ANTS!!!

amysc 6/13/2012, 9:46 pm

Ants have invaded my 4x4 SFG (Boston). What can I do to get rid of them? Obviously, no poison.

**RoOsTeR** 6/13/2012, 10:26 pm

Enter ants in the search feature. You'll find plenty of topics on ants.

SwampCatNana 6/14/2012, 10:07 pm

RoOsTeR wrote:Enter ants in the search feature. You'll find plenty of topics on ants.

Search at the top of the left column or at the bottom of the left column? Inside SFG or Google?
Lee

brenda g 6/14/2012, 10:19 pm

I think Rooster is referring to the SFG search, which should be bottom left Very Happy

But I don't know which thread you'll be in so I will give my 2 cents here: One thing I have tried with some success is mixing borax with maple syrup and placing in shallow containers. The syrup attracts them and the borax kills them -- I used this for ants living near my storage shed though, so am not sure if this is safe for in the garden - but since you're not spinkling it on the ground I don't think it could harm the soil or plants... good luck!

southern gardener 6/14/2012, 10:29 pm

Brenda: did you find the borax and syrup killed them off? i tried it, and I had ants EVERYWHERE, thousands of them, and they never left! I know you get a bunch at once, but then they're supposed to take it to the colony and die off? they never died off! they came and brought all their relatives too!! wondering what I did wrong??

CharlesB 6/14/2012, 11:00 pm

amysc wrote:Ants have invaded my 4x4 SFG (Boston). What can I do to get rid of them? Obviously, no poison.

My boxes are covered in ants. They don't cause any problems. You actually seeing any damage done by them?

brenda g 6/15/2012, 11:06 am

southern gardener wrote:Brenda: did you find the borax and syrup killed them off? i tried it, and I had ants EVERYWHERE, thousands of them, and they never left! I know you get a bunch at once, but then they're supposed to take it to the colony and die off? they never died off! they came and brought all their relatives too!! wondering what I did wrong??

Southern Gardener:

We have an unfortunate ant problem in our whole yard (I think it's because of our sandy soil); the borax DID work on the larger ants, and the small brown ants seemed to lessen somewhat where I had the borax mix. I have a dog, so I could only use the borax in places she cannot reach (since it needs to sit out for a while). You probably didn't do anything wrong - some types of ants are extremely stubborn (in my case, its those blasted little brown ones). Much as I hate to, I've had to use commercial poisons to spray my lawn - I have tried just about every product out there (the ones that are safe for pets once dry), and I STILL have those tiny brown ants - although after a few different treatments, the ants are much much fewer and seem to be only on the far edges of the yard. Far as I know, ants don't usually pose a problem in the garden other than annoing the gardener!

Lindacol 6/15/2012, 11:17 am

Here is a thread that shows some of the damage I have had from ants:

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t12694-ants-all-over-garden

brenda g 6/15/2012, 11:43 am

Oh, my gosh Lindacol that is terrible! pale

I've never seen ants do damage to plants like that - I'm so sorry you had that happen but thank you for shedding some light on the subject!

SwampCatNana 6/15/2012, 12:31 pm

Lindacol wrote:Here is a thread that shows some of the damage I have had from ants:

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t12694-ants-all-over-garden

Clicked on the link but it just brought me to another thread on ants. No pics.
Lee

Lindacol 6/15/2012, 12:41 pm

SwampCatNana wrote:
Lindacol wrote:Here is a thread that shows some of the damage I have had from ants:

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t12694-ants-all-over-garden

Clicked on the link but it just brought me to another thread on ants. No pics.
Lee

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t12158-ants-got-my-potatoes

SwampCatNana 6/15/2012, 8:29 pm

Linda, thanks for the fix. After seeing the pics, I'm sorry I asked! pale

Lee

southern gardener 6/15/2012, 11:16 pm

I haven't had so much of a problem with the ants, but with the aphids they "farm". Those aphids are awful! I've tried the organic sprays, soaps etc, and nothing helps. I can't go out and spray the tops and bottoms of each leaf of each plant everyday! It was crazy.

Lindacol 6/15/2012, 11:29 pm

The only place I have aphids is on the kale in one of the tabletop beds where there is no ants. I cut them down to the ground today. For some reason kale becomes sort of a trap crop for me. These were in squares with onions on one side and delicata squash on the other - no aphids on them.

There is kale in 2 other beds on the ground, one of which has the ants in it but (knock on wood) no sign of aphids.

SwampCatNana 6/15/2012, 11:32 pm

Found this on Google: Organic solution for aphids

brenda g 6/20/2012, 11:40 am

southern gardener wrote:I haven't had so much of a problem with the ants, but with the aphids they "farm". Those aphids are awful! I've tried the organic sprays, soaps etc, and nothing helps. I can't go out and spray the tops and bottoms of each leaf of each plant everyday! It was crazy.

Have you tried a tomato leaf tea? I found a recipe for it in the forum the other day (I'd post a link for you if only I knew how - just search for 'bug spray in your garden' and it will come up). Anyway I tried it since I happened to have a lot of tomato leaves from my over zealous seeding in march - it worked on the ants! I sprayed them directly and they died within seconds. The caution of this, even though it is organic, it is toxic and should be kept away from children and pets.

imtethered 6/24/2012, 8:46 pm

brenda g wrote:I think Rooster is referring to the SFG search, which should be bottom left

But I don't know which thread you'll be in so I will give my 2 cents here: One thing I have tried with some success is mixing borax with maple syrup and placing in shallow containers. The syrup attracts them and the borax kills them -- I used this for ants living near my storage shed though, so am not sure if this is safe for in the garden - but since you're not spinkling it on the ground I don't think it could harm the soil or plants... good luck!

Try the borax and syrup in empty soda cans offset the holes slightly from the ground when you place them and your pets and rain wont bother it.
Also I have had pretty good luck with a Neem spray.
I had such a bad problem between ants and earwigs that i had to take a several pronged attack. DE, neem spay, baits, ladybugs and beneficial nematodes.
Thankfully the problem is much improved.

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