TERRO Perimeter Outdoor Ant Bait Plus, 2-Pack, 2 lb Shaker Canisters | Attracts and Kills Carpenter Ants, Roaches, Crickets, Earwigs, Silverfish, Slugs & Snails for Pest Control, 4-Week Protection

Started using this 3 days ago to get rid of the giant satanic carpenter ants destroying my yard and now the inside of my house. It’s already working. (Written 4/9/26) For some background, these ants were all over my yard. I would find a nest with larvae and thousands of ants and get rid of it with poison spray. Then another nest would pop up somewhere else in the yard. I would spray them again, but the cycle kept repeating for over a year. I did some research and learned that no matter how many nests I sprayed, they would keep relocating unless I found the queen and took her out. It’s hard to catch carpenter ants because they move around in the dark, and I sleep at night. I decided to spend a week staying up late to monitor them. I found a trail along the outside of my stucco wall, and they were going into a small hole near the water hose spigot. I checked the other side of the wall inside the house and realized it lined up with the plumbing behind my refrigerator. When I moved the fridge, I found rotting and crumbling wood. Apparently, a carpenter ant village has been flourishing inside my home and actively destroying my house. There is a removable wall panel to access the plumbing, but I was too terrified to look inside, especially knowing I couldn’t just spray them anymore. So I calmed down and did more research on what to do next. I learned bait is the only real solution. Ants eat it thinking it’s food, digest it, then regurgitate (vomit) it to feed the larvae. The larvae produce nutrients all of the ants eat, meaning the poison spreads through the entire colony. They’re psychotic. The poison doesn’t kill them immediately, which is the point. They keep eating it and sharing it without realizing it’s hurting them. It weakens them over a couple of days and then kills them shortly after. I ordered this bait immediately with expedited shipping. That night, I followed their trail and shook some bait on the ground below the wall where they were traveling. I also threw some at the wall, hoping it would attract their tastebuds (do they have tastebuds???). I literally prayed to God to make them like the flavor. It was torture watching them go about their lives. I feel evil for hurting them, but honestly, why couldn’t they just leave when I asked nicely? Now, 2 nights later, here I am stalking them again as they crawl slowly along the wall. The trail is broken. They look weak and are having trouble holding on to the wall, many have fallen down. Some go in and out of the spigot hole (to hide in my walls), but they are clearly struggling tonight. I feel hopeful. If you are reading this, please pray for my ants to eat more bait, as I pray for yours to eat it too. I’ll keep you updated on what happens in the coming days. UPDATE: (4/15/26) It’s 4 a.m., one week later, and I have been monitoring these ants like a deranged private investigator. I’ve lost days of sleep. I have dark circles under my eyes. I even got into a heated exchange in a Walmart parking lot and started arguing with my oil change mechanic because I am exhausted. This is not who I am. This is what the ants made me become. Now the good news. Tonight, for the first time, I can’t find any ants. No carpenter ants. No other species either. Even the miniature black ants I usually see outside are gone. I never intended to kill them, but war does not spare the innocent. I feel relieved, but I still cannot relax. I need another week to know whether the queen is truly dead or whether these demons just relocated and are plotting their next move. For now, I am still putting out fresh bait in the same places. Next week I will search the entire outdoor perimeter, and if all is clear, I will finally open that wall panel, vacuum out the bodies, and hire a plumber to seal the water spigot before a new colony gets any ideas. Pray for me. I need sleep. I’ll update this review again. UPDATE: (6/1/26) So I’m back with what I sincerely hope is my final update. The good news: the carpenter ants are gone. The bad news: they decided to stage one last act of psychological warfare before leaving. As I mentioned in my last review, the bait was working. The ants were eating it, taking it back to the nest, and dying off. I hadn’t seen a single live carpenter ant inside my house. Things were looking up. I was sleeping again. I was beginning to heal. Then about a week later, I walked outside and nearly had a heart attack. WINGED carpenter ants. Everywhere. On the porch. In the driveway. In the yard. Flying past my face. One even flew into my house, apparently to personally deliver a message. What I didn’t realize was that I had started using the bait right around the same time their annual swarm was beginning. These were hundreds of newly hatched queens taking off to start colonies of their own. The bait was killing the existing nest, but the eggs had already been laid long before I started treatment. Seeing this sent me into a level of panic normally reserved for finding a snake in your toilet. II immediately ordered a professional perimeter spray (I won’t name the brand, but it comes in a white bottle with a red sprayer handle). I was careful not to spray anywhere near the bait because I wanted the ants to keep enjoying their final meals. I continued putting out fresh bait every day. The rest of the property, however, became a chemical exclusion zone. I absolutely drenched the porch, front door, garage, back patio, and every possible point of entry. If an ant had wanted to enter my home, it would have needed a passport, a visa, and a hazmat suit. Then I waited and prayed. And checked for ants. And checked again. And then checked a third time because maybe I missed one. A week later, they were gone. All of them. The queens. The workers. The entire operation. For the last two weeks I’ve inspected the house, the spigot, the walls, the porch, and the yard multiple times a day like a paranoid security guard. I have not seen a single carpenter ant. I finally feel like I can unclench. As a precaution, I’ll probably keep putting a little bait around the perimeter now and then in case some adventurous ants from the neighbors decide to come sightseeing. This whole experience was far more stressful than it had any right to be, and I hope these updates help someone else dealing with the same problem. If you’re currently losing your mind over carpenter ants, there is hope. Stay the course. In other news, it is now apparently fire ant season. Fortunately, fire ants are much easier. There’s a bait sold in a black container with orange lettering that says “Fire Ant Killer” and has a giant angry-looking red ant on the front. I sprinkled a couple tablespoons directly on each mound and wiped out about 25 mounds in two days. Fire ants will keep showing up from neighboring properties, so I’ll keep an eye out every month or so. Anyway, that concludes my campaign. Good luck, Godspeed, and may your homes remain ant-free.

I bought this for two problems, crickets in an outdoor storage shed, and large ants (?carpenter) on my patio. I have an outdoor storage shed approximately 3’ x 6’ which has been infested with crickets for many years. Open the door and there would be dozens on the walls, ceiling, etc. I applied a generous amount of this, closed the door, and within 24 hours not a single cricket remained and none of the granules remained on the floor either. Obviously, they ate the stuff and went off to die somewhere. It has been several weeks now, and not a single cricket. Mission accomplished. My second problem was large ants (?carpenters) on my patio. I was not sure where they were coming from and sprinkled the granules all around the perimeter of my house. After several days, there was not much improvement. I then spent some time studying the ants and found them mainly around one corner of my patio near the house, and was able to follow a trail of them going from the corner of the house, across the patio, and ultimately to a grass area. From there, it was too difficult to see them/track them in the grass. So, obviously the nest was very far from where I was seeing them on my patio. I then reapplied the granules, but just in the one spot on the patio where there was the most of them, and from there I continued the application along the trail I had seen previously. I stopped at the grass area. Lo and behold, two days later, no ants. So my interpretation is that you need to apply the product close enough to the hive that the ants pick up the granules and bring it back to the hive. And if you don’t know where that is, try to map out the trail by close observation. So this works very well, worthy of five stars, but realize that applying to the correct location near the hive is critical for a successful application.

ETA - another week after writing this review, and the ants slowly decreased in activity. It took another full week until we saw zero activity. Each day I go out, I'm amazed we've gone from a cluster of ants to nothing. I guess they needed time to travel to the colony and die off. If buying, I recommend using it proactively and giving it time. This did not work. I've waited over a week before writing a review, and the ants have not changed in quantity. I see them out 24/7, crawling over the product. I've bought Ortho Home Defense as I've heard and seen a lot of positive reviews on it from family and friends.

Had a carpenter ant infestation outside of a property. It had been a problem for several years. I applied the product as directed. After 1 week I have noticed a significant drop in the number of ants seen crawling up the building. I've tried other products (sprays and powders) but none worked. I plan on re-applying to knock out the final few left. I would estimate that I see 95% fewer ants. The product states that while it starts working in 24-48 hours, it can 1-2 weeks. It is important that you address the environment the ants are thriving in. If you have damp areas, wet or rotting wood, or many trees close to the structure, those items need to be dealt with to avoid a new colony from establishing itself.

My new rental is a bit older and has multiple entry points for ants that I haven’t been able to locate. The indoor bait traps worked to some extent, but I really wanted to stop them before they even got in. The house is small, so one bottle was enough to do the perimeter. I got the two pack because it said to apply it monthly—but it’s lasted much longer than that! The shake application was super easy to use and I would definitely recommend it!

This medicine isn’t as effective as I expected. I bought this product because of the advertisement, but it didn’t live up to the claims. After using it, the ants were still alive and active

I suddenly started seeing tons of tiny black ants in my office. It freaked me out. Last week I tried Raid traps and they just laughed at it. I then ordered the Terro ant traps and put two in my office. I also ordered the perimeter outdoor ant bait plus and sprinkled that around my office foundation. within minutes I could see the ants working hard to carry the granules in a row. It was like an ant highway crossing the sidewalk. This morning I cannot find a single ant. Amazing results.

This stuff does not work at all. The ants use it as a beach to spend their days walking on. I see them sipping lemonade as they stroll by. It deserves zero stars.