Any new tricks to get rid of ants?

Windmere wrote:

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.

Windmere, probably. I agree the prices are kinda steep, but it's 99.9% pure garlic juice. That's a lot of juice! I don't know how much garlic it would take to make up a bottle of it, but I imagine it would be a LOT. lol

Too many posts to read them all, but has anyone mentioned diatomaceous earth? Cheapish, non-toxic and effective and can be used for all sorts of problems. Get the food grade and you can also use on pets for parasites and fleas and such.

I've used the simple syrup + Borax in the house before with great success. After losing two plants in a bed I decided to try the same, but was hesitant because we have two dogs and a few neighbor cats. So, what I've done is this: I filled a salsa jar lid with the solution, placed it on the soil next to a plant the ants were climbing all over, and then put a box grater over the top, pressing it a few inches down into the soil.

This morning when I checked on it the ants had found their way inside and were slurping up the Borax water, and grater was undisturbed. I've been keeping an eye on our pups and so far they are leaving it alone.

Hopefully by tomorrow the ant colony will be no more, and our little plants can keep on growing!



I can't figure out how to get the image to show in the forum but you can open the link in a new tab to see the picture I believe

here you go.

artisticfoodie wrote:here you go.

Thanks so much!

If some of you aren't aware of the product Tanglefoot please check it out.
It will keep any crawling insect away from an area if properly planned.
Last year I had ants all over my hummingbird feeders, I made a wire hanger, coated it with tanglefoot, the ants couldn't get near the feeder.
I have 3 yellow pieces I was using to trap cucumber beetles last season, they have been out all winter and still have the sticky stuff (gooey) on it.
I ordered mine from amazon...

hmmmm, never heard of tanglefoot, but it sounds like an interesting product, and a way to keep the ants, etc, from getting into the beds, or onto my fruit trees. I might go pick some up tomorrow.

Tanglefoot's not that easy to come by.
Info shows a great value for fruit trees also'
As I mentioned I ordered mine from Amazon, check the reviews for it there

Supposedly both Lowes and Home Depot carry it. If they don't have it, I might order it from amazon or somewhere.

jazzycat wrote:Supposedly both Lowes and Home Depot carry it. If they don't have it, I might order it from amazon or somewhere.

Apparently according to some reviews on Home Depot's site it doesn't come as a kit the way it is shown. Lowes does appear to sell it as a kit as shown.

Apparently Walmart also sells Tanglefoot but haven't seen it at either Lowe's or Walmart so will probably order site-to-store. I'm planning on coating some yellow plastic cups with it and hanging them in the garden, especially near my squash and corncubits to get those pesky cucumber beetles.

I have actually been having GREAT luck with using cornmeal for ants. Just sprinkle it right outside the your bed where you have seen them and it will attract a whole slew of them. I was told it would take about 2 weeks to kill them off, but noticed a huge decline in their numbers in just a few days. Plus, it doesn't matter if the pups or toddler get into it.

I was doing some research tonight on killing ants and found some good stuff. It helps understand why some concoctions work and some don't work.

One thing I found was that if you use too much boric acid in the ant bait stations, the ants won't eat it.

Also, there are different kind of ants that will eat different baits. For instance, there is a boric acid/Jelly or sugar bait for sweet loving ants. There is a peanut butter/boric acid bait for grease and protien loving ants (big headed ants, little black ants, pavement ants).

Here are the websites which provided the above information:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/soil/msg0503233419472.html?22

http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/resources/antbait267.shtml

http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/uhmg/WestHI/downloads/Sugar-Boric-Acid-Bait-Ants.pdf

http://mississippientomologicalmuseum.org.msstate.edu/collecting.preparation.methods/Baiting.htm

When I was a child, we had red ants that bit. Around 35 years ago, the friendly Argentine Ant slowly replaced them. They are not territorial in that one Queen's ants will not attack another Queen's ants. The nests co-exist. Thank goodness they do not bite, but they can be a nuisance inside and outside. They mostly go for sweets, but then they go and swarm my experimental chicken jerky!! [Ants can have periods of protein need] First freeze and first hot spell, there they are!!

For fast cleanup, I "poof" baby powder on the trail. At least it smells good. But it is good for only a few hours until they find a new pathway.

I have always used Hot Shot MaxAttrax bait stations for longer lasting eradication. I place several along the pathway, every few hours backing them up to the point of entrance into the house. After a handful of days, they are gone. Note for dogs: The toxicity of the bait is fairly mild in case they decide to chew up a bait station.

There are great ideas. I have a question on the cornmeal and the cinnamon. I moved into a new house in January, and immediately got infiltrated with ants. I have pest control coming out monthly right now because ther eis new construction all around and i think it disturbs them and for whatever reason I am the lucky winner of the ant population.

I hadn't even considered what that impact is to a garden...and was just about to post for ideas on organic insecticides to prevent critters from messing with my plants...I usually take the stance that I don't want them in my house, but when I am outside I am in their house and I leave them alone.

Do you put the cornmeal directly in your garden, or just around it? I don't want to kill any birds, etc that might eat the ants so I am def not open to using poisons. Plus, I am trying to keep my garden organic. Do the ants flock to the cornmeal (so i can expect to be freaked out for a day or two)?

Thanks!

From my understanding, they will gather it up, not as a swarm but probably a trail and take it back to the nest for the whole population to eat. It won't affect the birds at all because it is not a poison. With the ants they can't digest it and they die.

Cinnamon worked for me today in getting rid of ants in my bed (at least temporarily)  

Yesterday morning I saw ants hill being formed inside the edge of one side of my bed.  I hosed down the hills hoping in would drive them away.  I came back in the afternoon and they were digging out the hills.  So the only thing I had on hand to try to get rid of them was cinnamon.  I dumped it all along the inside edge of the bed and they disappeared from the surface of the bed real quick.  I went back this morning and saw one spot where they had been recently digging so I hosed that spot down again.  Came back later and they were back at it.  Then I put some more cinnamon on that spot and haven't seen anymore activity.  

Don't know how long they will stay away and where they went to but at least they are not still digging around in the bed.

Bump - This thread has a lot of good suggestions for getting rid of ants.

I had a bunch of those small tiny ants last week.
I set out a couple of dishes of boric acid and sugar mixed, (mix the boric acid in warm water first to disslove it) Then they really came in, probably thousands of them for 1 day.
Havent seen any since.
A colony needs to be destroyed as termites are.

jimmy cee wrote:I had a bunch of those small tiny ants last week.
I set out a couple of dishes of boric acid and sugar mixed, (mix the boric acid in warm water first to disslove it) Then they really came in, probably thousands of them for 1 day.
Havent seen any since.
A colony needs to be destroyed as termites are.

This is very effective.  I bought some boric acid from one of our "boutique" pharmacies for about 7 bucks.  Well worth it.  However... I will say this:  My Earth Boxes that had ants in them had very well aerated soil.