Oriole wrote:

Hi All,
Some time ago I wrote about my ant problem. I have tried the boric acid
with sugar and water one poster gave me a recipe for. Although it did
attract an ant or two, it didn't do a thing to solve my ant problem. (This
did work for my mother's ant problem's though)
Anyway, I still have ants in my raised beds. They are crawling over all
my vegetables and flowers. I have been keeping a look out for aphids as last
year that seemed to be their main purpose for being in my garden. It has
started again. I don't have any aphids yet, but I do have lots of ants. I
also seem to have 3 or 4 different kinds of ants. Almost all are black. Some
are so small you can just barely see them, while others look like regular
picnic ants.
I live in TN but also had this same problem in GA. One of the ant
species, seems to live in the roots of my plants, building up a mound around
the stem, especially on my Cosmo's in the cutting bed. When this happened in
GA, I discovered that the ants had made a tunnel into the stem. This same
thing happened to me last year, with some Sun flowers I planted. As you
would guess this eventually kills the plant, makes the stem very stumpy and
large, while the flowers are small and weak.
These ants make little mounds of dirt everywhere, but I can't seem to
find any one source of their nest. I have tried pellet's that say they are
for killing snails, slugs and ants. I have tired the boric solution, I have
tried boiling water. On the cutting garden I have tried systemic poison. I
have tried Seven dust.
Has anyone else had this problem? Can you offer more idea's on how to
rid the garden of the ants? I am at my wits end.
TIA
Oriole




You could use Diazinon granules. It is not organic though. I sprinkle a
small band around my house to keep out crickets, earwigs, ants and other
critters. It is toxic to pets and birds until it is washed into the
ground so make sure you follow the directions. I never used it on my
garden, but the bag has directions for putting it around veggies.