Getting rid of ants
 

With all this talk of removing the ants to get rid of the aphids - Does
anyone have some good ways to get rid of them (the ants, that is)?

Jen

Getting rid of ants
 

g'day jen,

did you check our web site on the remedies page?

if they are in poits then drown them out.



On Mon, 28 Aug 2006 05:59:20 GMT, "Jen"
wrote:

With all this talk of removing the ants to get rid of the aphids - Does
anyone have some good ways to get rid of them (the ants, that is)?

Jen


With peace and brightest of blessings,

len

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.gardenlen.com

Getting rid of ants
 

from what ive read - mix some borax powder with some powdered sugar, they
take it into their nests and eat it and get food poisoning. interestingly
borax is used in some French caviars, but despite its use as a pesticide its
LD50 is similar to that of table salt. I still wouldnt wanna eat it though

in regards to ant control with aphids im hoping a circle of borax-sugar
around each rose bush will take care of the resident ants and allow more
predators to get stuck into the aphids

its probably safer to use borax-sugar than something like Ant Dust, but then
Ant Dust is probably more ant specific so wont kill as many other insects,
so im not sure what the best option is

Getting rid of ants
 

"Dave -Turner" wrote in message
...
from what ive read - mix some borax powder with some powdered sugar, they
take it into their nests and eat it and get food poisoning. interestingly
borax is used in some French caviars, but despite its use as a pesticide
its LD50 is similar to that of table salt. I still wouldnt wanna eat it
though


Dogs and cats will probably eat it though, wouldn't they?

I've just checked my roses, and I was really shocked to see no aphids yet -
I guess it's still a bit cold for them. I did see some ants wondering
around the wall behind them though, I think they nest in the mortar. I'll
work on getting rid of the ants straight away, and see how I go with the
aphids. Thanks

Jen

Getting rid of ants
 

There might be Ant Dust or something similar that has a repellent in it like
Bitrex so that might be the way to go if pets can get near

by the way if you do end up with aphids, before you hose the plant down
check underneath each leaf near where the aphids are and you might be lucky
enough to find a cluster of 10-50 ladybug eggs - they should hatch within a
week

Getting rid of ants
 

"Jen" wrote in message
...
With all this talk of removing the ants to get rid of the aphids - Does
anyone have some good ways to get rid of them (the ants, that is)?

Jen

I use cabbage dust around the ant holes. Works wonders under the hills
hoist.
Inside I use honey & borax powder. We used to be over run in the kitchen
when we first moved in, took about 3 years to convince them the kitchen was
MY domain not their's.
Jim

Getting rid of ants - Pot Plants
 

Anyone have a safe suggestion to get rid of a large nest in my 800mm
cermamic pot containing dwarf lime tree.
I dont want to kill the tree or transfer chemicals to the tree???

Getting rid of ants - Pot Plants
 

Rayband wrote:
Anyone have a safe suggestion to get rid of a large nest in my 800mm
cermamic pot containing dwarf lime tree.
I dont want to kill the tree or transfer chemicals to the tree???

do you have a 1 metre tub[1] that you could transfer the pot to?
them fill with water, leave 24 hours and drain.

[1] Perhaps a large plastic bag will do the trick. All you really need
to do is drive out all the air for 24 hours.

Getting rid of ants - Pot Plants
 

g'day rayband,

yep drowining them out is usuall the way to go, but with a heavy pot
that can be difficult so maybe set some baits on the pot and around
it, this does take time to work though.

another you could do and what is needed to keep the ants out of the
pots in the first place is! have the pot standing on some pot legs or
bits of broken tile in a deepish rather than shallow tray and keep the
tray full of water this prevents the ants from getting to ground, but
be sure that no part of the plant touches anything else plant or wall
whatever or the ants will form a bridge. then keep the pot satured
with a lot of watering for a few days.

the best remedy is prevention keep them out of your pots then they
won't do any harm to the potted plant in the different ways they can.
even if they just nest in the medium they tend to make it water
resistant.

On Tue, 29 Aug 2006 20:35:26 +1000, "Rayband" wrote:

Anyone have a safe suggestion to get rid of a large nest in my 800mm
cermamic pot containing dwarf lime tree.
I dont want to kill the tree or transfer chemicals to the tree???



With peace and brightest of blessings,

len

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.gardenlen.com

Getting rid of ants
 

"Dave -Turner" writes:
from what ive read - mix some borax powder with some powdered sugar, they
take it into their nests and eat it and get food poisoning. interestingly
borax is used in some French caviars, but despite its use as a pesticide its
LD50 is similar to that of table salt. I still wouldnt wanna eat it though

My Mum has an early well-worn recipe book, the collected wisdom of late 19th
through to mid-20th century Australian women. Along with recipes for jugged
hare, making your own vinegar from plums, and making bread using wild yeasts
harvested from the air and cultured on mashed potato, was a method for
keeping milk for up to 3 days without refrigeration. It involved disolving
borax (at quantities something like a tablespoonful per pint, from memory)
in the milk.

Evidently, it must work without poisoning the consumer, though I've never
tried it.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)

Getting rid of ants
 

John Savage wrote:
"Dave -Turner" writes:
from what ive read - mix some borax powder with some powdered
sugar, they take it into their nests and eat it and get food
poisoning. interestingly borax is used in some French caviars, but
despite its use as a pesticide its LD50 is similar to that of table
salt. I still wouldnt wanna eat it though

My Mum has an early well-worn recipe book, the collected wisdom of
late 19th through to mid-20th century Australian women. Along with
recipes for jugged hare, making your own vinegar from plums, and
making bread using wild yeasts harvested from the air and cultured on
mashed potato, was a method for keeping milk for up to 3 days without
refrigeration. It involved disolving borax (at quantities something
like a tablespoonful per pint, from memory) in the milk.

Evidently, it must work without poisoning the consumer, though I've
never tried it.

Boron's a mineral, isn't it?

I'm planning to get a crapload of borax and sugar, as the ant thing is huge
on my place, and every struggling tree I see has a parade of ants on it. I'm
a-gonna git them!

Am a bit concerned about animals though, especially the dogs. Do they eat
it? Do they get poisoned?


--
ant
Don't try to email me;
I'm borrowing the spammer du jour's addy

Getting rid of ants
 

g'day ant,

don't think it will kill a mammal as such and probably not tenough to
make them sick? with the ants they take it back to the nest and feed
the queen and the young and it is them ants that die, and when that
happens i guess the domino effect takes place and that is the end of
the nest.

you could mix the borax in honey as well, or make the sugar miz tacky
solluable, and also to keep the weather out and maybe pets away use a
1/2 gal icecream container over the bait tray. you only need use jam
jar lids or even bottle lids.



On Sat, 2 Sep 2006 10:29:41 +1000, "ant"
wrote:

snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.gardenlen.com

Getting rid of ants
 

"ant" wrote in message

Boron's a mineral, isn't it?

Yes but needed in small quantities.

I'm planning to get a crapload of borax and sugar, as the ant thing
is huge
on my place, and every struggling tree I see has a parade of ants on
it. I'm
a-gonna git them!

Am a bit concerned about animals though, especially the dogs. Do
they eat
it? Do they get poisoned?

Humans can be poisoned by Borax so I assume that dogs (being mammals)
could be too.

Why don't you just find the ant nests (look under rocks etc) and put
the mix in the holes or under the rocks where the nests are likely to
be or set up stations under heavy rocks that the dogs can't get to.

Getting rid of ants
 

"SG1" writes:
I use cabbage dust around the ant holes. Works wonders under the hills
hoist.
Inside I use honey & borax powder. We used to be over run in the kitchen
when we first moved in, took about 3 years to convince them the kitchen was
MY domain not their's.

There seem to be two broad categories of ants that you'll find in the
kitchen: those after sweet things such as sugar, honey, jam, etc., and
those after meat or fat. I expect the honey + borax lure will only get
the first ones. Those in the second category love cheese and bacon crumbs
from a pizza, but I found they wouldn't touch sugar or honey.

I do wonder whether there might be meat-loving ants in the garden that
go around collecting grubs off the cabbages, and aphids off radish
leaves, etc. Can anyone vouch for this? Maybe not all ants in the garden
are undesirable.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)

Getting Borax
 

Where do you get Borax from?! I tried Bunnings (I hate bunnings) and Coles
(hate them too) and neither had it. Where do you get it from?

--
ant
Don't try to email me;
I'm borrowing the spammer du jour's addy

Getting Borax
 

"ant" wrote in message
...
Where do you get Borax from?! I tried Bunnings (I hate bunnings) and Coles
(hate them too) and neither had it. Where do you get it from?

I just got some from foodworks, but I'm sure Coles and other supermarkets
would have it as well. You'll find it in the laundry section, with washing
powders and stain removers.

Jen

Getting Borax
 

"ant" wrote in message

Where do you get Borax from?!

You should find it in the Laundry soap section of a supermarket. It's
prime use (domestically) is for washing things like blankets. The
brand I use is Hovex and it's in a plastic container about the sixe of
a smallish can of corn.

Getting rid of ants
 

"John Savage" wrote in message

I do wonder whether there might be meat-loving ants in the garden
that
go around collecting grubs off the cabbages, and aphids off radish
leaves, etc. Can anyone vouch for this? Maybe not all ants in the
garden
are undesirable.

I used to do furniture making classes with a world wide expert on
ants. For some reason the Japanese are fascinated with ants and he
was always either being filmed or interviewed by them or asked to
Japan to talk about them Lord knows what the film crews thought of
some of the places he used to drag them off to.

Can't remember his surname now but he was Dr. Bob Something or other.
At lunch time we would always find some sort of ant and he would
instantly say: "It's a 'xxxx xxxx'" giving it's Latin name and then he
would either squash it because it was an introduced species or
carefully put it right back where we found it if it was a native ant.

Anyway, I know that I have at least 5 different types of ants in my
garden. I haven't a clue what they are except black, brown and blue.
They have never bothered me except when they have bitten me (rarely)
or done damage to anything that I can identify. In fact the big 1cm
long brown ants have been the most reliable forecasters of rain that
we can identify with the exception of the Black Cockatoos. When the
big brown ants start building up dam walls around the entrance to
their nests we know it is going to rain. I've never had any need to
poison ants outside but have had to do so in the kitchen.

Getting Borax
 

Farm1 wrote:
"ant" wrote in message

Where do you get Borax from?!

You should find it in the Laundry soap section of a supermarket. It's
prime use (domestically) is for washing things like blankets. The
brand I use is Hovex and it's in a plastic container about the sixe of
a smallish can of corn.

I did look there, and didn't see it.
Might be buried under all the stuff that pays more for a better spot in the
supermarket. It's a particularly crappy Coles, this one.

--
ant
Don't try to email me;
I'm borrowing the spammer du jour's addy

Getting rid of ants
 

g'day john,

i don't find any ant undesirable in the garden it is only those times
they bring in aphids etc.,. they have hteir part to play in recycling
in the garden eg.,. when we last lived in the 'burbs we would do the
torch safari and squish those snails and the ants would clean up the
dead critters. even termites in the garden are a benefit.

not sure about ants just try to live with them, but up in the bush we
had a lot of what i know as meat ants a fairly large ant, that created
food trails through the grass dunno how they did it? but they had
clear walkways to regular food sources, and they collected lots of
fallen bugs or whatever they could find but they still
harvested/farmed scale instect. so i would be guessing that most ants
will like sweets after the main meal huh chuckle?

an amazing ant to watch they where, if it was going to rain heavily
their food collecting activity was dramatically escalated and they
where far less tollerant of you getting in their road then the only
time i ahve ever been bitten by them, if the night was going to be
cold they would have the dark coloured stones on top of their nest to
gather heat so they could take them down and warm whatever part of the
nest they needed warming, then the opposite in summer they had the
lighter stones on top.

i've seen before when the ants are hurredly removing the aphids down
to the roots of the roses you can count on it raining heavily.



On Sat, 02 Sep 2006 11:56:48 GMT, John Savage
wrote:

snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.gardenlen.com

Getting Borax
 

"ant" wrote in message
Farm1 wrote:
"ant" wrote in message

Where do you get Borax from?!

You should find it in the Laundry soap section of a supermarket.
It's
prime use (domestically) is for washing things like blankets. The
brand I use is Hovex and it's in a plastic container about the
sixe of
a smallish can of corn.

I did look there, and didn't see it.

Now was that a boy's look or a girl's look? And did you look high on
the shelves and low on the shelves? Slow movers like Borax would
probably be either high or low on the shelves.

You could try some of the more "ethnic" supermarkets like the one at
Karabar. If you have trouble getting it, let me know and I'll get
some at my local and send it to you.

Getting Borax
 

"Jonno" wrote in message
...
SG1 wrote:
I got mine from PharmacyDirect, but that is what happens when the
nearest
big supmarket is 100 miles not those new fangled french things
(kilometres).
Jim


Chemist as always...its a chemical...
Probably cheaper to "find" it at Coles or Woolies
But have you got the time?

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.

rob

Getting Borax
 

"ant" wrote in message
...
Farm1 wrote:
"ant" wrote in message

Where do you get Borax from?!

You should find it in the Laundry soap section of a supermarket. It's
prime use (domestically) is for washing things like blankets. The
brand I use is Hovex and it's in a plastic container about the sixe of
a smallish can of corn.

I did look there, and didn't see it.
Might be buried under all the stuff that pays more for a better spot in
the supermarket. It's a particularly crappy Coles, this one.


I found it right next to washing soda, I think fabric softeners were very
close too. Mu one was by Harpers in a 500g white plastic container with a
red lid. It's only a small supermarket too.

Hopefully that'll help.

Jen

Jen

Getting Borax
 

Farm1 wrote:
"ant" wrote in message
Farm1 wrote:
"ant" wrote in message

Where do you get Borax from?!

You should find it in the Laundry soap section of a supermarket.
It's prime use (domestically) is for washing things like
blankets. The brand I use is Hovex and it's in a plastic
container about the sixe of a smallish can of corn.

I did look there, and didn't see it.

Now was that a boy's look or a girl's look? And did you look high on
the shelves and low on the shelves? Slow movers like Borax would
probably be either high or low on the shelves.

You could try some of the more "ethnic" supermarkets like the one at
Karabar. If you have trouble getting it, let me know and I'll get
some at my local and send it to you.

It was probably hidden with the washing soda! I'm going to put my brother on
the job, he'll find it.

--
ant
Don't try to email me;
I'm borrowing the spammer du jour's addy

Getting Borax
 

Jen wrote:

I found it right next to washing soda, I think fabric softeners were
very close too. Mu one was by Harpers in a 500g white plastic
container with a red lid. It's only a small supermarket too.

argh, I knew it! Rotten coles.

--
ant
Don't try to email me;
I'm borrowing the spammer du jour's addy

Getting Borax
 

I got mine from PharmacyDirect, but that is what happens when the nearest
big supmarket is 100 miles not those new fangled french things (kilometres).
Jim

Getting Borax
 

SG1 wrote:
I got mine from PharmacyDirect, but that is what happens when the nearest
big supmarket is 100 miles not those new fangled french things (kilometres).
Jim


Chemist as always...its a chemical...
Probably cheaper to "find" it at Coles or Woolies
But have you got the time?

Getting Borax
 

George.com wrote:
"Jonno" wrote in message
...
SG1 wrote:
I got mine from PharmacyDirect, but that is what happens when the
nearest big supmarket is 100 miles not those new fangled french
things (kilometres). Jim


Chemist as always...its a chemical...
Probably cheaper to "find" it at Coles or Woolies
But have you got the time?

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.

I was wondering about that. There's a big one in Fyshwick but they open
tradesmen hours. Might have to nip out at lunchtime. A big bag is what I
need.


--
ant
Don't try to email me;
I'm borrowing the spammer du jour's addy

Getting Borax
 

"George.com" wrote in message
...

"Jonno" wrote in message
...
SG1 wrote:
I got mine from PharmacyDirect, but that is what happens when the
nearest
big supmarket is 100 miles not those new fangled french things
(kilometres).
Jim


Chemist as always...its a chemical...
Probably cheaper to "find" it at Coles or Woolies
But have you got the time?

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?

Jen

Getting Borax
 

"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.

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

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

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.

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?
:-))))))

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

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

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.

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

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.

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