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TomatoNut95
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Organic ant killer?

ARRGHH!! Oh how I hate ants! :evil: We recently got some rain, and now they are in my raised garden again. I used to use Sevin (which is SUPPOSED to kill ants like it claims, but it doesn't; it only makes them move) but now I have chickens nearby and want to avoid anything poisonous. I read about boiling water, but since they're in my garden, I don't want to damage any roots. What can I spray, sprinkle or dump on the ants to kill them that will not be harmful to my chickens?
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applestar
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Could you please try this and see if it really works? I’m curious

Subject: ants everywhere!
applestar wrote:OK, has anyone tried THIS method? I wonder if it would work on the little black ants that are causing mayhem in my raised beds and especially cherry trees by shepherding black oily aphids?

How To Get Rid of Ants In Your Garden (100% Proof It Works!!!!!)


...this guy is in Louisiana I believe — the ants in my garden don’t make piles/hills like that, so my first task would be to find nests from different colonies and find ways to to transport sufficient number of the workers/soldiers? to target colony.

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rainbowgardener
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Here's a thread with a lot of info about organic ant control:

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=71466&p=403858&hil ... ol#p403858

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TomatoNut95
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I've heard of the 'dump-one-ant-mount-onto-another' method, but I never thought it would work. @Applestar, I'll give it a try for you! What I will do is use my shovel, scoop the garden ants out and dump them onto a mound that's out into the yard; I'll see if they fight it out. :lol:

Last evening I poured boiling water onto two yard mounds; what a quick killing method! It was getting dark, so I planned to do the other mounds the next day. But I'll try the 'invasion-of-another-mound' method on a couple and see if it truly works. :wink:

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applestar
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Thanks! ~~ヾ(@´▽`@)ノ~~~~

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TomatoNut95
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Ok, yesterday evening I dumped ant mound from my garden onto a yard mound. This afternoon I checked the mound. Some ants came out when I spread the dirt out, but surprisingly few. I'm just assuming they're survivors if the two ant 'kingdoms' fought and killed each other. I found two more mounds in my yard(yes, my yard is full of ant mounds) and tried again. I disturbed mound 1 and using my shovel, scooped mound 2 and dumped onto mound 1. Later this evening, I checked mound 1 with kinda the same results. Ants were still there, but not as many as before. So.......... I'm guessing this method works somehow, but to be honest you can't beat boiling water when killing immediately and poisonless. If the mound is near plants, I'd move it with your shovel to a spot away from any plant roots, and then dump the water on it. (why I didn't think of that before, I don't know.... nutz: -wall- )

SQWIB
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Borax and sugar.

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TomatoNut95
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AARRGGHHH, how do you get ants out of big potted plants????

SQWIB
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TomatoNut95 wrote:AARRGGHHH, how do you get ants out of big potted plants????

I use this method in my potted plants that are in my aquaponics pots.
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2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons borax
bring to a boil, boil for 3 minutes, cool
transfer to containers

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TomatoNut95
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Thanks! :)

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Gary350
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I have 1000s of ants in my garden they are no problem for me other than they get all over me sometimes. I think ants are good in my garden they eat the very tiny bugs. I have good luck searching the garden for ants then planting 1 squash seed 2" from the ant hole. I assumes squash bugs start from eggs & ants find eggs before they hatch then squash plants have no bugs. When I lived in AZ there were fire ants they were no problem in the garden either but they can be a big problem if I get them on me bites sting & itch but vinegar makes sting & itch be gone. My TN garden I have problems with very tiny bugs on the under side of tomato plant leaves I give each plant a very hard 5 second water spray with the garden hose 1 or 2 hrs before dark the water blasts all the tiny bugs off the leaves never to be seen again, I think ants find those tiny bugs and eat them. I have never counted all the ant hills in my garden there are probably minimum of 50 in the whole garden. Ants that I see are the very tiny only 1/8" long. There is a larger ant about 3/16" long. I also see large black creosote ants in my TN garden but not many I never see their ant hills I only see them walking around they are 1/2" long big as fire ants. When I lived in AZ lots of places sold fire ant killer it worked great it comes in a container that you sprinkle, it looks like tiny pieces of something about the size of mustard seeds. Put 1 teaspoon of fire ant killer on 1 ant hill the whole ant colony will be dead in 1 week. AZ fire ants were never a problem unless they hitched a ride on me & came into the house. We put fire ant killer near the swimming pool chairs.

applestar the above video works. Put 1 shovel full of ants on another colony of ants this starts ant war. Most ant colony's have 10,000. to 40,000. ants 1 shovel of ants from another colony will slow them down for a while but I never saws the whole colony die because of 1 shovel of ants from another colony.

One year I discovered hornets in a hole in the yard soon as it got dark I put the shop vac hose next to hornet nest hole. Next morning when sun came up I turned on the shop vac and let is run 3 days. When I turned shop vac off no more hornets. I let shop vac set in hot sun all day when I opened it dead hornet bodies were 2" deep in the 15" diameter shop vac. Wow that is a lot of dead hornets. You can do the same thing with ants use a shop vac to suck them up until they are gone.

When we lived at the other house we had a problem with ants coming into the house and getting into everything. Tiny ants came in through tiny cracks they got into both bathrooms and the kitchen. Ants also came in through garage & in back door. I bought several bags of white sugar then crawled under the house and put a bag of sugar under each bathroom and the kitchen. I also put 1 bag of sugar on the floor between the 2 garage doors. Ants went to the sugar bags and never came in the house again for the next 19 years we lived there. Put a bag of sugar near your garden ants will go to it.

I have the same ants I see in the above picture they are no problem for me.

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TomatoNut95
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LOL, I totally love the vacuum cleaner hornet trap!

Thanks for reminding me about @applestars mound vs. mound idea, I need to do that again; that seemed to work pretty good. There's been many giant mounds showing up during this rainy spell. I've been so busy with everything else, I've neglected to do something about the ants. I wonder what would happen if I dumped three or four mounds together.....bwa-ha-ha!!

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rainbowgardener
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I love the idea that ants might control squash bugs.... Not sure how it would work for me, though. We have a lot fewer ant hills since we have chickens foraging our yard all the time. And I can't just stick squash plants in randomly around the yard where there might be an ant hill. Chickens will destroy the ant hill or the squash plant or both. But if an ant hill ever pops up in a raised bed garden, I will try it!

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TomatoNut95
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This afternoon I drug out my shovel and located two ant mounds. Mound 1 was pretty large. I disturbed it a bit and scooped up mound 2(which was small) and dumped onto mound 1. Later this evening I checked the combined mounds. There were still a bunch of ants but I'm sure they were survivors of mound 1 since mound 1 was waaaay bigger. BUT... upon closer examination, there appeared to be piles of lifeless ants! Ha!
This method is so awesome, thanks so much @applestar!

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An idea for ants indoors:
According to my book about herbs, pennyroyal is a good ant deterrent. It says to place sprigs of pennyroyal, rue or tansy on shelves or in cupboards to deter ants. It doesn't kill them, just makes them go away.
I sometimes have sugar ants that show up on my kitchen couter scouting for food so I am going to try pennyroyal essential oil. I already tried tea tree oil and it does work to keep them away.
Pennyroyal might also work to deter ants outdoors. But some things to consider is that it is of the mint family and it is very toxic.

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It would be a good idea to dump one colony on another. I will have to try it. I had the ants in my yard tested and I have three species. One is a tropical fire ant , attic ants (they are the worst), and black pavement ants with a long technical name. Thankfully, I do not have a lot of the tropical fire ants and the ants are not biting ants. Geckos and greenhouse frogs do eat them. I use boric acid too, in the form of terro ant bait. I usually put it under the gardenia, citrus trees, and lemon grass plants. They also like to nest in my orchid pots, but I don't have a really good way to treat them. The terro bait container is too large for the pots. I need to find something smaller.

I have more issues with ants in the house than outside.I an use deadline chalk around the windows and doors where there is point of entry. I can also use malathion and I have a little bit of diazinon left for a soil drench around the foundation of the house. I don't have anything planted around the foundation in the ground. It is a bigger problem in the kitchen since I am limited with what I can use on food prep areas. I put bay leaves in the rice container and on the kitchen shelves. The leaves should be changed every 6 months but they will repel most pantry pests. Ants come inside during the summer looking for water and in the winter they come in the house because their house is flooded. I have cats so ant baits cannot be used indoors. I can use deadline chalk in places that the cats do not have access to. For the counter and sink, I can only use food grade diatomaceous earth and Hoy Hoy traps. I have to put baits inside cabinets and places that the cats can't reach. Otherwise, I find the bait floating in the cats' water dish as they will play with them. Diatomaceous earth does not kill the queen, only workers and it does not kill fast as it works by cutting up their exoskeleton and dessicating the pests. The ants don't crawl so much on the counter anymore, but the roaches still do. Jack, my cat, will kill roaches if he is in the mood. He would rather chase house geckos instead.

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applestar
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Good to know ants-on-ants work. Seems like a be-fitting natural solution to me. :twisted:

Indoors, we have ant invasions during spring thaw and during the summer with flooding rain after long drought. I find it easiest to mass slaughter worker ants with simply soapy water — dish washing liquid in the kitchen because it’s the easiest to grab and liquid hand soap from nearest bathroom anywhere else. Then I set out borax bait* nearest where they were coming in from. I sometimes mix borax and DE and dust under the window trim, etc. if the DE doesn’t get them, hopefully the borax will.

*Smaller ice cream and sweetened yogurt containers are recycled the same way —> sprinkle remaining melted ice cream or yogurt in the containers with borax, add a bit of water or hot water, close with lid and shake, then open the lid a gap and put where ants have been spotted. May or may not add more water as needed, then when no more ants, wash and use for planting seedlings or throw out. We have no container recycling program in our county for these, but at least this way I feel a little better that I re-used them at least once.

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TomatoNut95
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How strange that ants had a gravesite.....
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