How to Get Rid of Ants Organically outside?

[Dean A]

How to get rid of ants organically outside?

Anyone can help please?

[webmaster]

Are you trying to get rid of them around the house or around your garden?

Is this a lawn you're talking about, a raised bed or an all out urban backyard farm?

[rainbowgardener]

And why do you need to get rid of them (if it isn't inside your house)? Ants don't eat healthy, living plants and are generally harmless in the garden and can be beneficial. They can kill off harmful caterpillars and their tunnels help aerate the soil. "Tunneling ants turn over as much soil as earthworms do, aerating the soil and redistributing nutrients. Ants are also part of the world recycling crew: acting as scavengers, collecting dead insects and turning them into fertilizer" http://www.finegardening.com/ants-arent ... z49oxjjame

If you really need to get rid of them, here's some ways:

Ant control techniques fall in categories:

strong smelling stuff: ants are repelled by strong smelling stuff. That includes aromatic herbs like mints (especially pennyroyal which is a very strong mint and essential oils like peppermint oil which are very concentrated), tarragon, bay leaves and others. Also onion, garlic, citrus peel, cayenne pepper, black pepper, cinnamon, basically anything strong smelling. Put it in your cupboards to keep ants out, around plants where ants are cultivating aphids, around the cracks in your house where ants get in.

powdery stuff: theoretically at least ants don't like to walk over powdery stuff, which gets in their spiracles (breathing passages) and clogs them up. This includes flour, powdered chalk, talcum powder etc. But you have to put it down pretty thickly. If it is outside it will have to be renewed after rain. Diatomaceous earth sort of fits in this category, but it is unique, because on a micro level the particles are very sharp and cut the insects who crawl over it.

Sticky stuff: ants don't like to walk over really sticky stuff. This includes vaseline, sticky tape, adhesive contact paper folded sticky side out, etc.

poison baits: classic is borax mixed with sugar, also baking powder and sugar.

Pour (a lot) of boiling water down into the ant hill when you find it.

[imafan26]

Ants can be beneficial to the garden but they can also carry aphids, scale and mealy bugs to your plants and they protect them from their enemies.

To kill ants you need to kill the queen. Killing workers does not get rid of the problem. Ant baits work best for that.

[bri80]

In the garden, I used to let ants be. The past two years though, they've farmed aphids on lots of my veggies and so I will no longer tolerate them in the garden. The "safest" (non-chemical) way I've found is diatomaceous earth sprinkled around the plants being attacked.

[jeff84]

I mix borax, peanut butter and sugar and stuff that into 1 inch pieces of drinking straws and put them out as baits. the trick is to not make it to strong, or it will kill the worker ants, before they get a chance to take it back and feed it to the queen.

[pepperhead212]

I also have had a problem with ants farming aphids on okra and peppers, and maybe others, but not nearly as bad. Last year I hosed the ants and aphids off the okra, then kept them from coming back by brushing tanglefoot on the stalks of all off the plants. Worked great, until a branch of one got into contact with another plant (a tomato), and there they were again, in no time! This time, I'll put the SIP away from anything this could happen with, and watch closely.

[imafan26]

I use the sugar and boric acid ant mix on cotton balls in small butter containers with holes poked in the bottom edge. I also learned from someone in the orchid club to put the boric acid bait on cotton balls stuffed inside 6 inch pieces of pvc tubes, similar to your straws.

The leaf cutter bees were being bothered by ants coming for their fermented leaves so I tried vaseline on the post but the ants just walked right through that. So, I dusted the vaseline on the post with boric acid and the problem was solved. Tanglefoot is not that easy to find and it is messy to apply. The dirt and other bugs stick to it too making it less sticky over time.

[imafan26]

Pennyroyal is said to deter ants, but it is also invasive so I would only trade one pest for another.