Any new tricks to get rid of ants?

Back when I was a kid, my mom would sprinkle cleansing powder on 'em to get rid of 'em in the house. Later on I learned that urine does real good in the field. Besides urea is great for the garden and the plants. Its also a great compost activator. Have fun, LOL

Ants don't hurt plants. Leave them alone.

Grow, then observe. Don't kill, then grow. You're putting the ecosystem out of balance before you even get started.

My wife has a formula that absolutely destroyed the ants in our house last summer. Haven't seen them since. I'll get it tonight and pass it along. Save some plastic bottle tops to put it in. I know what you're thinking as I was a doubter too. Three bottle caps in two days and they vanished for good.

by CharlesB - Ants don't hurt plants. Leave them alone

Normally I would agree with you except for two exceptions that I have noted from experience.

Some people say the ants farm the aphids onto your plants and the aphids will hurt the plants. I do not know if this is true but when I had aphids on my beans this summer, the ants were all over the plants.

Also, I had masses of ants on my okra and they did disfigure the okra. The ants looked like they were discoloring the actual okra and boring into the part that attaches to the stem. I think the juices given off when the ants bore into the okra was attracting them.

yolos wrote:

by CharlesB - Ants don't hurt plants. Leave them alone

Normally I would agree with you except for two exceptions that I have noted from experience.

Some people say the ants farm the aphids onto your plants and the aphids will hurt the plants. I do not know if this is true but when I had aphids on my beans this summer, the ants were all over the plants.

Also, I had masses of ants on my okra and they did disfigure the okra. The ants looked like they were discoloring the actual okra and boring into the part that attaches to the stem. I think the juices given off when the ants bore into the okra was attracting them.

Yolos, I agree with you. I posted last summer with pictures of the ants destroying my potatoes. Cinnamon, DE, borax, boric acid - none of them worked. Amdro ant block, in small lids or bottles tops, in the corners of the beds & compost piles or just outside worked. I set it out for a few days and the ants are gone.

I think that absolute best way to get rid of ants is to have them carry something back to the nest and have the Queen meet her demise. I had several swarms of ants this past year but the most problematic nests, I ended up just placing a few crystals (about 1/2 tsp) of Sevin next to the entrance to the nest. There was no broadcasting of the insecticide and I did not treat every nest on my property. Just the few that were too close to the house/garden area. with all insecticides READ AND FOLLOW THE LABEL DIRECTIONS.

Here is a write up about the nastiness of SEVIN.
http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profiles/extoxnet/carbaryl-dicrotophos/carbaryl-ext.html

Get rid of ants? Hire a flicker. In the forest behind our house was a HUGE anthive, easily 3 feet high. Mega hundreds of forest ants. Then PapaVino noticed, as he was patroling area for edible 'shrooms, a flicker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Flicker ) was digging into the anthill, very much like a chicken in a compost pile. After a few days the hill was seriously degraded. Then, after a time, the pile was empty of ants. Our guess was that the flicker had finally dug to the point where it was able to get the queen. Post script: after a couple of years passed, I dug the pile, which had started composting, and used it as one of the composts for a couple of 4'x4' beds. Win-win, right? BTW, a flicker has been working our seed cake feeder the last few days. Guess ants are few and far between this time of year. Nonna

Off topic here for a minute........Flickers are awesome! I had a nesting pair in my yard a few years ago and they were very handy. Then for two years I had family members of pilliated woodpeckers working my wee 1/2 acre. Last year just downey woodpeckers.
This year, my winter bird feeders are curiously quiet. Perhaps it was because I didn't put out the birdseed until very late in the season. It was warm here and I didn't want to invite any late season bears into the yard.

As to the ants in the compost pile. Turning the pile will upset the nest and may actually kill any queen that may be in residence.

My son made it his mission for about a week last year by pouring boiling water down a few ant holes, that seemed to help too.

I heard diatomacious earth works too. I havent gotten the chance to try it myself though. Ive used many different types of chemicals and none of them worked.

camprn wrote:
My son made it his mission for about a week last year by pouring boiling water down a few ant holes, that seemed to help too.

This reminded me that I also used boiling hot water on ants. Where there seemed to be a good congregation, that is where I poured. I did this several times on different days then put down the small ant baits. My next door neighbor used very large ant baits and that worked for her.

Im curious how does one get ants out of the garden? Ughhh, I had a mess of ants in my kitchen & mudroom last year. Im hoping I killed the queen and they wont come back this year.

I hope the tulle keeps your friend out.

There are a number of posts on ants. Use the search feature at the top of the left column.

Here is one:

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t13926-help-ants?highlight=ants+ants

Bump

In my new book' Carrots Love Tomatoes' it says that thin slices of cucumber repel ants. Has anyone seen this work? I guess I'll have to try this.I always have plenty of ants(fire ants) and usually have to use chemicals in the yard.
Jo

Oy vey, I got this post mixed up with the squirrel post somehow.

I just read through all the ant removal ideas. My ants laughed at me when I tried caulking their entry. They just found a different way to get in. I ended up using bait traps. I dont know if thats what eventually worked or if it was just the weather getting cooler.

I just thought I would post a suggestion from Dr. Myles Bader (that I just saw on tv) who says if ants are getting into your house, use bay leaves. I haven't used it but I would think that would/could help in the garden. I don't know if they would just move over a few inches and make a new trail and laugh at us. Every year I would get ants in my upstairs bathroom, never the typical trail you would expect to see from ants, almost like stragglers looking for something, but it was every year. I finally used the bait traps and had to make a barricade to make sure my small kids wouldn't get to them. They took the bait back to their nest and they were gone. I think I already posted that I have used it in my yard also. I like the idea that the bait was contained and I just threw away the container when they were gone.

I also wanted to mention that they do leave a trail of pheromones or something so the other ants know where to go. I was thinking that if a person could disrupt that trail with using rubbing alcohol (not in the garden obviously) then that may make it so they don't just move over a little bit to go into a house.

When I lived in Los Angeles ants used to periodically raid my apartment. I found this organic stuff that was completely safe to use around kids, pets, anything. It was made from orange peel. It worked like a charm. They would eventually find another way in, and we would have to spray again, but the stuff had a nice scent and it got rid of them for at least 6 months. I think it was called Bugs-B-Gone or something like that.

I've also found this stuff called Mosquito Barrier that is for mosquitos (I know it works on them), but is also supposed to work on fire ants and ticks, fleas, and lots of other bugs. It's almost pure garlic juice. I don't think you would want to put it in the house though, because the smell is intense! I love the garlic smell but I wouldn't use it inside. I wonder if that might work in the garden. hmmmmm... Would pure garlic juice hurt the plants in any way?

http://www.mosquitobarrier.com

Borax.

Cheap, and safe (enough).

Pure sodium tetraborate! I put it in the pool...makes the water even more sparkly, and buffers the pH.

Don't put it where a pet would get to it though - excess boron can be bad for animals.

I'm not exactly sure what you would do with bay leaves. It sounds like an expensive option if they are not growing near you. I lived near a hill full of bay laurel while growing up and come to think of it, we didn't have many ants.
I was always taught that if you get rid of the food source they will leave. So if you have little sticky fingers in the house you have extra cleaning to do! I've discovered that toddlers love to clean if you give them a fresh smelling wipe. I've also years ago had success with the bait traps. I like them because you don't have to spray a ton of chemicals around. Last year I found ants in my garden and discovered that the food source was aphids on my new spirea and roses. This year I read that thyme will confuse the aphids. So I figure the lack of aphids will confuse the ants and send them back under a rock where they belong.

Cinnamon.... we had some ants trying to move into one of our gardens beds. I sprinkled a nice amount of cinnamon around and they were gone the next day! I was amazed!

Diatamaceous earth. Sprinkle it on when garden is dry. Needs to be dry to work. Made of fossil shells - organic/non-toxic/pet safe. My whole garden was filled with fire ants last week. As of yesterday, not an ant in sight.

50/50 solution of boric acid & sugar...mix it, store in shallow bowl, no more ants.
worked for me

We have small ant hills everywhere in our lawn. Some people have mentioned using borax with icing sugar but suggested that it can kill the grass. We do have a cat and small children visiting so I am concerned who may be in contact with the grass.
Others have suggested sprinkling cinnamon on the hills. Will that kill the ants or only move the ants to another area? Would appreciated any help to rid of the black ants.

I did a search and it looks like the cinnamon just repels them. I have used the ant traps and put something over it that the kids and pets can't knock over. The ants can go under the container, get the bait and take it back to their nest.

jazzycat wrote:When I lived in Los Angeles ants used to periodically raid my apartment. I found this organic stuff that was completely safe to use around kids, pets, anything. It was made from orange peel. It worked like a charm. They would eventually find another way in, and we would have to spray again, but the stuff had a nice scent and it got rid of them for at least 6 months. I think it was called Bugs-B-Gone or something like that.

I've also found this stuff called Mosquito Barrier that is for mosquitos (I know it works on them), but is also supposed to work on fire ants and ticks, fleas, and lots of other bugs. It's almost pure garlic juice. I don't think you would want to put it in the house though, because the smell is intense! I love the garlic smell but I wouldn't use it inside. I wonder if that might work in the garden. hmmmmm... Would pure garlic juice hurt the plants in any way?

http://www.mosquitobarrier.com

Jazzy, I am very intrigued by the Mosquito Barrier description. I'm just wondering... could we make some of that stuff up ourselves? Prices were a little... well... steep.