g'damn ants

Ok, so I don't know why ants don't drown but I do know that a solution of 50% water, 25% sugar and 25% borax poured around the ant hill does work and it's not toxic.

Don't they love the sugar? How does that work?

I'm definitely looking for something anti-ant and non-toxic. We have a travelling troupe, we spray 'em out of house and home and they just show up elsewhere. Last time was amongst the petunias and vinca and E.G. sprayed the heck out of them and they're gone, but the vinca is brown and unhappy. :-( (Weirdly, petunias were fine.)

A non toxic way to rid yourself of an ant mound, is to pour boiling water on the mound.

Kills all of them , instantly.

Seems like plants wouldn't like that much, either...?

i have never hurt my plants.. and I live in fire ant heaven.

If you pour slowly, and dont slosh alot of it on the plants, it cools quickly and doesnt hurt them, but is still hot enough to kill the ants.

It only takes a second or so of the hot water being on the ants to kill them. And since it cools quick enough, it isnt on the roots long enough to damage the plants.

If that worries you, just have the hose handy and pour some cooler water over the plant base as soon as you are done with the ant mound.

Hmmm, this wasn't a mound so much as a condo -- lots of different small openings spread over a large area, and the whole area covered with plants.

But will keep it in mind if it's a more obvious mound, love that just water is involved.

You are fighting 10 million years of evolution. You shouldn't expect to win with water. These critters have been around longer than we have and they have adapted to survive much worse than that.

Screwing around with nature is a dangerous game. You could always make amends with a little chocolate.

My chamomile was covered with those little black sugar like ants and they were eating the leaves.

The chamomile was still young, less then 3 inches tall and what I did was take a ladel and just pour a few drops here and there over the openings and the obvious swells in the dirt where they were.

After doing this for 2 days , just a little at a time, they were gone and even my seedlings survived .

But that was the only time I have done it over a sensative planted area.
I may have been , just lucky? Who knows..

but I too hate chemicals. So the hot water was just enough. And I know thier little bodies wont survive it, unlike some chemicals they seem to be able to eat ...yet they advertise that they shouldnt survive them..

<sigh>

gasoline and a match. the earth has survived much worse than a little of that.

Just for the record, ants would never build a shopping mall in a flood plain, which suggests that ants are smarter than San Diegans. They're smart enough to build tunnel systems under the anthill to drain away any water that gets inside. They even adjust the size and complexity of the tunnels according to the type of soil they're in. But if the deluge comes, ants are great floaters. Their little exoskeletons make my-t-fine lifeboats. Fire ants will even cling together into a big ant ball and have a group float. Ants don't have actual lungs and require very little air, which makes life easier on rainy days. If necessary, they can pack their bags and leave. After rain you'll sometimes see ants repairing water damage to the old homestead. But they'd never, ever build a shopping mall in a flood plain.

Friend of mine used to wage perpetual war against the little critters, cuz adamant bitter assinine places.







I've waited years to drop that into a conversation. Yes! Thanks, Dys.

D-Con ant stakes works for us, placed around the outside base of the house. If you have pets, they can't get into them and you can install them with the opening facing the wall. Haven't had one ant problem for years even with sugary stuff left out on the counter. You can also put the stakes under the sink where there is most often openings to the outdoors.

I tried the borax/sugar recipe and killed four ant hills in an experiment. Now I'm going after the rest of them.

Trouble with that is it's unsightly in the garden and watering washes it away quite quickly. Not sure if I want sugar in my carpet -- if it got wet, you'd have syrup. For ant hills, it's likely ideal. I don't have any in our townhouse patio garden nor up front with the landscaping -- I've looked for them.

The borax/sugar is just the thing for the apartments. It's something I can legally spread. In Texas, the unlicensed can't use poisons at a business, such as an apartment complex.

The D-Con stakes enclose the poison within a metal casing and the ants are attracted by a honey-like scent, go into the enclosed space, gather particles of the substance and take it back to the colony, killing all the ants there. Not even a curious pet or child can get to the poison.

The Dcon stakes are illegal for me to put out. I have been using Over and Out, and it's very effective, compared to other products I've used. Only thing is, I could be in deep guacamole if caught using it.

Man, do you live in an uptight area if you can't put out something as safe as D-Con stakes. There's just no way to get into them and expose the poison without a hacksaw. You've got kids, dogs or cats around you that have hacksaws. Glad I don't live in Texas. Sorry.

In Texas, one must be licensed to put out any sort of poison on a commercial property. I bet it's like that in many other places.