Any new tricks to get rid of ants?

olga.harrison wrote:i put the whole pack of cinnamon over the ant hill right after reading your posts, we'll see tomorrow if they are gone.

well, not only they didn't leave, but became more aggressive:( going to get some of that organic earth something stuff, if they sell it in lowes. one thing i learnt, don't wear flip flops around angry ants!

Some may find my method absolutely terrible but I don't have much of a problem with ants. I buy one of the big name ant killers from lowes and sprinkle it around the mound anywhere in the yard. The next day no more ants. Last year when they got into my garden I mixed sugar and sevin dust and sprinkled that around the edges of my garden but not in my garden. It took longer than a day but they were soon gone. I would have used borax but I couldn't find any. Texas fire ants have informed me in the past that they do not play around so neither do I.

You can usually find borax (7 mule team) at Target. Very old school dry soap, popular for those with skin sensitivies and 'grubby grotty hands'

Mix the boiling water with a squirt of dish washing liquid. Pour on the hill or where they are swarming. They hate both the hot water and the enzymes in the dish soap. This kept ants away from my house and out of my garden for 10+ years (one treatment). It was a major war...they swarmed up the side of my home and the cream wall was black!

To keep them from coming back, spray an area with white distilled vinegar. Again, its the enzymes, and acid. They won't cross it.

I haven't sprayed outside with vinegar yet (haven't needed to). I do use it inside anywhere I've found a creature that doesn't belong. We did have ants this year inside for a few days (they came up under the fridge). It was a combo of sugar in the air (baking and frosting a cake) and heavy rains. Once the attractors were gone, so were the ants.

White Vinegar is great - you can disinfect with it, clean with it, keep ants & bugs away...

Ants do have their place - they ranch aphids. It's wild to watch. Ladybugs will keep your aphids under control, and remove the need for ant ranchers.

So far, there have been very few aphids on the roses. Or any other bugs. Not even an earwig yet. I hope it continues!

I hit em with it all, a mix of coffee grounds, borax, cinnamon, and baking soda. They were in the roots of the magnolia tree I was transplanting. 3 days later no sign of ants.

Kay

plantoid wrote:Here in the UK we sprinkle some borax crystals/ powder close to the hill and use a triggerpack spray with a bit of water to damp it down ...that sorts out most ants nests as they take the borax back ito the nest with the moisture .

It is cheap enough to try and do your mob in .. if you do try it & get success post it on here with any brand names etc.etc.

There's an all-purpose product I've been looking at that is supposed to get rid of both ants and chinch bugs, so I was thinking of doing that...but I might just get a little borax and give the ants a double-whammy! They're absolutely everywhere, with ant hills in every 5 square feet of my yard.

I will definitely post any successes I have, and list what products I've used with either links to websites or photos of the package.

I have a friend, who is in her mid eighties, she has been gardening for nigh on 70 years. She stands behind using boric acid crystals for ants. Boric acid and borax are not the same thing, though they are both from the boron family. Though, borax does contain boric acid. I'm sure a chemist in the audience could help with the details... but I think both are sold as insecticides.

recent thread on ants

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t10795-any-new-tricks-to-get-rid-of-ants

I used cinnamon, borax, coffee grounds and baking soda. Something worked.

Kay

http://www.beyondpesticides.org/infoservices/pesticidefactsheets/leasttoxic/boricacid_borates_borax.htm

I just found this link that explains a lot about boron, the element used in borax and boric acid. It's a naturally occurring substance, but be careful in how you use it. Don't put it on any plants you want to keep because it disrupts photosynthesis!

BUMP

I set up my greenhouse with automatic watering and have over-watered all of my plants! There were aphids, and small black bugs that look like ants but they fly (and they have clear wings), small brown ants, green worms eating my lettuce (which I picked off by hand). It was a bit overwhelming so I made up some of my pesticide (onions, habanero peppers, garlic, dish soap and water. I threw it in my food processor and let it roar! Strained it, filled a sprayer and went out to conquer. And I started to let the greenhouse dry out. I went shopping and saw some lady bugs, brought them home thinking they could have a feast.

I felt so bad! When I came out to the garden, there were only 4 survivors that I saw.

I forgot that I hit the plants hard with the organic spray. Well, it got rid of the bad bugs for a couple of days, but they're back. Now I think I'll use the cinnamon and go buy some more lady bugs, to help with the cause. This time I am just brewing up some tea for the creatures that are chewing on my pepper, mint, and one tomato plant. Once it finishes brewing and cooling I will head off to spray these plants with the tea brew, and add some of my saved coffee grounds to their bases.

I am hoping this works!

walshevak wrote:recent thread on ants

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t10795-any-new-tricks-to-get-rid-of-ants

I used cinnamon, borax, coffee grounds and baking soda. Something worked.

Kay

Do you also have deer there? I heard that cinnamon and coffee grounds are good for keeping deer away because they don't like the strong smell? I am just wondering because I have a buck that likes to pull out my strawberries all of the sudden, just pulls them up and leaves them there. I also have my hair dresser saving me a bag of hair!

givvmistamps wrote:http://www.beyondpesticides.org/infoservices/pesticidefactsheets/leasttoxic/boricacid_borates_borax.htm

I just found this link that explains a lot about boron, the element used in borax and boric acid. It's a naturally occurring substance, but be careful in how you use it. Don't put it on any plants you want to keep because it disrupts photosynthesis!

Wish I had seen this article before treating my baby trees. They had dropped all their leaves. The red maple is putting out some weird shaped leaves and the southern magnolia is trying to form buds along the trunk. I just keep almost drowning them ever few day. They are still alive for now. I am assuming it is the borax.

Kay

Oh, no deer, just rabbits

Walshevak, Here in Oregon's wine country, they spray boron on the grapevines to eliminate boron deficiency, so I never thought about other plants/trees being adversely affected. Thank's for the warning.

I should have gone to the drugstore for boric acid instead of using the laundry borax.

Kay

Would the cinnamon/coffee grounds work IN a square? I can't find the hill, but they are swarming my tomatoes and EATING THEM!!

We are in a heatwave and drought and I think the ants are looking for any source of water they can find.

Mamachibi wrote:Would the cinnamon/coffee grounds work IN a square? I can't find the hill, but they are swarming my tomatoes and EATING THEM!!

We are in a heatwave and drought and I think the ants are looking for any source of water they can find.

I appear to have gotten rid of the ants that caused me so many problems. I've posted about them several times They killed my potatoes, were on the corn and infested the compost pile. Nothing organic would even slow them down. I finally put Amdro Ant Block outside the beds and within a couple of days there were no ants to be seen and it has now been about 2 weeks and still no ants.

http://www.amdro.com/All-Products/ant-block-home-perimeter-ant-bait-granules/how-to-use

Oh that's so good Lindacol, sometimes you have to resort to things like that! I may be doing that here soon.

Hi,is cinnamon and baking soda safe to sprinkle directly onto the soil in pots or in the the mm garden bed when you have ants?Got crazy ants all over the yard pretty much everywhere with no mound to treat in particular and even in the compost pile i just started.Now i see them on my citrus trees and the leaves don't look to good something is eating them.Can i put cinnamon or baking soda in the pots or will it hurt the trees and mess up the soil or mm?Thanks

Have you read this whole thread? There are some good ideas. I swear by the boric acid crystals.

we sprinkle cornmeal around the edge of the container and the next day our ants were gone and they didnt come back....

happy gardening
rose

I did read the whole thread awesome ideas but just not sure how to do it .The boric acid I'm pretty sure I can't put it in the compost pile to get the ants out or my potted trees but the cinnamon and baking soda ,also put them around the area I want treated or is it safe to pour them into the pots and beds with the plants to get rid of these pesky ants and prevent them from coming back?Do they affect the soil in anyway like kill the good bacteria or do any harm?Really want to plant cucumbers and other vine plants next spring and i want these ants out so i don't have to worry about aphids.thanks in avance

Houstonmom I know when I used cinnamon I was concerned about it affecting my plants also. I sprinkled cinnamon right inside the edges of my wood frame, and on the ground outside the wood frame. The cinnamon was not near the plants inside the box because I did not know the effect it would have on the plants. After the ants were gone, I scooped up the cinnamon I could out of the box and threw it on the dirt outside the box. I did not get rid of every granule of cinnamon but again it was not near a plant. I also bought the ant traps and put them in the path of the ant trails. Those ant traps have poison in them where the ant takes it back to their nest and the ants die. I am thinking the cinnamon kept them out of the box and the traps killed them.

I found an article about how to get rid of ants in potted plants.

http://www.gardenguides.com/92166-drive-ants-out-potted-plants.html

Houstonmom,
You need to identify what sort of ant you have . Borax powder sprinkled on most ants nest and around buildings attracts ants and they take it into the nest it attracts water as it is hydroscopic and the ants drink it feeding their queens with in the gut processed fungi that they cultivate in ther nests . this not only kills the ants it kills the queens and the nest dies out for at least a few months.

We used to use borax powder a bit finer than castor sugar granules as a hand cleaner when I played as a mechanical engineer . It never caused any skin probs even though most of us had to wash up 10 or more times a day .
As far as I know there is no hazard warning about using it or disposing of it .
Moisture & veg matter break it down quite fast.

So I suggest you do a hazard risk on line search " not just Wikking it " if your still concerned ..perhaps put up on this thread what you discover.

Thank you so much for all your help!I really appreciate it .The exterminator calls them crazy ants or sugar ants.I just bought my house over the summer and I see them all over the neighborhood .They are literally every where .It's been an ongoing battle trying to get rid of them .Thankfully they aren't in the house but are everywhere outside no mound they just crawl around aimlessly .I started a compost pile now they are all over it .Hundreds of them.I see them going up and down my potted lemon trees, recently i found aphids on the leaves .What really got me was when I put cardboard inside the garden boxes they are in there too.Really want to get rid of them without damaging the MM once i put it in.I'm gonna try these and see how it goes thanks again!

I suggest contacting your local County Cooperative Extension Service Agriculture Agent. They may have some good ideas and information about managing your ant infestation.
Is this in your county?
http://harris.agrilife.org/