General Chat

Is there anyone out there who knows the best way to get rid of ants from my daughters garden. She's tried ant powder, boiling water (which kills the grass), deathlac etc all to no avail. She loves sitting in her garden but hates the ants crawling over everything. Any ideas?

She will have to find the nest, then ant powder or boiling water will work.

If the nest isn;t destroyed they will still find a way round

Hi Uzzi, thanks for replying. She has tried hot water but it tends to burn the grass but I think if she really wants to get rid of them she'll have to accept ruining the grass. (It's been so warm that the grass isn't too good at the moment). She gets so paranoid about the ants that it's spoiling her enjoyment of her garden. Regards

Google Ant deterrent and there are lots of sites with various suggestions, like garlic spray and salt and such.

My Mum used to mix a little icing sugar with bicarbonate of soda I think it was and they would take that back to the nest and it would kill them off. I am sure it was bicarb, anyone else heard of that mix?

Lizx

I just found the following, never saw exploding ants but Mum was obviously right!


How do you kill ants?

i have little black ants in my bathroom and red ants in my bedroom how do you track where their nest is and what is the best was to get rid of them

January 26, 2007

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
The very best way of eliminating ants is truly simple:

Take a small amount of powdered sugar (also called icing sugar) and mix it with an equal amount of baking soda (formally called sodium bicarbonate)

Powdered sugar is essential. You cannot use the larger grains of sugar for this..


Mix the two powders together and then place small amounts against the walls or other areas where you would not normally walk but where you would normally see the ants.

The ants will be attracted to the sugar and will eat some of it and collect more to take home to feed others, so all of them will get their share.

The sugar and baking soda powders are similar in size and, once mixed together, the ants cannot separate the two items, so, as they eat the sugar, they will also ingest the baking soda, which they would otherwise never touch. This is the reason for using powdered sugar.

Once the ants eat the baking soda it will react with the formic acid in their stomachs and cause gas. The bodies of ants are unlike humans and they cannot eliminate gas so it will build up inside them and cause them to literally explode.

I've been told that ants are cannibals. If you can manage to kill some of them, others will carry their bodies back to the nest and they will all eat each other and the 'poison' too.

Hi everyone, many thanks for your input. Haven't heard of some of your ideas but anythings worth a try. Will print suggestions off and try them. Once again thanks to you all.
Regards
Rosemary

Hi

I poured boiling water over a nest once. I felt terrible after it seeing them taking the bodies away lol.

You also get a gel, you put it on a smooth surface, the ants take iy back to the nest.

Garden ant are in colonies round a garden and there will be more than a dozen nests,,,so trying to get rid will be a worthless task.}}

You need to get a product called Nippon, It's a gel that you put where you see the ants running. They pick it up and take it back to the nest, it kills the ants in the nest.

I had a bad problem with ants

The boiling water killed some but they just kept comming back so I bought some ant powder (Rentokill) quiet expensive £5 for a medium size container but it has done the trick and thankfully they have all gone

Deb k


Edit dont use if you have pets

Mint or Peppermint oil is good put it on bit of tissues about the room you have them, my mum done it every year and never got them.

Sorry didnt read it to well. But try an mint plant as that what also works


Good luck

Hazelx

n

I was reading the other day how most animals are susceptible to noise ……….. including ants !

It seems that the surrounding acoustics affects the ants’ communication range for successful feeding and mating and, at the right pitch, will increase stress levels which consequently cause evacuation of the affected zone.

When communicating, ants produce an upcall which begins low and increases in pitch, it then quickly settles back to a decibel which they find comfortable.

However they are adversely affected by continuous external noise at the top or bottom of their comfort zone acoustics.

I think you may be able to use this little snippet of information to rid your daughter of these troublesome insects.

I suggest that you follow the trail of ants back to their nest. Once you have located the exact spot set up a subwoofer within half a metre of the nest entrance and plug it into some monotonous low pitched droning sound. I would recommend either a Jim Reeves or a Katie Melua album.

Then position yourself directly opposite, again no more than half a metre from the nest entrance, armed with a string of empty tin cans and a metal ladle to bash them with.

Then start up the noise.

With any luck all the ants from that particular nest will leg it into next door’s garden. However you may have to perform this exercise at each of the ants nests in the garden.

Please let us know how you get on !

*rushes out, gets chair and sits beside ants emitting a droning monotone version of Danny Boy, accompanied by spoons played on my knees....that should catch the beggars.......

Rob! Thank you! It worked!! lol BC XX

On the ants ................................ or the neighbours ?

LOL

Try "Nippon" Ant control System, its available at most Garden Centres.Its made by Vitax Ltd. Owen St. Coalville. LE67 3DE. Tel 01530 510060. or, www.vitax.co.uk It should sort out both problems for you. **M**.

hhhmph I quite like Jim Reeves and Katie Melua x I will try using Simon and Garfunkal on my ants x

Couple more hints, from the neighbours as we get loads of ants.
1 is sprinkle black pepper around the point that they enter (or in the case of a garden all around it and the other is spray the area with vinegar (diluted or not I'm not sure)

Hi Rob, thanks for your most valuable input. Your info reinforces my belief that my daughter should let me wander round the garden (singing at the top of my voice) any songs that I happen to remember the words to. I'm sure she will then add this to the list of "home offences" she keeps on me. Any time I do something daft she says "Mum thats another (Old Peoples) home offence." I tell her that I can quite easily spill my dinner down my top and sit in the corner dribbling here at home!! My grandchildren think our banter is hillarious but when we're round the shops etc people really believe she's being beastly to me. First thing in the morning I'll lubricate my vocal chords and watch those pesky ants run!