ants

[Ma's_Garden]

What is the best way to get rid of ants in a raised bed garden? I haven't seen the ants, just their ant hills, so I don't know what kind of ants they are.

[shadowwalker37148]

I found the ant baits with borax in them workd good. Just put them by the ant hills. in a few days no ants. shadowwalker37148

[GreenZone]

Well, I guess I'm a bit contrary, but I try to avoid killing critters unless they are actually doing harm. About the only harm ants do in my garden (to my knowledge) is when they herd aphids. I've seen this occasionally. The oddest was on the ROOTS of some hyssop plants. Do ants do other damage that maybe I should be aware of??

[RaspberryFlyer]

I work to keep ants out of the garden because I encourage children to work in the garden, and the little ones can get hurt by the ants.


Amdro ant bait was recommmended by the local nursery technician. It does seem to work well. We have HUGE ant mounds around here.

[annb]

Hi all,
I've never seen or used an ant bait that has borax so maybe it's something that would contain the borax, but I wanted to caution against using any boron product in the soil for pest management. I have a boron deficiency in my soil and the recommended amounts to add were something like 1/3 to 1/2 cup per 100 square feet. Excess boron can cause some major problems.

I currently have ants in my garden that do no harm, so we don't worry about them. Actually, I like watching them.
But when we lived in Houston we had fire ants which were a major problem at times. We would usually just pour boiling water on the mounds and they would move somewhere else.

Here's an article you might find helpful.
http://www.urbanharvest.org/gardening/index.html
Take care,
Ann

[terrianne]

I do nothing about ants in the garden. They are part of the ecosystem. They help with pollination, are food for the birds....for my house however...several years ago when I purchased my house it had ants. I went to the local drug store....purchased a small bottle of boric acid power. (I still have the same bottle...so a little bit goes a long way) I went around the entire perimeter of the house and sprinkled the powder against the foundation....it works. I have had no problems....and have done this only once since. This spring...I have seen a few ants inside...so it may be time to do so again.

Terri Anne

[Claypool]

Cinnemon . . .
A long time ago an "old-timer" shared her strategy of sprinkling cinnemon on indoor ant entries and trails as an end of her hospitality . . .

I aspire to coexisting with little creatures, and have an aversion to killing them even when they have worn out their welcome! So we have to negotiate our territorial boundaries . . .

In testimony to my friend's strategy, I have since used cinnemon exclusively, indoors and out, with fabulous success. I believe the cinnemon assaults the ants' sensory mechanism, and merely acts as a deterrant since I have yet to see any ant remains.

Admittedly, I have not researched potential hazzards of cinnemon. However, I have not seen adverse affects to the ground where I have sprinkled, nor have I seen ill affects to nearby plants. Like boric acid, a little bit goes a long way. I hope this can be a viable alternative for other unwelcome ant hills!

[leafmulchy]

Ants hurt children? Red ones bite, but I have yet to be "hurt" by a black ant.
Ants are major actors in the decomposing aspect of a garden, of life. Ants are important.....

If you have small ants, red or black, this mix will most likely help:
boric acid (liquid or powder), peanut butter, honey. Use 1 teaspoon of each, mix them together, then spread a little bit on pieces of cardboard. Set this bait along a trail the ants use (but not too close to the nest). The ants will eat the bait and the bait will wipe out a good portion of the colony within a few days.

I ignore ants in my garden. Ants in my house I deal with using this same bait approach.

I also use strongly scented oils and rub the oil along any areas where ants enter the house. (citronella, mint, eucalyptus oils work well).

[Steph]

I have successfully used cinnamon, too to get rid of ants in my house. I would just sprinkle it around where they were coming in so they can't go around it and they would leave. The ants where we live now aren't a problem but we had fire ants where we used to live and they were everywhere! We could not keep them away no matter what. My little ones always had bites on thier feet. I read that if you put corn grits on and around thier piles they will eat it and it will kill them. I have never tried it. Just something I've read.

[ipaintedmyhousewhite]

I've had some luck with cinnamon, but as leafmulchy says, eucalyptus oil works very well. I don't know how you'd put it in your raised bed though. Some ants like sugar, and some like protein, so that would determine what kind of bait you'd use. When I was having trouble in our house, I just did a google search and found some info about how to identify the ants, so I'd know what they were after. But it seems natural to me that they'd be in a garden...however, do you have damp or decomposing wood around your raised beds? That could be drawing more ants than would normally be there.

[flowerpower]

The Carpenter Ant is the only one that is a problem here. I saw a few last year and followed them back "home". The anthill was completely underground .So I boiled up alot of salt water and poured it right over them. I kept watering until I did not see any more ants emerge. I haven't seen any come from there since

[Cliff Timmons]

I haven't tried this but I read where if you plant peppermint or spearmint around your house the ants won't come around it. But then I read that ants keep termites away, so I guess it's a toss-up.

[ipaintedmyhousewhite]

Yes, I heard that too, about the ants and the termites, I forgot about that. Now I remember that's what made me decide to stick with my ants :)

[GObug]

Ants are the most abundant creature on earth. It is impossible to get rid of them except in a limited space for a limited time.

As an exterminator, they are the most common pest I deal with, and the most troublesome. Some can be beneficial and others can be a royal pain.

With very few exceptions, baits are the best way to control ants. One exception would be leaf cutter ants, who do not take any baits. Persistance will give you the advantage.

I have a few comments about some of the statements above. First, boric acid is a herbacide as well as a pesticide. If used in excess it can poison your soil and be difficult to remedy. Home made baits using boric acid can be quite successful. One suggestion I have is to keep the concentration very low. 1 to 5% by weight is all that is required, and actually outperforms higher concentrations. This can be tricky to measure. Anything more concentrated will not eliminate the colony, but may result in a temporary reduction of workers. The food chosen can be anything the ants like. Common boric acid is not water soluable and does not work as well as water soluable formulations. I only know of two water soluable boric acid products: TimBor and Mop-Up. Both work great in baits. TimBor is a termite product, and Mop-Up is a kitchen floor coating.

Grits are a common bait matrix. Amdro, for example, uses grits for the bait, and hydromethylnon for the toxin. It is an excellent bait if the ants take it. Hydromethylnon is very low in toxicity to mammals, very dilute in the baits, and used in many different baits. Using grits alone will not control the ants (common myth).

Toxicity is a measure, like temperature. Everything is toxic to some degree. Saying something is non-toxic is like saying it has no temperature. Non-toxic is an oxymoron.

I have mixed feelings about cinnamon for ant control. I definitely recommend against it indoors. For me, it is way too expensive to waste on ants. Then you have the staining that will happen on vinyl or carpet. Its action is reputed to be repellant, which does nothing but effect where they go if it truly works. Many pesticidal sprays are repellant and only have a temporary impact on the ants. A teaspoon of boric acid is enough for a year or more in homemade baits. Boric acid is so cheap, that the container costs more than the product.

I only use a pesticide in the garden when it is absolutely necessary. As a result, I have abundant bugs. This is healthy until something gets out of control. If you don't use a regular regimen of pest control, you must use observation skills to monitor what is going on. Once the aphids get to a certain population level, the ants that like them will be there also. I have observed a lady bug landing on a leaf and a half dozen ants attacking her so she couldn't lay eggs or eat aphids.

Combat makes a granular bait where the food base is ground up silk worm pupae. Many ants love this bait. The active ingredient is hydromethlynon. I placed a tablespoon full in a jar lid on the ground and watched as ants harvested the bait. After several hours, they had taken less than a quarter teaspoon. I picked up the rest. In two weeks, all of that ant were gone. It doesn't take a lot of any bait to kill a colony of ants.

Part of good ant control is using the minimum amount of product necessary to gain control. I do not like the idea of surrounding structures with a poison. Part of the skill of using the minimum amount is to put it in the right place. If you use a bait, this means placing it where the ants forage and other critters cannot find it. Most ant species forage for food at specific times of the day. Placing a bait in their trail at this time works the best. Pick it up when they're done.

Most effective baits have a delayed action. This is necessary to kill the colony. The way ants feed is the foraging workers carry the bait home and feed it to the larvae. The larvae chew it up and feed it back to the workers, who in turn feed each other and eventually feed the queen. (trophalaxis) The queen's food is filtered through several ant stomachs before she gets it. In order to kill the colony you must kill the queen. The poison must be dilute and slow acting to make it to the queen. This can take from a few days to a couple weeks. If the poison is too concentrated, it doesn't make it to the queen, so the factory is still in operation. Generally, only 10% of the colony forages outside the nest for food.

Sorry to carry on so. As I mentioned, ants are a big part of the pest control business, and I have many years of experience dealing with many varieties.

[Suze]

Grits are a common bait matrix. Amdro, for example, uses grits for the bait, and hydromethylnon for the toxin. It is an excellent bait if the ants take it. Hydromethylnon is very low in toxicity to mammals, very dilute in the baits, and used in many different baits. Using grits alone will not control the ants (common myth).

Oh -- I'd wondered how the grit myth came to be. :)

[uncasrabbit]

Hey everyone, I need your advice. I used to grow Pike muskmelons, which start to smell wonderful about three weeks before they are ripe. The ants would drill holes in them and eat them from the inside out, before the sugar had formed. Maybe for the moisture? We are drought-prone here. I tried making sure the melons were sitting on cardboard and not the ground, I used nylon hose tied over the developing melons to keep the ants from getting to them. I tried growing peppermint around them (ants aren't supposed to like peppermint). This year I am trying a melon with a harder, thicker rind but don't know if it will work. There are no ant homes in the bed or immediately around it, they travel from other parts of the garden. I can't/don't want to kill all of the ants! They are medium-sized black ants. Anyone else have this problem?