Phil L typed:
Mcploppy © wrote:
Hi All,

For the past few years I hve been having a lot of bother with ants
under my patio, the result is now my slabs are becoming uneven as
the little "things" are erroding the base away.

I intend to lift the slabs and relay the entire patio... but first
would like to find out how to totally erradicate the little
"things".

Over the years I have used many different powders and sprays...
still the little "things" keep coming back.

Suggestions ????

TIA

When you come to relay the flags, rake the sand base level and
sprinkle in a few shovel fulls of cement,[1] you don't need to mix
water with it, there's enough in the sand.
Rake it in to mix it up a bit and lay the flags directly onto the
bed, do'nt use 'blobs' of sand/cement as this just leaves voids
underneth each flag, moreover, this blobbing is no good IMV (I lay
drives for a living) as the rain will simply wash the sand from
underneath the solid blobs leaving each flag rocking...simply lay
them on a dry sand/cement mix and the overall effect will be a
semi-solid bed with flags on top.
You will still get colonies of ants taking up residence but they will
be much smaller nests and will be unable to make much of a dent on the
foundation.


HTH

[1]
one bag of cement should cover about 8sq metres, mixed into a 50mm
bed of sand(don't worry about it not being mixed evenly - as long as
the top inch has /some/ cement in it, then it will set quite hard)

Excellent..... fancy a job :-s

The thought of lifting the slabs does not fill me with excitement.... but it
has to be done.

Cheers
--
McPloppy ©

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