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03-06-2003, 07:56 PM

in article , B. Joshua Rosen
at wrote on 6/3/03 8:43 AM:

On Tue, 03 Jun 2003 06:29:55 -0400, Brian wrote:

Jan Flora wrote:

In article , "B. Joshua
Rosen" wrote:

On Mon, 02 Jun 2003 21:24:42 -0400, Brian wrote:

Repeating Decimal wrote:

in article , The Tucson
Bender at wrote on 6/1/03 10:47
PM:

Is there any way to kill ants organically? We have tried pouring
boiling water on the colony, but it is just too large. Are there
any natural predators of ants that could survive in a south-western
Virginia climate?

Hot water sounds about as inorganic as you can go.

What makes you say that ?

Bill

There is no carbon in water, i.e. it's inorganic.

Good catch. I'll bet it would work though.

Ok, you got me there. I was looking at it from the organic gardener and
using poison.

Have you tried the Safer pesticides?, they use fatty acids (organic by both
definitions).

I have used potassium soap to get rid of ants. It wets then down so that
they suffocate. Diluted dishwasher detergent also works. At one time I used
to get shampoo from the 99¢ store that used ammonium laurel sulfate rather
than the more common sodium version so as not to add sodium to my soil.

Note that this wetting process is physical rather than chemical. There is no
residual activity. You have to be persistent for it to work. There is no
toxin taken back to the nest to kill the queen.

Bill