I heard to try grits too and I did. I don't remember if it worked. I
moved back to California since then and haven't tried it out here yet.
Ant baits worked pretty good. Wish I could remember what kind I
bought because the ones I got this last time haven't worked. It
wasn't Raid's brand. Those don't attract nothing not even flies.

Oh and for flying insects I do recommend yellow sticky traps and fly
paper. I have it all over my garden and I have to put in new ones
every week since they work so well.

I also use powdered milk in my hose-end sprayer to keep veggie wilts
and fungus at bay on the soil and the plants. Works pretty good
because usually by now my squash are shriveled and dying from a fungus
or disease. And I have more baby fruit on this one plant than I've
ever seen on any of my past plants. Try it out! Doesn't work on ants
though. Too bad!

Carla Goodloe


"Penny Morgan" wrote in message . com...
Can't guarantee this will work, but it seemed to make my baby ants
disappear. They were like little armies in a line going from my lawn,
across my concrete patio, and under the step into my house and across my
counters. It was very annoying. Ant traps didn't work and you could only
spray with Raid so many times.

I read an article that said to put down or sprinkle uncooked grits on the
soil where they were crossing. They take the food back to their homes and
eat it. Once ingested, it puffs up and makes the ants explode. I know
you're probably laughing, but mine disappeared after sprinkling some around
my patio.

You'll never know until you try. Good luck.

Penny
Zone 7b - North Carolina
"Oriole" wrote in message
news
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