Absolutely Worthless Ant Baits: "Grant's Kills Ants" Doesn't!

The Good: Cheap, I suppose
The Bad: Does not kill ants!
The Basics: For fast results - or results at all - when killing ants, Grant's Kills Ants Ant Bait Stations offers a snappy rhyme, but little else.


I would argue that one of the best possible uses of reviews based on experience is to clearly differentiate the experiences other people have to offer perhaps the most well-rounded views on a product. Some might call this being contrarian, I call it efficient and providing reviews based upon powerful and real experiences with a product. In the case of ant killing products, my review of Grant's Kills Ants ant bait stations makes for a strong contrasting review of the others of this product as I found it to be an utterly worthless product.

Allow me to explain: my wife and I have recently moved into my mother's house as part of the much-lauded "economic downturn," which caused me to lose the house I had. We live upstairs with our two cats and one dog in happiness and harmony. At least, we did until Spring sprang. When Spring came to our Upstate New York upstairs room, so did the ants. They were remarkably picky ants; they came in for the cat food. Because Mitzie, our dog, will eat cat food if she has access to it, I have had the two cat dishes in the windowsills of the two windows and our cats hop up and eat their dinner and breakfast there when I feed them. However, one day, our more sedentary Siamese, Brillo, did not finish all of his food and when I went to feed him dinner, I one night, I noticed the dish swarming with ants. I dumped out the dish, cleaned it out, went down to my mother's cupboard and grabbed two ant baits from her box of Grant's Kills Ants Ant Control Ant Bait Stations. I put the dishes elsewhere for two nights before returning them to the windowsill on the third day. That day, Brillo woke my wife up by mewing and led her to the windowsill where she found . . . a bowl full of Dad's-eating ants.

So, the short here is that Grant's Ant Bait Stations do not work. We moved the food again, kept it away for a week - so the ants only had the ant bait station to choose for their dining option - and the ants came back with the cat food (no, our sealed cat food jars were not infested). Two weeks later, as it is now, the ant stations are still out and as an objective test, this morning I put a single piece of cat food at each window, about six inches from the ant bait station (that was at 9 A.M. this morning). As of now - 10:15 as I write this line - both windowsills have ants on them again.

Quite simply, this product does not work.

Claiming to kill the entire colony by killing the queen, Grant's Kills Ants Ant Bait Stations clearly do not do this as the ants return the moment the food does. Grant's Ant Bait Stations come in packs of four for a low price - my mother bought them purely based on their sale price of $1.00 for a box of four. Here is an example of a terrible value. $1.00 killed few or no ants in my experience, whereas the MaxAttrax Ant Baits (reviewed here!) I reviewed cost a little more and wipe ants out entirely.

Using these - if one insists on wasting their money - is easy enough. Open the box, remove the ant bait and place it with the hole facing up near an infested area. These baits are three inches long by an inch and a half wide and about a half inch tall. These white plastic rectangles have a dome with a single hole in the top where the poison is. I've seen ants go in and come out. Two weeks after I first placed these baits down in the infested area, ants are still going in and coming out of the station. These are supposed to work indoors or outdoors, but on the windowsill - which meets the direction's criteria for a flat, hard surface near where ants are seen - these appear to have no effect.

The packaging claims to work immediately, but my experiences proved otherwise.

Like most ant bait stations, there is a small exposed area which might leak the killing substance inside, so they should be kept away from pets and one ought to wash their hands after placing them. Whatever is in them tastes slightly bitter (I had some on my fingers before washing them just from placing the baits) and ought to be enough to detract anyone from tasting these.

When a product like this does not work, there is very little to write about it and that is pretty much where I end this review. Investigating the baits one last time to see if I could come up with anything more, I found three ants near one of the stations. I was delighted because I thought one of the ants next to it might have been dead. So, I nudged the ant and it got up and walked - pretty fast - away. Wow, $1.00 to possibly stun ants. There are vastly better products for this problem on the market.

For other pest control products, please check out my reviews of:
Raid Ant Baits
TAT Ant Traps
Safer Beetle Traps

0/10

For other home and garden products, please check out my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


| | |

A Disappointing Annoyance For Ants: Raid Ant Baits Don't Really Work!

The Good: Inexpensive, Momentarily effective, No odor, Safe
The Bad: Too safe, Apparently ineffective
The Basics: A disappointing ant bait killed a few ants when I used it, but not all and within a month, the ant population was back in full.


It occurred to me as I was reviewing my ant baits before, that I had never reviewed the ant baits I was replacing them with. Four years ago, I gave the Raid Ant Baits a fair shake. I had my first experience living in rural America with ants and I found my kitchen area and workroom were soon a Resort of Interest to ants four years ago and I went right for a brand name I recognized and I picked up Raid Ant Baits. I now use MaxAttrax Ant Baits (reviewed here! ) and I'm much happier.

Raid Ant Baits come in a four pack for $3.50 and they advertise on the box the usual "Kill the Queen, Kill the colony" line (do you suppose the writers of Heroes were sitting around looking at any baits when they came up with the "Save the Cheerleader, Save the world" slogan?). When I was first . . . invaded, I purchased enough of these baits to place in every location I saw an ant, even once. That meant I bought four boxes (sixteen baits total) of Raid Ant Baits and I set them on every shelf, every counter, every corner of the floor where I had seen even one ant. Ever.

The individual baits are little white plastic ant hotels on a base that is approximately 1 1/2 inches square. The plastic base is connected to a dome that has a weird pattern on it and six openings through which ants may enter. I assume the ants go into those many holes and take the poison back to their lair and die.

Here's the thing, I'm going with "assume" here because the Raid ant baits did not so much work as provide me with a feeling I had done something. The ant population dropped off for a week when I purchased these and set them out. Using the raid ant baits, the ant problem never disappeared, even after a month. So, when I set them out, most of the areas I had baited saw a marked decrease in the number of ants, but only five of the places I set bait had no ants again while these baits were out. The other eleven locations had fewer ants, but there were still ants.

As the old joke on The Simpsons goes, "How many eggs did the spider lay in your brain?" "Frankly, one is too many, sir." In a similar fashion, when I purchase an ant bait or any form of pest control, I want to see either corpses by the ton or I want nothing visible. The MaxAttrax baits disappeared my ant population. I've not seen ants since setting them out and that was less than twenty-four hours ago. I've no idea where those ants are, for all I know, the MaxAttrax just makes them invisible. But the Raid ant baits did not even do that.

With the Raid ant baits, I did find a few dead ants (that meant I had to clean up the corpses, but that was better than seeing them in my stuff). But I did not find nearly enough and I saw far more that were still alive, moving around and appeared healthy, even after a month.

The plus side appears to be that the Raid ant baits do not smell. My cats did not try to get into them, but then, neither (apparently) did the ants. I think I would rather have a bait that smelled a little and actually worked (fortunately, I found another one that did not smell, but does work). As I stopped using this bait years ago, I do not know how easy it is for children to get into them. I'm sure they are not easy.

The Raid ant baits have a satisfaction guarantee, but when I used them I was at a place in my life that I was too timid to exercise such things. I, therefore, cannot comment on the customer service of Raid in this regard. The packaging recommends washing your hands after use, which I always did.

I'm done stretching; it's far easier to say more about a product that actually works. This one does not or not to the extent that I needed it to. It might work for small infestations, but on medium ones, it definitely fell down. Now, I pay less for greater results.

For other pesticide and herbicides, please check out my reviews of:
TAT Ant Traps
Round-Up Weed And Grass Killer
Safer Japanese Beetle traps

2.5/10

For other home and garden product reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


| | |

Fatalities In Antland Compliments Of MaxAttrax Ant Bait

The Good: Relatively inexpensive, Clean, Effective
The Bad: Needs to be cut apart, Wears out
The Basics: Despite the annoyance of having to cut the baits apart, these are remarkably effective and killing (or disappearing) ants within a day!


When Spring sprang and summer arrived, I found I didn't make an honest pass at spring cleaning. It seems whenever I accomplish anything, the result is I end up basement writing about it. This means there are frequently dishes in the sink, sugar from the coffee mugs I don't quite hit, crumbs. As I live in rural America, this means ants. Damn ants!

This led me to my local hardware store for the fourth year in a row to buy ant bait. It's the third year I've bought MaxAttrax ant bait by Hot Shot. This is the third year I've bought the MaxAttrax ant bait because it worked when the stuff I bought the first year did not hold up its end of the bargain. The MaxAttrax ant bait has proven itself to me as lethally effective against ants and while it wears out within six months (in winter, the ants aren't coming into the house!), I figure it's worth it to buy the traps once a year to combat the insects. It's that or moving and I'm not going to let the ants win!

MaxAttrax ant bait comes in a 4 pack (bright red box) for $1.99 at most stores. Two of these packs take care of my high traffic ant rooms, most notably the kitchen and nearby rooms. The actual traps are sealed inside in a plastic bag and the traps are paired up with a thin piece of plastic. That plastic connector needs to be cut to separate the baits and that's annoying, but it helps to set the bait places other than right next to one another. I would prefer if the baits came individual or there was a way to simply snap the baits apart.

The individual baits are black plastic ant hotels on a base that is 1 1/2 inches square. The plastic base is connected to what is essentially a dome less than 1/2 inch high with four openings. Presumably the ants walk into the dome and that's where the bait/poison is.

Here's the thing, I've never seen an ant walk into one of these things. I've never found legions of ant corpses laying around my house. Come to think of it, after using the MaxAttrax ant baits, I've never seen a single ant body anywhere in the areas where they frequent beforehand. In fact, I've never seen an ant in the house after setting out the ant baits. I don't know where they go, I presume they are all dead, but I know they're not here any longer.

The thing is, the MaxAttrax ant bait advertises that it kills the queen and destroys the colony, but my only proof of this is that when I lay down these baits, I never seen any ants again. Not for a year. Now, as a person of reason, I want to believe that the ants are all the victims of my $1.99 experiment in insect genocide, but I've no empirical proof. The absence of ants is enough for me and if this is some perverse placebo, it's working effectively enough for me.

I suppose the very best baits and insecticides work by the absence of proof and I have to say that this is especially convenient. If all of the ants died in plain view, that would just be another thing for me to clean up around here. That's pretty cool.

For those who have children or animals, for something that kills one form of life, these seem remarkably safe to use. As an experiment, I took some of last years ant baits and attempted to open them. With a knife and a screwdriver, I was able to pry one open, but the process was loud and destroyed most of the bait in the process. The holes in the dome on this product are small enough to prevent children from sticking their fingers in it inadvertently. This seems very child friendly. I have two cats and they avoid these like the plague, which is interesting because my youngest cat has been known to attack things as small as ants before.

So, they are safe, though it's worth noting that the package recommends washing your hands after touching them and I've followed that pretty religiously. The bait emits no scent and they are fairly discrete for those who are worried about appearances.

Finally, the packaging advertises killing within 24 hours. Whatever carnage occurs by the unseen wonder that lures in the ants and kills them, it does indeed happen within a day. I set my yearly purchase out last night and by this morning there were no ants around. None. Not one. Take that!

I am quite impressed by the ant baits from MaxAttrax and while they offer a satisfaction guarantee, I've never had to exercise it; these have always worked. It's why I keep going back for them year after year and you ought to, too.

For other things designed to kill things, please check out my reviews of:
Safer Beetle Traps
TAT Ant Traps

8.5/10

For other home and garden products, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2010, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



| | |

Before Ant Season Reaches Its Peak, TAT Ant Baits Kills Ant Colonies Amazingly Well!

The Good: Relatively inexpensive, Clean, Effective.
The Bad: Method of opening baits frequently makes a little mess.
The Basics: Despite minor spillage when opening the vents on them, the TAT Ant Baits are extraordinary at killing ants for months!


I loathe heat. I also loathe the way heat forces me, without an air conditioner or funds to afford running one, to open the windows to my home. Inevitably, opening windows means letting creatures into the home that I would rather not have there. While my cat Gollum takes care of flies and moths (he's a little hunter!), none of the animals seem to be keen on taking care of the ants. This year, the ants have come into the house to eat our dog, Mitzie’s, dog food and I've been grossed out by seeing the ants crawling over her food and I'm sure she's none to keen on it either. So, I went looking for ant baits. I recalled having a great experience with MaxAttrax ant baits and I went searching for them. I did not find any. Instead, with time being of the essence, my wife told me she had good experiences with TAT Ant Baits, so I went searching for them. I found them at the local hardware store and for $2.49 plus tax, this seemed like it could be a great solution to our ant problem.

So far, it has been.

TAT ant bait comes in a 4 pack (in a bright red box) for $2.49 locally, though so many places nearby me seem to only have the ineffective RAID baits. I purchased one pack and set the four baits in four rooms, actually close to where Mitzie’s dish is, where the ants are frequently seen coming in through the window, the kitchen and a nearby room. The actual traps are 1/6 oz. little metal tins.

The individual baits are white and red metal tins that are about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and ¼” tall. The metal sides have four tabs which need to be pressed in. This is easy to do with a key or a small, flathead screwdriver. The ants walk into the bait through those holes; that's where the bait/poison is.

Rather extraordinarily, the ants ran right for this when I set them down near the window and near Mitzie’s dish. Within half an hour, I found a pile with five dead ants clustered together. All of the rest of the ants were gone. Completely gone. Outside the one group of very dead ants, after using the TAT ant baits, I've not seen a single ant body anywhere in the areas where they frequented beforehand. In fact, I've never seen an ant in the house after setting out the ant baits. I don't know where they go, I presume they are all dead, but I know they're not here any longer.

Having seen these work, it is easy for me to enthusiastically recommend them. They are inexpensive, seem largely pet safe and more than anything else, the TAT any baits work. It is noted on the package that there is peanut butter in this and those with peanut allergies ought not to use these baits. The very best baits and insecticides work by the absence of proof and I have to say that this is especially convenient. If all of the ants died in plain view, that would just be another thing for me to clean up around here. That most of them are dead away from view works for me.

For those who have children or animals, for something that kills one form of life, these seem remarkably safe to use. The insecticide active ingredient is .25% propoxur and while some of the bait might fall out as the holes are punched in the bait, after that these seem very safe. The holes in the sides on the TAT ant baits are small enough to prevent children from sticking their fingers in it inadvertently. This seems very child friendly. I have two cats, a dog and a rabbit and they avoid these like the plague, which is interesting because Mitzie loves peanut butter and seemed happy to check the bait out when it was first set down next to her dish.

It's worth noting that the package recommends washing your hands after touching them and I've followed that pretty religiously. The bait emits no scent and they are fairly discrete for those who are worried about appearances.

Finally, the packaging advertises killing within 24 hours. Mine seemed to work within an hour.

I am quite impressed by the ant baits from TAT ant baits and while they offer a satisfaction guarantee, I've never had to exercise it; these have always worked. I am bound to keep using these because my wife was right: these work amazingly well!

For other pesticides, please check out my review of Safer Japanese Beetle traps by clicking here!

9/10

For other reviews of garden products, please check out my index page!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



| | |