If small ants are eating your meat pet food nuts and dead insects you may be able to trace them to flooring cracks.
Ants under hardwood floor.
If so they might be living under the concrete slab.
We do not want to use any harsh pesticides under the house to get rid of the ants and that would be an ongoing task as well.
I found this non toxic concoction and it works 2 cups water 1 3 cup of vinegar and 18 drops of essential oil either eucalyptus or peppermint.
After putting down a tray under the bowls the problem has gotten better but is not.
Any water left standing on your hardwood floors can cause damage all the way down into your subfloors which is typically where the carpenter ants will attack.
Under the concrete slab.
By watching this.
They are like mold thriving in moist humid rotting conditions.
We have ants in the kitchen i think it started because our cats got a little messy with their food bowls.
Indoors these ants nest in cracks and crevices of walls and cabinets under floors and behind baseboards.
The frass is composed of very fine powderand tiny blunt ended pellets.
Various ants live in.
They may be made through hardwood plywood woodsiding trim sheetrock paneling or flooring.
They prefer to eat grease fats and meats and can move in a column of ants between the food and the nest.
Sugar and grease ants have no defensive sting or bite.
The ants are not in my cupboards they are coming from the cracks and gaps of my cupboards on the outside and my hardwood flooring.
The ants will also nest inside houses setting up their colonies within walls or under flooring and in woodwork masonry or insulation although pavement ants do not destroy wood or other building materials they can be a definite nuisance when large numbers infiltrate a home.
Initially i was spraying to kill them.
Another small pest are sugar ants.
University of minnesota cooperative extension experts recommend baiting for ant colonies under concrete slabs.
Flooding is a common cause of damaged hardwood floors.