It’s not as if they’ve ever been uncommon in our yard. Or our kitchen for that matter. But it’s their impervious nature this season that has me so stressed.
They destroyed our corn. Did I mention that? Yes, with the help of their aphid butt-juice drinking habit our corn is nothing more than chicken feed and compost. And we’ve gotten all of 3 beans from our bush and pole beans. That’s right folks. The easiest thing to grow and we got nada. Right now they are working their way through our melons and into our raised beds.
But it’s the ants in the kitchen that have really killed my appetite.
Ants baited with boric acid and honey. They loved it. Wasn’t much help, though.
Justin removed our RO system when he found it leaking. A few days later he admitted the water damage would require removing the walls and bottoms of the cabinets under the kitchen sink. That’s when he found the nest in the wall. From there the ants travelled from houseplant to houseplant, burrowing their larvae into the soil of each plant. After removing every plant from the vicinity and sealing every nook and cranny possible, I THINK we may have protected our kitchen.
Now, I’m okay with ants outside. In fact, I want some ants. They aerate the soil, even pollinate some plants. And..erm..I’m sure they do more than that. My problem is they also fight off insects that threaten their turf. So although our ladybug population initially increased with the aphids, it quickly disappeared. (Again.)
We tried a few things to decrease (not eradicate) the outdoor ant population. Cornmeal, essential oils, boric acid in several mediums. I’ve even encouraged the chickens to have a go at it. Nothing has worked. And I certainly don’t want to resort to anything stronger or deadlier.
Outdoor ants baited with boric acid and yogurt. Usually works great but these ants aren’t affected. They circle around in droves, eat it all up and skip away merrily.
Permaculture principles say to allow these imbalances to correct themselves. My role should be to support a healthy ecology by adding organic amendments to unhealthy soil, establishing appropriate plants and facilitating their growth. All of this of course takes time, which is my biggest frustration.
So I suppose my mission this fall, when replanning and replanting our yard, is to find and establish plants to repel ants and/or attract insects that eat ants. Any suggestions? Please?
Our next door neighbor (well the house) has suffered with ants for 9 years now. They had a water leak in the upstairs bathroom…. for the first 7 years the different owners didn’t correct the problem… the new owners this year finally did… Oh My Stars what a mess. The neighbors on our other side have bitting red ants and a in ground pool. Having any extra water around these parts can be a problem. Hahahaha
I remember reading that planting peppermint can help keep ants out of gardens. Maybe that could be an option?
another plant I’ve read about is Tansy. ants are necessary yet give me the hebi gebis.
I am so sorry about the ants. I hate ants. They give me nightmares. Literally.
We just use ant drops. It’s always worked for us. If they are in my house, then they can just die. Don’t know about natural outdoor remedies, though.
I’m afraid of planting peppermint in anything other than the container we currently have it in. It spreads like the dickens! I’ll def have to look into tansy.
I am having the same problem. I kill them with soapy water in a spray bottle.
Good luck.
*Sigh* While I have no advice, I feel your pain. We don’t have ants in our living spaces, thankfully, but there is a rather large carpenter nest in the attic that we are trying to eradicate with the “safer” pesticides. We haven’t really seen a decrease in the # of ants crawling on the outside of our house.
Husband will go up there again this weekend to see what’s going on.
*carpenter ant. If there were a nest of carpenters in our attic, I’d just start a carpentry company.
Yeah, don’t do mint out of a pot, not unless you want it to take over you whole world. (It does smell wonderful when it’s mowed) Baby powder will keep ants at bay but I’ve only ever tried that indorrs. You can also try Tansy or Southernwood. Maybe just lots of potted peppermint throughout the garden would work though?
When we were living in North Carolina they would put cedar chips/mulch around the foundation of their house. This is a foggy memory, but something about the ants not crossing it.
Hillary, the only problem with that is if they are in the walls of the house and we use cedar mulch they might come further inside! lol
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Kathi, I’m wondering if my boric acid ratios were off. Tempting to try to get a commercial trap, although I did try several different ratios.
We were so ridden with ants this summer that I was embarrassed to have people over. After trying red pepper, baby powder, black pepper, cinnamon, and about a dozen commercial traps, we finally settled on Terra. It’s a mixture of boric acid and sweetener, so not too far off from what you’ve already used. However, putting drops along the inside trails AND a trap where they were entering the house did the trick, within a couple days. (Warning: during those days, it will get worse before it gets better.)
I had a major ant problem in Costa Rica and they told us to scatter used coffee grounds on all the ant trails and it seemed to work well.
I think you’re already on the right track Tara. Maybe once you’ve had the chickens a little longer you’ll notice a difference. Your dedication to permaculture is inspiring to read about as I contemplate my own garden issues.
My sister has had great success using clove essential oil. She uses a cotton swab or paintbrush to create a “barrier” for the ants – and she never had a problem with that.
My parents are also currently using Diatomaceous Earth (DE)which is apparently earth-friendly. It sticks to the ants and eventually kills them. Sad, but hey – when they’re invading your living space, that isn’t good! Here’s a link if you want to do more research:
http://www.planetnatural.com/site/diatomaceous-earth.html
I have also heard great things about vinegar – just spray it on the affected area and they will supposedly stay away. I would add some cayenne pepper to the vinegar, just to be sure…
Just for the record, we’ve tried essential oils, DE, boric acid, vinegar, and every powdered anything we thought they wouldn’t cross.
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I really need to find a way to get to that promiscuous little Queen at this point. Or find an insect that loves ants. Too bad ant-eaters aren’t native to NV.
Try this link at frugal living. They have a lot of good ideas. I’ve tried the vinegar and had some success.
Good Luck
http://www.thefrugallife.com/ants.html
We just tore out a wall at our cabin that was being eaten away by carpenter ants. The little bitty sugar ants don’t bother me but when they are big and eating the walls it is war! Kim
Oh, I know about ants. Have you got fire ants?
In Louisiana we have red imported fire ants and they are HORRIBLE. They kill everything in the yard and I was horrified to find them in my bed one morning. My baby was bitten by them about 12 times while we were sleeping, and we ended up moving to the living room for about a week.
A few days later I suffered the trauma of having ants in my pants. Not fun.
I’ve tried most of the natural remedies to get rid of them, and nothing has worked so far. I’d love to know if you find something.
Hi Tara,
I learned that if you mix dry yeast and sugar together and put it where you have ant problems that will solve the problem. It has worked great for me: the they: the ants are attracted to the sugar and yeast are both sweet. The ant talks this food back to it’s home and eats it then when they drink the yeast expands and makes their stomach explode and kills them! Yuck! Worked for us!
We have always used powdered sugar,dry yeast and borax in equal parts.If you know were the nests out side you can use boiling water.It takes some time but this has worked for us.
I’m not sure what to do about the outdoor problems but I do know that Mint attracts ant populations. I have been dealing with an ant problem because of my now overgrown mint-bed that is near my kitchen door…bad choice. I have had those same sweet eating ants in my kitchen and they are soooo agrivating! Like you I tried borax and honey, borax and powdered sugar…nothing worked. I used the “ant drops” which are nothing more than higher concentrations of borax and sugar. Even those did not keep the little buggers from coming in!! There is one thing about borax though…ants don’t like to cross a place that is sprayed with a borax solution. Just borax and water!
Take a clean empty spray bottle and pour in a 1/4 to a 1/2 cup of borax powder. Then fill the bottle with HOT water from the tap, shake to mix, and spray it on them! It won’t kill them dead but you can wipe them up and dispose of the massacre. Then spray the areas where they are coming into the house. Really douse those areas down well! It worked for my problem.
You can use the solution to clean your counter tops too. The solution doesn’t work if you keep it long term (like a year) so if they come back next year make a new batch.
Like you I don’t mind the ants as they are beneficial but feeding them borax can kill the nest. So I try to find ways to deter them from my house rather than killing them.