I am trying to kill some ants (big red and black) with some home remedies because I don't want to put chems in my soil, but am fighting a losing battle. I have some big ant hills on my land where I am building and want them gone. So far I have used:
Quick grits (has homeny) - Killed only a few due to a small rain that came through but basically just fed the ants! The red ones ate it but the black ones were not interested.
Instant grits - Just fattened up the ants! Now they are well fed ants. Again the reds went for it but the black ones didn't.
Borax mixed with sugar - Now they are clean and fat ants! Well, it looked like it worked, but looks like I again had some mixed results. Again the black ones were not interested.
Next up....Dietamaceus earth! I am not so excited anymore about these solutions working. I believe the black ants are of the carpenter ant variety so are more interested in wood than sugar.
Any other thoughts??
Comments
A quick update...
The DE looks like it worked on a couple of the ant hills, but not on others. We have had too much rain and wind for there to be a real test. I think we will have several days of sunshine so I am attacking the ants again witht the DE. Will let you know.
DE for killing ants
Another note about DE is the fact that after it has been exposed to light it doesn't work. This means when you open the jar you should be in the garage or at least put your back to the sun and sheild the container (unless it's in a clear container and it's already been ruined). I have a link below for a website with a wealth of information. The woman's name is Lucy Harrell and she is a very well know organic gardener here in Texas. She can tell you what products to use and HOW to use them.
http://www.organicgardeningtx.com/
Hope this helps.
Let me correct myself. The product I speak of is not DE. It is a lot like DE but I will have to get back to you on the exact name. DE however is still great for placing under stepping stones and such but as far as I can tell it won't actually kill the ants. Let me find out exactly .... my memory is failing me apparently :-)
Killing Ants
When I lived in Texas and Florida, I had lot's of fire ants and the best way that I got rid of them was boiling water. I'd take a large pot of boiling water out to the and mound stick a stick in the middle to open a way into the nest and pour the water in. It worked like a champ! Bleach also kills ants.
Mark,
In answer to your question?
> You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight savings time.
The answers is kids. Waiting for the school bus.
Bug stuff to keep them away
Ok things ants and other bugs don't like borax and red pepper powder and bone meal and lemon soap boiling chewing tobacco
Do combo with these its there safe but bone meal stinks and attracts other bugs.
Tobacco boiled with lemon soap and borax might do the trick.
These all things i read about when i thought the same as you.
Good luck
Thanks for all of the
Thanks for all of the responses! I have ordered some DE from Garden.com. I will let you know what happens when I get it and apply it.
how did it go?
?
Ant killer
Here around Kentucky I have heard to put down a pile of cornmeal near the hill. Supposely they take it back to the colony but can't digest it and it kills them.
Yeah I have hear of cornmeal
Yeah I have hear of cornmeal too but I think it is like the Grits (which did not work). I still hear good things about diatemaceus earth. I am currently looking for some. I will let you know and still might consider the cornmeal though.
DE
Sun, 2010-07-11 06:29
I was an organic garnening/farming consultant for awhile and sold quite a bit of diotamaceous earth. It is basically just fine silica particles I believe. It kills soft bodied critters like slugs quite well because the tiny particles are sharp enough to wreak havoc. This is the only way it kills from what I know, and this is why you never want to breath it. Our lungs are quite sensitive to it. I tried using it on hard-shelled bugs like cucumber beatles and had very little luck. I would guess that ants would be the same. They just don't have that soft, moist tissue that the DE destroys.
It can be found on the internet or an organic farming supply place. Where are you located?
I am in southern Colorado.
I am in southern Colorado. I have heard that the DE tears their exoskeleton and kills them and they take it to the den and even the newly hatched babies come in contact with it and kills them too. I have a neighbor here and he swears by it for killing the ants. I have seen it on Amazon, but would like to get it locally if I can. Closest town is Alamosa.
diatomaceous earth
Sun, 2010-07-11 10:35
worth a try.
DE
I know several people who swear by it. One couple I know mixes a small amount of it into water, puts it into a spraw bottle, and sprays it on their baseboards. They claim after one treatment they wont see cockroaches for another year.
Living in Vegas I see lots of cockroaches, so they must be doing something right.
I havent personally tried it.
Be careful with DE!
I'm no expert but I have heard there is organic and manmade DE. Organic is suppose to be safe while manmade is suppose to be very bad for you and NOT to be breathed because it causes silicosis. DE is suppose to work by somehow getting between the plates of an insect's exoskeleton and causing them to die from mositure loss I believe. I was looking for a natural way to kill fleas and came across the warning about the difference between the two. Yes, it is suppose to kill fleas too. You can gurantee any DE you get at a pool store is not natural.
diatemaceus earth
Get all you want from your local pool supply. It's used in the filtering/cleaning system.
ant killer
we boil water, pour in some vinegar and pour it on the ant hills. works pretty well. good luck!
Does boiling water with
Does boiling water with vinegar kill them or do they just move? If it works, I will try it.
ant killer
it killed ours, but yours could be made of sturdier stuff!
its pretty cheep. give it a try!
When we was kids...
We used to get two kid, two shovels, and two separate ant colonies. Each kid takes a shovelfull of anthill and swaps places with the other kid and dumps the foreign ants on the other anthill. There was always a cool battle and tons of dead ants but I don't know what it did to the population. I suppose this is evidence of a certain amount of cruelty... but then again we were kids and they were ants.
^that made me lol. X2 on the
Tue, 2010-07-06 09:13
^that made me lol.
X2 on the venigar..iv heard good things about it.