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#31
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Getting Borax
Farm1 wrote:
"Jen" wrote in message "George.com" wrote in message in NZ we can get it through farm merchants in bulk lots (10/20/30 kg bags). Works out cheap though the bag last ages. I guess Aus farm merchants would sell it as well. Why would anyone need such big bags? What else is it used for? Boron deficient soil. It's an important trace element but you'd need a lot of land and to be growing lots of cabbages in boron deficient soil. And getting those mongrel ants. I'll have to suspend operations for a week though, there's some big rain coming in. -- ant Don't try to email me; I'm borrowing the spammer du jour's addy |
#32
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Getting Borax
"ant" wrote in message ... Farm1 wrote: "Jen" wrote in message "George.com" wrote in message in NZ we can get it through farm merchants in bulk lots (10/20/30 kg bags). Works out cheap though the bag last ages. I guess Aus farm merchants would sell it as well. Why would anyone need such big bags? What else is it used for? Boron deficient soil. It's an important trace element but you'd need a lot of land and to be growing lots of cabbages in boron deficient soil. And getting those mongrel ants. I'll have to suspend operations for a week though, there's some big rain coming in. Surely that would be enough to annihilate the whole race of ants. Unless of course you have giant mutant ants of some sort. Jen |
#33
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Getting Borax
"ant" wrote in message
... Farm1 wrote: "Jen" wrote in message "George.com" wrote in message in NZ we can get it through farm merchants in bulk lots (10/20/30 kg bags). Works out cheap though the bag last ages. I guess Aus farm merchants would sell it as well. Why would anyone need such big bags? What else is it used for? Boron deficient soil. It's an important trace element but you'd need a lot of land and to be growing lots of cabbages in boron deficient soil. And getting those mongrel ants. I'll have to suspend operations for a week though, there's some big rain coming in. You won't need anything near 10-30 kg to deal with ants. If you use that much then you'll have effectively poisoned your soil. |
#34
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Getting Borax
"Jen" wrote in message
"ant" wrote in message Farm1 wrote: "Jen" wrote in message "George.com" wrote in message in NZ we can get it through farm merchants in bulk lots (10/20/30 kg bags). Works out cheap though the bag last ages. I guess Aus farm merchants would sell it as well. Why would anyone need such big bags? What else is it used for? Boron deficient soil. It's an important trace element but you'd need a lot of land and to be growing lots of cabbages in boron deficient soil. And getting those mongrel ants. I'll have to suspend operations for a week though, there's some big rain coming in. Surely that would be enough to annihilate the whole race of ants. Unless of course you have giant mutant ants of some sort. Hmmmmm. Given his name, is he wanting to wipe out the relatives? :-)))))) |
#35
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Getting Borax
Farm1 wrote:
"ant" wrote in message ... Farm1 wrote: "Jen" wrote in message "George.com" wrote in message in NZ we can get it through farm merchants in bulk lots (10/20/30 kg bags). Works out cheap though the bag last ages. I guess Aus farm merchants would sell it as well. Why would anyone need such big bags? What else is it used for? Boron deficient soil. It's an important trace element but you'd need a lot of land and to be growing lots of cabbages in boron deficient soil. And getting those mongrel ants. I'll have to suspend operations for a week though, there's some big rain coming in. You won't need anything near 10-30 kg to deal with ants. If you use that much then you'll have effectively poisoned your soil. 10kg would be too much for 16 acres? -- ant Don't try to email me; I'm borrowing the spammer du jour's addy |
#36
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Getting Borax
"ant" wrote in message ... Farm1 wrote: "ant" wrote in message ... Farm1 wrote: "Jen" wrote in message "George.com" wrote in message in NZ we can get it through farm merchants in bulk lots (10/20/30 kg bags). Works out cheap though the bag last ages. I guess Aus farm merchants would sell it as well. Why would anyone need such big bags? What else is it used for? Boron deficient soil. It's an important trace element but you'd need a lot of land and to be growing lots of cabbages in boron deficient soil. And getting those mongrel ants. I'll have to suspend operations for a week though, there's some big rain coming in. You won't need anything near 10-30 kg to deal with ants. If you use that much then you'll have effectively poisoned your soil. 10kg would be too much for 16 acres? -- The idea is to get rid of the nests that cause a problem, NOT scar the earth. Ants are there for a purpose, great scavengers & cleaner-uppers. You actually need them Jim |
#37
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Getting Borax
"ant" wrote in message
Farm1 wrote: "ant" wrote in message And getting those mongrel ants. I'll have to suspend operations for a week though, there's some big rain coming in. You won't need anything near 10-30 kg to deal with ants. If you use that much then you'll have effectively poisoned your soil. 10kg would be too much for 16 acres? Have you done any searches on how much boron you use in an ant killing station? My understanding is that it is something like tablespoon of boron to about a half cup of icing sugar. If you use too much borax on the basis of more is better then that is not so. The ants are not attracted to the borax but to the icing sugar and they will not take the bait unless it appeals to them. I know that with boron deficiency in cabbages, the rate of application is a teaspoon/gallon of water. That is a tiny amount of Borax and is for an identified deficiency. Even for apple trees that produce "corky" fruit the remedy is only 4oz for a mature tree - again a tiny amount. Boron is a very minutely needed trace element and I would be very cautious with how much you used and where. My reaction would be to try to get rid of the problem bringing the ants and to try to use white oil or some similar mild form of bug control rather than to risk killing every ant on the place and poisoning your soil. And I'd be using it only close tot he house if that is where your main problems of ant infestation and because of incursion into the house.Start small is always I think a better policy till you see what will occur. |
#38
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Getting Borax
SG1 wrote:
The idea is to get rid of the nests that cause a problem, NOT scar the earth. Ants are there for a purpose, great scavengers & cleaner-uppers. You actually need them They're wrecking my trees. Maybe I won't kill all of them though, occasionally a large echidna appears but he doesn't seem to be eating very many. -- ant Don't try to email me; I'm borrowing the spammer du jour's addy |
#39
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Getting Borax
ant wrote: SG1 wrote: The idea is to get rid of the nests that cause a problem, NOT scar the earth. Ants are there for a purpose, great scavengers & cleaner-uppers. You actually need them They're wrecking my trees. Maybe I won't kill all of them though, occasionally a large echidna appears but he doesn't seem to be eating very many. -- ant Don't try to email me; I'm borrowing the spammer du jour's addy What are they doing that makes you think it is the ants that are wrecking your trees and what sort of trees are being effected? The ants may be just a symptom and not the cause of the damage to your trees. |
#40
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Getting Borax
"GreenieLeBrun" wrote in message ups.com... ant wrote: SG1 wrote: The idea is to get rid of the nests that cause a problem, NOT scar the earth. Ants are there for a purpose, great scavengers & cleaner-uppers. You actually need them They're wrecking my trees. Maybe I won't kill all of them though, occasionally a large echidna appears but he doesn't seem to be eating very many. How do ants wreck trees? Just wondering. Jen |
#41
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Getting Borax
Sigh. Again. Many of the trees I've planted (several hundred so far) over
the past 13 years or so are covered in scale/sticky/sooty stuff, and every struggling tree is covered in ants. If a tree looks "clean", but later has ants walking all over it, it invariably ends up with this disease on it, and suffers a set back. I never knew what the connection was with ants, but knew that ants meant the tree was in for it. Some trees that were doing well, now are dead. This area seems to have a lot of ants, and I think there are termites here too. -- ant Don't try to email me; I'm borrowing the spammer du jour's addy |
#42
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Getting Borax
"ant" wrote in message
Sigh. Again. Many of the trees I've planted (several hundred so far) over the past 13 years or so are covered in scale/sticky/sooty stuff, and every struggling tree is covered in ants. If a tree looks "clean", but later has ants walking all over it, it invariably ends up with this disease on it, and suffers a set back. I never knew what the connection was with ants, but knew that ants meant the tree was in for it. I can understand why you are sighing as I'm sitting here doing the same thing. I'd like to know, after you nuke all the ants on your property and get rid of them, do you think the scale and sooty mould will automatically disappear? Some trees that were doing well, now are dead. That isn't surprising as you clearly have a problem, but is it the ants or are there other underlying problems? This area seems to have a lot of ants, and I think there are termites here too. Not long ago you told me of a property down the hill below you and which you overlook. I'm fairly sure I know that place (is it on a corner with a dam at the bottom of the hill and asmall bareish paddock right on the corner?) If it is that place then I'd have to say that it shines like a beacon in an otherwise relatively barren landscape. You wrote about how well the trees there had done and the care the owners took to grow those trees and just how well their trees had grown. Do the ants and termites in your area stay within the bounds of your property or does the "area" having lots of ants mean that the ants occur beyond your property line? Does the well treed property have ants? If they don't have ants and termites there now, did they ever? What care do they give to their trees that you don't (or can't) give to yours? Did they nuke all the ants or did they do something else that made the trees grow so that they look so strong and healthy? Do they have bird life that you don't? Do they feed and water their trees? Do they grow different trees to you? In short, why can they do it but you can't? You say "many" of your trees have scale. Is it one species that does or is it a mix of all the trees? |
#43
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Getting Borax
"ant" wrote in message ... Sigh. Again. Many of the trees I've planted (several hundred so far) over the past 13 years or so are covered in scale/sticky/sooty stuff, and every struggling tree is covered in ants. If a tree looks "clean", but later has ants walking all over it, it invariably ends up with this disease on it, and suffers a set back. I never knew what the connection was with ants, but knew that ants meant the tree was in for it. I know the discussion here has been about the ants bringing scale and aphids to plants. But I think with that much of a problem, surely just getting rid of the ants isn't going to do that much good. There must be other problems causing all these bugs. Maybe the trees have a problem that they can't stand up to the bugs. Jen |
#44
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Getting Borax
ant wrote: Sigh. Again. Many of the trees I've planted (several hundred so far) over the past 13 years or so are covered in scale/sticky/sooty stuff, and every struggling tree is covered in ants. If a tree looks "clean", but later has ants walking all over it, it invariably ends up with this disease on it, and suffers a set back. I never knew what the connection was with ants, but knew that ants meant the tree was in for it. Some trees that were doing well, now are dead. This area seems to have a lot of ants, and I think there are termites here too. -- ant Don't try to email me; I'm borrowing the spammer du jour's addy The ants are not the cause of your problem. They are feeding on the sweet exudate from the scale inscects. The sooty mould is also a result of the sugary exudate. Control the scale and the ants and mould will go away. How do you control the scale? There are a number of ways. Oil emusions (white oil, pest oil etc.) are very effective. http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/informa.../scale_insects http://www.greenharvest.com.au/fact_.../fs_scale.html Killing the ants will NOT solve your problem. |
#45
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Getting Borax
I personally use the product I found at
http://www.natural-ant-killer.com. It will not harm your plants or trees and it is 100% effective. In fact you will find that your trees will flourish because the solution works as a fertilizer. It does this because it contains a natural surfactant that breaks down the molecules of water which will penetrate the waxy coating of the ants and instantly drown them. At the same time, it works as a fertilizer because the smaller molecules get down deeper in the soil. I have to say it is the best thing I have found on the market and I will never, ever use anything else! ? |
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