Ants seem to find it irresistible. Because it's a sweet liquid, it casts the widest net for attracting household ants, including little black ants, odorous house ants, Argentine ants, pharaoh ants, white-footed ants, and acrobat ants. That it's a liquid may offer other benefits, too: One study (PDF) determined that liquid baits have an advantage over gels because they "provide moisture and also exploit the natural feeding habits of honeydew-collecting ants." The study also indicates that boric acid (which is slightly different from borax) might disrupt the ants ability to regulate water, "causing the ants to ingest more of the bait to counterbalance dehydration."

Borax is a relatively safe chemical to have around the house. The EPA considers it to be "low in acute toxicity," and Terro's Clark explained that "the borax that's in the product is the same chemical compound as in 20 Mule Team Borax," which can be used for laundry detergent and household cleaning. There is anecdotal evidence that no lasting harm will come to a dog or cat that ingests some of the borax bait.

The Terro bait station is clear plastic (other than the label on the top) for easy monitoring of ant activity and the amount of remaining bait. With opaque bait stations such as our Terro runner-up and others from Combat, Pic, and Raid, monitoring is impossible; you can only sit there, hoping that there's bait left and that it's working. To activate the Terro bait station, you just break off the cap piece and set it down. It's very simple.

We’ve found a tremendous amount of anecdotal evidence surrounding the effectiveness of Terro, including a wide variety of positive video reviews that show success with Terro bait. Texas A&M's Puckett told us he hears about Terro "all the time." He added: "From what I understand, it's excellent and people really rely on it. I get a lot of feedback … people call me and tell me what works and I hear about this Terro bait." Compared with the competition, Terro's retailer feedback ratings are much higher.

We did our own little test as ants arrived in our kitchens. We set out Terro and two other borax-based baits at two different houses and watched as the ants walked right by the other two and lined up to feast on Terro. In one of the houses, there must have been 20 to 30 ants crawling over the Terro bait station. It was gross, but we’re not going to lie: It was also a little satisfying.

"We still haven't quite mentally gotten over the fact that seeing a swarm of ants march into the trap and then back out is actually a good thing that turns them into very effective poison vectors, rather than some sort of trap-defying jailbreak." —Wirecutter editor-in-chief Ben Frumin

In an informal survey of Wirecutter staffers, we heard a lot of positive feedback about Terro. Editor Joshua Lyon told us, "For two full weeks after we put [Terro baits] out, we had more and more ants coming in for it and then staggering around like drunk zombies, constantly wiping at their antennae, but now there are none." Senior editor Erica Ogg said, "In my opinion, they’re the only thing that works." She noted that her parents used Terro successfully for decades. Editor-in-chief Ben Frumin has also had success with Terro but said the idea of the bait station takes a little getting used to: "We still haven't quite mentally gotten over the fact that seeing a swarm of ants march into the trap and then back out is actually a good thing that turns them into very effective poison vectors, rather than some sort of trap-defying jailbreak." He also noted that proper placement is especially important if you have a robot vacuum roaming around, because they can knock into the bait stations and spill them.

The biggest downside to the Terro ant baits is that the bait itself is a liquid, so it can spill out of the bait station. Rollins's Glen Ramsey said that he takes this into account when choosing a bait for a specific location. "If I’m putting [the bait] down somewhere where my son may grab it and throw it around," he said, "I’m not going to get one that's full of liquid." Even just picking up a Terro bait station the wrong way will spill it. You can clean it up with hot water and a paper towel (it's like cleaning up maple syrup), and if you’re aware of where the ant opening is and you’re careful, spills should be rare.

Cleaning up a spill quickly is important because the bait can damage a wood floor. In our survey of Wirecutter staffers, we got a report of an unnoticed spill leaving a hazy area on a hardwood floor. So again, be careful if you have a robot vacuum.

Terro's T334 baits use the same successful toxin as the T300 version does, and they can mount on a vertical surface. Unfortunately, they cost more and are harder to monitor.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $7.

If Terro's T300 Liquid Ant Baits are not available, we recommend Terro T334 Multi-Surface Liquid Ant Baits. These baits contain the same sweet syrup and borax toxin as in our main pick, but the delivery system is a little different. Instead of offering a clear bait station, the T334 design is opaque, with one side white and the other brown. Each station comes with a little adhesive pad that allows you to mount it on a vertical surface, or even on the underside of an upper cabinet. The dual coloring and sticky pad make for an ant bait that can more easily fade into the background (as long as you have either white or brown decor). They also make it easier for you to mount the bait station higher up and out of reach of both children and pets.

But the T334 baits have some downsides compared with our main pick, the T300 baits. For one, the opaque bait station makes it nearly impossible to monitor how much bait remains, as well as what kind of ant activity is going on inside. Second, they’re usually more than twice the cost on a per-unit basis, typically $1.75 versus 80¢. The T334 baits are sold in packs of four, as opposed to the T300 baits, which come in packs of 12 and thus make it much easier to keep a supply on hand for future ant outbreaks.

Advion Fire Ant Bait can kill a fire ant colony within a couple of days, and you can spread it over a yard for seasonal management.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $42.

If you have fire ants, we recommend Syngenta's Advion Fire Ant Bait. Every fire ant expert we spoke to recommended indoxacarb, and that's the active ingredient here. As a fast-acting poison bait that you can apply to individual mounds or spread across your yard, it's the only product required for all your fire ant needs.

Texas A&M's Puckett said indoxacarb takes mere days to "wipe out a colony, where hydramethylnon [another leading active ingredient] is much slower, taking a matter of weeks in many cases to kill a colony." He told us that the first time he used indoxacarb, he "couldn't believe how fast it worked."

A number of studies have proven indoxacarb's unique combination of speed and efficacy. In one study (PDF), indoxacarb showed a faster effectiveness than the four active ingredients researchers tested it against, needing only six days to reach 100% control of the fire ant population. Other active ingredients were either slower (hydramethylnon reached 100% on day 12; fipronil, day 28) or simply never reached full control (lambda-cyhalothrin and bifenthrin). Another study (PDF) noted that indoxacarb "eliminated ant activity in over 90% of mounds within 9 days during the summer trial." Similar results can be found in a third study, from the Journal of Economic Entomology.

Advion, like most fire ant baits, is granular, composed of corn grit sprayed with a mixture of soybean oil and indoxacarb. You can use it to treat a single mound or to spread over your entire yard. Puckett generally recommends a yard-wide application in the fall and individual treatments in the spring and as needed. To treat an individual mound, just dump 4 tablespoons of Advion near the mound and the foraging ants will take care of the rest.

Indoxacarb is designated by the EPA (PDF) as a "reduced-risk" pesticide. The report states, "It has moderate to low acute and chronic toxicity and does not cause mutagenic, carcinogenic, developmental, or reproductive effects." Adding further to this generally low risk is the fact that it likely won't be on your lawn for very long: As Puckett explained, "If you’ve got fire ants, they are extraordinary in terms of their foraging efficiency, so they will find [the bait], they’ll take it back to their mound, we don't have to worry so much about non-target effects on non-target organisms." Still, you should remove kids and pets from the area during the application and keep them clear as you individually treat mounds.

Also consider that you won't be spreading a lot of bait. Advion's label states that 1.5 pounds treats an acre, so if your yard is 6000 sq feet, then you’re only broadcasting roughly 3.5-ounces of bait.

The drawbacks of Advion Fire Ant Bait are that it's not available in small amounts and that it's pricier than products made to target indoor nuisance ants. But as the USDA's Vander Meer told us, dealing with fire ants is "going to be a continuous event." If you’re in fire ant territory, they’re just going to keep coming back. "If you treat your yard and get rid of the fire ants and your neighbors don't," Vander Meer explained, "then the fire ants from your neighbor's yard are going to migrate into the vacated space."

Advion Fire Ant Bait comes in a 2-pound container, which is more than enough to treat an acre. Individual mounds require about 4 tablespoons, so depending on the severity of your ant problemy, you may have some (or quite a bit) left over. Further complicating matters is the fact that, over time, the soybean oil will go rancid, and fire ants will no longer be attracted to the bait. Puckett's recommendation is to buy no more than you can use in a season: "Don't stockpile it because it's on sale." An Advion representative told us that the bait should have a shelf life of five years if kept sealed. We’re inclined to go with Puckett's recommendation, but if you do store it for an extended period of time, we suggest keeping a close eye on its effectiveness and being prepared to purchase more if it goes bad.

Diatomaceous earth is a fine powder made of fossilized algae. It's a popular insect remedy because it's harmless to people. It's not ideal for a home ant infestation because it needs to be spread along the ant trail, which is messy, and it only kills the ants that it comes in contact with. It does not spread it into the colony, so you’re really not solving your problem.

Some people also have success with a homemade borax solution, basically a DIY version of the Terro baits. There are a number of recipes online but they all boil down to mixing something sweet, usually white sugar or honey, with borax. Going this route isn't for everyone and we haven't found any conclusive evidence that the homemade versions are any more effective than Terro, in fact, the opposite may be true. This blogger made and tested five different concoctions and concluded that "none of the home made Borax ant killers remedies were as effective as the Terro Ant Bait". But still, doing it yourself is possibly a good way to make a large amount of ant killer in a single swoop. Wirecutter Senior Writer, Lauren Dragan solved an ant problem in her balcony garden with this recipe.

The T300 and T334 Terro Liquid Ant Baits are the most convenient choice for general around-the-house use, but Terro also sells the bait in a little squeeze bottle. So if you see ants only in a spot where the bait station doesn't fit, you can apply a few drops of bait to a piece of cardboard or (as Rollins's Ramsey suggested) a bottle cap and set it out. Terro also sells outdoor bait stations (1806 and T1812) that you can stake to the ground for more security. These other options all contain the same borax-based bait.

Terro's T303 Ant Baits are the same as our pick, except that you have to cut them open rather than snapping a piece off. Terro no longer manufactures them, but they’re still available here and there, and they have the same effectiveness as the T300 baits.

Maggie's Farm No-Spill Ant Kill (also sold as InTice Gelanimo Ant Bait) is another borax-based option in a clear station, but this one is a gel, so it won't spill if someone knocks over the bait station or picks it up incorrectly. Cisse Spragins, owner and CEO of Rockwell Labs, told us that the gel allows more ants to feed at once and they won't drown in the bait, as they can with liquid baits. The major downside is that it's harder to find online, but the company has an expansive list of brick-and-mortar retailers where it should be available.

For indoor ant control, you can find many other products out there—including Amdro Ant Killing Bait, Combat Ant Killing Bait, Combat Max Ant Killing Bait, Pic Ant Killer Bait, Raid Ant Baits, and Raid Max Double Control Ant Baits—but none match the combination of a clear bait station, effectiveness, and low toxicity that Terro offers.

Hot Shot MaxAttrax Ant Bait contains indoxacarb, the toxin that is proven effective on fire ants. The bait station is opaque, however, and we’re confident in Terro's effectiveness. Syngenta's Advion Ant Bait Arenas also use indoxacarb, and they’re semi-clear, but they come only in a pack of 30 and are meant for professionals.

Hot Shot Ultra Liquid Ant Bait uses a clear bait station and dinotefuran as the active ingredient. This bait is typically priced higher than others, and we couldn't find any substantial evidence, scientific or anecdotal, that showed it to be a better option than Terro.

We dismissed any products that came only in straight gel or liquid form. This group included Combat Max Ant Killing Gel, Raid Ant Gel, Syngenta Advion Ant Gel, and Syngenta Optigard Ant Gel Bait. With no bait station, these options are less user-friendly. If you do have a tight spot where you can't fit a bait station, we recommend Terro T200 Liquid Ant Killer.

We also did not consider any kill-on-contact sprays like Ortho Home Defense Max Ant Roach and Spider Insect Spray and Raid Ant Killer. As we said above, this method kills only individual ants and does nothing against the colony as a whole. It also has the potential to cause the colony to split, creating an even larger problem.

Yard-wide treatments—including Amdro Kills Ants & Spiders Granules—is another category we dismissed en masse (other than for fire ants, where it is the most effective option). These lead to indiscriminate killing, and for fire ants you have better alternatives.

Among products more focused on fire ants, we dismissed Amdro's Ant Block Home Perimeter Ant Bait because it uses hydramethylnon, which takes longer to work than Advion's indoxacarb. Ortho's Orthene Fire Ant Killer mound bait uses indoxacarb but at a much lower concentration, so it's good only for mound treatment and not as a yard-wide application.

Oh, and one more thing: Don't pour gasoline on a fire ant mound. It's a terrible idea, and you’re just asking for trouble.

Doug Mahoney

Doug Mahoney is a senior staff writer at Wirecutter covering home improvement. He spent 10 years in high-end construction as a carpenter, foreman, and supervisor. He lives in a very demanding 250-year-old farmhouse and spent four years gutting and rebuilding his previous home. He also raises sheep and has a dairy cow that he milks every morning.

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