| Page 1 of 2 | 1 | 2 |
|
|
Ant control
All the immediate neighbourhood gardens are infested every year with ants.
Apart from Nippon ant-powder (which can be unsightly and not particularly effective) can anyone recommend a really good alternative for use on paths, containers/pots, lawns and flower-beds. |
Ant control
I use COMET scrub powder, it kills one it gets on and stops them from
crossing it. "Birkonian" wrote in message k... All the immediate neighbourhood gardens are infested every year with ants. Apart from Nippon ant-powder (which can be unsightly and not particularly effective) can anyone recommend a really good alternative for use on paths, containers/pots, lawns and flower-beds. |
Ant control
The hominy grits you buy at the grocery store will kill all
sorts of ants when they injest it. Pour some grits directly on the ant pile. They all should disappear by the next day. Seems to be safe for the garden and very cheap. -- Jim Carlock http://www.microcosmotalk.com/ Post replies to the newsgroup. "Birkonian" wrote: All the immediate neighbourhood gardens are infested every year with ants. Apart from Nippon ant-powder (which can be unsightly and not particularly effective) can anyone recommend a really good alternative for use on paths, containers/pots, lawns and flower-beds. |
Ant control
Jim Carlock wrote: The hominy grits you buy at the grocery store will kill all sorts of ants when they injest it. Pour some grits directly on the ant pile. They all should disappear by the next day. Seems to be safe for the garden and very cheap. Is this true??? My husband heard this and told me this and I've kept telling him he is nuts. I also had someone here in southern Alabama tell me to sprinkle iodized table salt around my house to keep out fleas.... amy |
Ant control
Yes, it is true. I poured some really old grits onto a train of
ants and they disappeared for a couple days. Then the next week they decided to put their hill in a very convenient spot to pour the grits onto. I've not seen the ants since. Then there was another set of large wood eating ants I found eating an old rotten wood stump left from a chopped down tree, and I poured the grits onto that stump and I haven't seen ants there in a couple weeks now. It used to be filled with the big kind of ant that gets bigger than a centimeter in length. I don't know about the iodized salt. I found the information about the grits at the following: http://ms.essortment.com/pestcontrolgar_reor.htm I've seen citrus oil commonly on that page and a couple other places mentioned, to control ants as well as some other pests. Garlic seems to be useful for certain things, although I don't remember what. I typically find information by doing searches on google, using "organic" as one of the keywords when looking for information on pest control. I might have to read and go through twenty sites but from that I am starting to get a pretty good feel for things. Iodized salt seems to be recommended at the following page along with a whole bunch of other methods. I've heard skin-so- soft from Avon in a 25%/75% mixture with water helps. And citrus spray (oil) seems to be recommended as well. http://www.tipztime.com/area/bugtipz/fleas.html Also, soap (either shampoo or dish detergent) is supposed to kill cockroaches. A friend across the street told me about the soap a couple weeks ago but I haven't tried it. He indicated that it kills a roach instantly. Hope that helps. -- Jim Carlock http://www.microcosmotalk.com/ Post replies to the newsgroup. "Amy D" wrote: Jim Carlock wrote: The hominy grits you buy at the grocery store will kill all sorts of ants when they injest it. Pour some grits directly on the ant pile. They all should disappear by the next day. Seems to be safe for the garden and very cheap. Is this true??? My husband heard this and told me this and I've kept telling him he is nuts. I also had someone here in southern Alabama tell me to sprinkle iodized table salt around my house to keep out fleas.... amy |
Ant control
Jim Carlock wrote: Yes, it is true. I poured some really old grits onto a train of ants and they disappeared for a couple days. Then the next week they decided to put their hill in a very convenient spot to pour the grits onto. I've not seen the ants since. Then there was another set of large wood eating ants I found eating an old rotten wood stump left from a chopped down tree, and I poured the grits onto that stump and I haven't seen ants there in a couple weeks now. It used to be filled with the big kind of ant that gets bigger than a centimeter in length. I don't know about the iodized salt. I found the information about the grits at the following: http://ms.essortment.com/pestcontrolgar_reor.htm I've seen citrus oil commonly on that page and a couple other places mentioned, to control ants as well as some other pests. Garlic seems to be useful for certain things, although I don't remember what. I typically find information by doing searches on google, using "organic" as one of the keywords when looking for information on pest control. I might have to read and go through twenty sites but from that I am starting to get a pretty good feel for things. Iodized salt seems to be recommended at the following page along with a whole bunch of other methods. I've heard skin-so- soft from Avon in a 25%/75% mixture with water helps. And citrus spray (oil) seems to be recommended as well. http://www.tipztime.com/area/bugtipz/fleas.html Also, soap (either shampoo or dish detergent) is supposed to kill cockroaches. A friend across the street told me about the soap a couple weeks ago but I haven't tried it. He indicated that it kills a roach instantly. Hope that helps. Thanks. I'll haul out the grits. :) I was afraid my neighbors would think I was nuts! :) We're "newly" southern. :) I hadn't checked out Skin So Soft -- my mom was a big Avon lady and we used SSS for everything.....thanks for the link! amy |
Ant control
On Mon, 05 Jul 2004 00:01:35 -0500, Amy D
wrote: :) Is this true??? My husband heard this and told me this and I've kept :) telling him he is nuts. No maam it's not true... do a search on grits and ants and it will pull up research data that has never shown it to be effective. Put enough stuff on ant beds and they will up and move giving the appearance of them being killed out. :) I also had someone here in southern Alabama tell me to sprinkle iodized :) table salt around my house to keep out fleas.... table salt will be more toxic than most of the finished insecticide sprays you may use. it will also create a dead zone for vegetation and may leach to desirable plants near the home. Lar. (to e-mail, get rid of the BUGS!! It is said that the early bird gets the worm, but it is the second mouse that gets the cheese. |
Ant control
On Mon, 05 Jul 2004 14:27:18 GMT, Lar wrote:
table salt will be more toxic than most of the finished insecticide sprays you may use. Yes salt is toxic, but must you minimize pesticides? |
Ant control
On Mon, 05 Jul 2004 14:27:18 GMT, Lar wrote:
No maam it's not true... do a search on grits and ants and it will pull up research data that has never shown it to be effective. Put enough stuff on ant beds and they will up and move giving the appearance of them being killed out. I recently read that argentinian ants will range over 200 feet from their nest. That's a lot of room to move. Good point! |
Ant control
Every time I've had an ant infestation in my apartment I've used
Grants Kills Ants. Unlike other ant baits I've tried they just love the stuff. And, after a few days they're GONE. You can find it at garden centers and supermarkets. I just use one or two of them placed on the ant line. Just be sure to keep out of reach of puppies, kitties and toddlers because the stuff does contain arsenic. FWIW, I have two cats and they *do not* think of the little stakes as toys and leave them alone despite their habit of getting their little paws on every little thing to play with. Layne On Sun, 04 Jul 2004 22:07:24 GMT, "Birkonian" wrote: All the immediate neighbourhood gardens are infested every year with ants. Apart from Nippon ant-powder (which can be unsightly and not particularly effective) can anyone recommend a really good alternative for use on paths, containers/pots, lawns and flower-beds. |
Ant control
On Mon, 05 Jul 2004 08:44:22 -0700, tomjasz
wrote: :) table salt will be more toxic than most of the finished insecticide :) sprays you may use. :) :) :) Yes salt is toxic, but must you minimize pesticides? In using the salt as described, it has now been turned into a pesticide, just pointing out less toxic and more environmentally friendy solution is all. Chemicals are chemicals, for some reason if thought of as pesticides it now must be harsher than the many chemicals we expose ourselves in our daily existance. Lar. (to e-mail, get rid of the BUGS!! It is said that the early bird gets the worm, but it is the second mouse that gets the cheese. |
Ant control
I just KNEW that grits had to have a useful purpose on this earth, now
it looks like one has surfaced. Grandpa John Jim Carlock wrote: The hominy grits you buy at the grocery store will kill all sorts of ants when they injest it. Pour some grits directly on the ant pile. They all should disappear by the next day. Seems to be safe for the garden and very cheap. |
Ant control
"Jim Carlock" wrote in message . com...
Also, soap (either shampoo or dish detergent) is supposed to kill cockroaches. A friend across the street told me about the soap a couple weeks ago but I haven't tried it. He indicated that it kills a roach instantly. Sounds utterly ridiculous! But I will give you a recipe guaranteed to work on roaches: 3 parts flour 1 part boric acid 1 part bacon grease 1 part minced onion enough water to make a paste Stir all ingredients together and roll into marble size balls. Place anywhere the roaches can find them. Boric acid is deadly to roaches but it is not toxic to children or animals. Bob S. |
Ant control
|
Ant control
Here's something reported on another discussion group concerning boric acid
and ants: I've heard two explanations: (1) The boric acid gets onto their feet, they groom themselves, and it causes scratches in their exoskeleton, and they dehydrate, and (2) it acts as a stomach poison. Roaches breathe through their feet. The boric acid is aspirated, and does its damage by suffocation and destruction of pulmonary tissue. Or, so said the Ortho rep when I worked at a local hardware store. I sure as heck don't know! But I FINALLY got rid of a huge anthill in my front yard- (After they killed a Red Delicious apple tree) by mixing borax and sugar with a bit of water. Put it in cottage cheese containers with holes cut along the top of the sides (boy, is that confusing?!) and partly buried them in the anthill. For about 10 days, I didn't think it had worked either. I'd tried pyrethrum, rotenone and even Sevin over the past 1 1/2 years, without any results. 3 weeks after setting those "traps" the anthill is empty and dead! Finally- something that works, and relatively non toxic. I also had my usual yearly invasion of ants in the kitchen, and setting cottage cheese container tops with that mixture in them on the counters completely eliminated them within 3 days. They supposedly take the stuff back to the nest and it kills the queen as well. Olushola |
| All times are GMT +1. The time now is 02:21 PM. |
|
Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
GardenBanter