I've been getting a lot of requests on my site for controlling ants this
year so I thought I'd share a recipe I got from "The Greenbug Guide to a
Totally Organic Garden" by Ursula Dole & Dianne Van Kirk:
Baking powder sprayed inside the ant's nest (if you can find it) will help
kill the queen.
The other way of getting to her would be to make bait out of boric acid (you
should be able to find this in any drugstore). Mix 1 tablespoon of boric
acid and 6 tablespoons of sugar in 2 cups of water.
Get cotton balls or paper towel & soak them in the solution. Next, gather
empty containers like yoghurt containers and cut small holes around the
base. Put the cotton balls or paper towel into the containers, place the
lid on, and then position the containers on the ant paths. The worker ants
will go into the containers and take the boric acid back to the queen. You
should see control in a couple of weeks.
You might have to clean out the containers every week or so.
Let me know how it works if you try it.
Arzeena
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Terra Viva Organics
Organic garden seed, natural fertilizers & predatory insects
www.tvorganics.com
---------------------------
I have been using boric acid/sugar/water for years. We have sooooo many
ants from all the big trees that sometimes I break down and use
diazinon--but I prefer not to do that because we have a well. I'm not
sure how many the boric acid/sugar mix kills, but I just put droplets on
the deck where I see they have trails and they do gather round the stuff.
Maybe I should try using a container and cotton balls like you
mentioned. Certain trees really seem to attract ants. I had DH cut down
two hybrid poplars I had planted because the ants loved them. If I had
known they were ant trees I'd never have planted them. You'd walk
underneath them and ants would drop on you. Yuch!
Karen in zone 6/5b
Pittsburgh, PA
On Wed, 10 May 2000 09:57:31 -0700 Terra Viva Organics
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Terra Viva Organics wrote:
How do you spray it in the nest?? do I just sprinkle it in there??
thanks..
Christi
I believe the baking powder would have to be mixed with water to be sprayed
into the hill. Otherwise, you're right, it would be sprinkled.
Arzeena
-----------------------------
Terra Viva Organics
Organic garden seed, natural fertilizers & predatory insects
www.tvorganics.com
---------------------------
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