TERRO Perimeter Outdoor Ant Bait Plus, 2-Pack, 2 lb Shaker Canisters

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.

Living in the south we battle ants several times a year. TERRO makes these granules as well as other products. We use the liquid bait traps also. In the past we sprayed with ant spray, mixed spectracide and sprayed. Both methods killed the ants we saw but they’d be right back the next day. TERRO kills what we see and the ants also take the poison back to the mound and kills the others. Make sure you follow the directions exactly. We have used this product this summer ( outside) when the ants first appeared and have not seen them since. We use the granulated and the liquid traps.

Terro works well for me. I spread it around the perimeter of my house and my shed. I sprinkle it on ant hills when they appear in my lawn. I like these plastic bottles better than the shaker bags. Easier for me to use, safer and neater for storage.

This product was a lifesaver in eradicating several large ant mounds behind my house that were feeding into the kitchen. It did work in about 24 hours which was great. However while quick acting, it was not a good long term solution to my ant problem. Please check the product label for ingredients - only 5% orthoboric acid (a highly recommended product and one I recommend), and 95% "other" indicating sugars from my determination.... So, keep spreading this around thinking it is helping the situation and in actuality you may have all kinds of new ants coming to visit from my experience. Terro does make an ant dust that I have not tried yet, however pure boric acid (a.k.a orthoboric acid) powder is so far the winner in combating my ant infestation. Does it work immediately? - No. But, the ants will walk through it and eventually ingest it by grooming themselves. Just a bit of patience is needed. Some builders actually put boric acid powder in the stud bays of homes to prevent termite, ant, and roach issues down the road. Food for thought.

This stuff worked great on a carpenter ant infestation I had but it took a couple weeks. I ordered this product and applied it about a week after I first noticed carpenter ants hanging out around the corner of my house. For the first week it seemed like issue was getting worse then I started noticing more dead ants than live ones. After about 2 weeks I'd only see a random ant here or there now I haven't seen a single ant in my house for a couple days and virtually none outside. It works great but the effects aren't immediate like some sprays might be. It purposefully kills the ants slowly so they have time to share the bait throughout the colony so if you don't see results after a couple days just be patient.

Has not worked on any ant colony all year long. not for small sugar ant and nothing for carpenter ants. Michigan