Can cayenne pepper TEMPORARILY deter ants?

[wesleyc]

Hello everyone!

(To start off, I want to mention that I live in Phoenix, AZ and I have a Bermuda lawn with full sun.)

I have recently assumed control of the lawn! Apparently since we are renting our house, my dad doesn't care about the lawn so I have made it my mission to turn our lawn green. The grass isn't that bad, but has a couple of sparse/bald patches. I bought some EZ Seed stuff that was supposed to fill in the blanks and tested it on a small area to ensure that birds wouldn't bother with it (like the label said). After a couple days I was satisfied that birds would leave it alone and spread the seed heavily on the bald patches and lightly over the rest of the lawn. As I was pulling weed I realized that ants were crawling away with my seeds! I don't want to really get rid of the ants because I know they help to aerate the lawn (and mine can use it) so I don't want to kill them, but I want to prevent them from taking the seeds. I was thinking that I would drop the seeds and sprinkle cayenne pepper on top. However, I want the ants to have free reign over the lawn AFTER the bald patches fill in. Will the pepper eventually fade? Or will they avoid those areas for an extended period of time (like a year)? Does my plan have a good chance of working?

I find it funny that I am becoming intimately familiar with what is going on on the property. It seems that those thieving bastards took my seed investment and have used it to expand the colony. I was checking our drip system and I found a new ant mound forming and spent a few minutes marveling at the ants removing dirt from underground...

[rainbowgardener]

Cayenne pepper is known as one of the things that deters/ repels ants and yes, it will eventually break down and disappear.

I like your attitude!

[wesleyc]

Thanks! That is what I was hoping for! We rarely have children around our house, so I'm not worried about the ants at all. It's just so much harder stopping ants because I can crush them while they steal the seeds, but another ant will just come around and grab it. At least with birds you can chase them away, lol.

I like your attitude!

Thanks! I didn't even realized that it censored me though... I just called them fatherless was all... which I guess is kind of true being that they are ALL female

[Nomad 57]

Cinnamon works as well. Most ants comunicate by leaving pheromone markers for other ants and anything that can disrupt that will redirect them. Good luck.

[Cola82]

Ants have fathers--they're called drones. D:

Although now that I'm reading about it, apparently fertilized eggs become female and unfertilized eggs become male--meaning male ants are indeed fatherless.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant#Develo ... production

Anyway, ants are neat.

ETA: in a strictly academic sense. I would like the sugar ants to please get the heck out of my office.

[wesleyc]

Ants have fathers--they're called drones. D:

Although now that I'm reading about it, apparently fertilized eggs become female and unfertilized eggs become male--meaning male ants are indeed fatherless.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant#Develo ... production

Anyway, ants are neat.

ETA: in a strictly academic sense. I would like the sugar ants to please get the heck out of my office.

So I guess by calling the females fatherless I'm calling them a bunch of men? That also works, lol. Baking soda works well to get rid of ants as well. I just didn't want to sprinkle it all over my lawn. pH and all..

[wesleyc]

In case anyone was wondering, the cayenne pepper hardly did anything, hahahaha. It repelled ants for a whole half hour! If I were to put a layer of top soil on top, does anyone think that will prevent ants from getting to it, or will they magically zero in on it and take them still?