Borax is a useful tool in the ongoing fight against ants

Q. Hopefully, you can help us with our ant situation. Our home was built in the late 1800s at the bottom of a hill. The front of the kitchen is built into the hillside bank. We get regular-sized ants there, but not too often.

This year, we have tiny ants in the living room, which is on the other side of the house away from the bank. This is where we feed the cat; he has water, moist food (chicken, tuna) and dry food - each in a stainless steel dish.

Last week, we found the ants in the dry food, but not in the moist food. We bought an ant trap with the liquid in it and put it in the corner with a dish propped over it so the cat wouldn't be poisoned by it. Nothing happened, so we moved it to where the dry food is, and still nothing happened. Then we put it in the dish with the dry food. Lots of ants all over the dry food, but none in the ant trap. We also put the dry food he is eating in a stainless steel dish in the kitchen, and there is not an ant in sight.

The young renter who lives upstairs has a lot of large, leafy plants. Could they be ant-infested? We would prefer to use something that is not a spray and is pet-friendly.

A. I have no idea if the plants upstairs are attracting the small ants.

You may want to try MaxAttrax ant bait trap, which I have used with great success. You can buy it in hardware stores. But not all baits work for all types of ants, so you may need to try something else.

An effective bait to get rid of many insect pests is to mix borax with sugar and place the mixture in small containers, like jelly, jam or peanut butter caps, or clean tuna fish cans, in places safe from children and pets, such as along walls where you may have seen the ants.

In your case, you could add some of the cat's dry food to the mixture, since the ants are fond of it. Cover the mixture containers with a bowl, pans or whatever, propped up with toothpicks to allow the ants to get to the bait, near where you have seen the greatest concentration. The ants will take some of the mixture to their nest, eventually killing the entire colony.

You can buy 20 Mule Team Borax in the cleaning-supply aisle of supermarkets. If all else fails, you may want to call a locally owned pest-control operator.

Q. The asphalt shingles on our house were replaced with fiberglass shingles (CertainTeed 40-year) in 1999. Moss is now growing on the roof to the point of causing concern, and roof replacement is under consideration.

Shade trees may contribute to a small area of moss, but the roof is generally exposed to the sun and is as dry as possible in the Pittsburgh area.

What is your opinion of algae-resistant fiberglass shingles? It seems the algae resistance guarantee is short-term - 10 to 15 years.

What is your opinion of a metal roof? Will a metal roof eliminate the moss problem? (There would be no limestone and some metals would be galvanized.) What metal and finish do you recommend? Do you have recommendations for installation techniques?

A. Moss on a shingle roof is not a reason for replacing the shingles, but the age of the shingles and their condition are. Your shingles are 17 years into the 40-year warranty listed for the type you have. But, in my experience, the great majority of shingles do not last as many years as the stated warranty, and collecting on warranties is an excruciating hassle, often leading to frustrating litigation.

You can have the moss removed by professional roof cleaners or do it yourself by spraying a solution of one of the several roof-cleaning chemicals on the market.

Here are some chemical preparations available online: Wet and Forget, which claims to be biodegradable; Spray and Forget; Roof Wash. I have used Wet and Forget successfully for a variety of cleaning jobs around the house. Follow the directions on the containers.

You can also make a solution of equal parts white vinegar and water and spray it on the affected areas. It will make the environment acidic and kill the moss over time.

Algae are not the same thing as moss, and the limited time warranty for algae-resistant shingles is far less than the expected life of the product.

Metal roofs are free of the vegetation growing on roof shingles. Screw-on type metal panels would be competitive with shingles, but standing-seam roofs are more expensive. It does not seem to be the time to go to that expense, considering that the roof can be cleaned.

Q. You provide such reliable and thorough answers to your readers, I have been very focused on some of your roofing ones.

Before I make some possibly bad assumptions and go off and purchase some Lamb and Ritchie Rite Flow drip edging, I thought it best to run my situation past you in the hope you might help confirm or deny my needs.

We purchased a house a year and a half ago. It's an older house that was completely and heavily remodeled, and for the most part, it was done very well. The previous owner owned a local lumberyard, and did all the work himself.

We found this winter that on certain sections of the house (maybe 5 percent of the total house), water is dripping down the siding. We initially contacted the previous owner to get his thoughts, and he stated he was surprised as he put WinterGuard underlayment down.

We had three different roofing contractors out to take a look, and all have confirmed that there is no WinterGuard there, and the felt is only 15-weight and not 30. However, we're getting such a mixed bag of theories or nonanswers that we are not comfortable with any direction to remediate.

The first roofer stated the entire roof should be replaced; the second confirmed this only if I put the words into his mouth (he stated he tends to agree, given the level of "weirdness" he sees with some of the roofing decisions); and the third had no definitive answer.

So we're left wondering what to do and hoping you can provide some insight. I've attached some pictures. It only seems to happen during melting snow and we have not yet found evidence of ice dams. The first roofer thought perhaps it was capillary action of water being drawn up, but was surprised at how far back it would go as our soffits are quite long. It may have happened once during a rain, but we're unsure if there was any snow left at that time as it was right between a recent snowfall one day and a 55-degree day with rain the next.

Would you think the Lamb and Ritchie drip edge is what we need, or do we need to look at tearing up the first few rows and putting some WinterGuard down?

A. Looking at the two photos and seeing how wide your overhangs are, the first thing that comes to mind is that ice dams formed and subsequent melting snow filled the wide overhangs until the water reached the junction of the soffit and wall and ran down the siding.

That is usually the case.

The absence of a water and ice protective membrane would be a likely culprit, but with such wide overhangs, you would need more than one 3-foot row, and could even need more than two rows if your roof has a shallow pitch.

It would be helpful to know more about what the second roofer meant by "weirdness," as melting snow could find a way into the roof structure through one of those anomalies.

If it were a problem with water getting behind the gutter because the drip edge did not direct it into the gutter, you would see the water dripping down the face of the fascia board behind the gutter.

However, many mysterious things happen in construction, and we can't discount the fact that, in the few areas where you found water running down the siding, melting snow - and possibly rain - entered the soffits through some other deficit.

At this point, it does not look to me as if the Lamb and Ritchie Rite Flow drip edge is the solution.

If the second roofer can describe in detail what he means by "weirdness," and some photos of the "weirdness" can be sent to me, perhaps I can be of more help.

Q. I enjoy reading your column in Sunday's Daily Herald and I have a question for you. We have a marble floor in our bathroom that has water stains, which we have had no luck in removing. Do you have any suggestions about how we can get rid of these stains?

A. If the stains are just water marks, the marble industry's recommendation is to buff them with 0000 steel wool.

Interesting comment from a reader: "I read your reply to the person about streaking on walls that have been washed. They need to use a soft cloth and make sure it is more damp than soaking wet and drippy when applied to the wall. If they wash the wall from the bottom up to the ceiling and wipe up the drips as they go, it will eliminate almost all of the streaks. My mom washed the walls like this for years and didn't have a streaking problem."

• Henri de Marne was a remodeling contractor in Washington, D.C., for many years, and is now a consultant. His book, "About the House," is available at www.upperaccess.com. His website is www.henridemarne.com. Email questions to henridemarne@gmavt.net, or mail First Aid for the Ailing House, Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.

© 2016, United Feature Syndicate Inc.