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Chemicals?? Was ants everywhere
"gary davis" wrote in message ... On 5/4/04 2:55 PM, in article , "Franz Heymann" wrote: "Paul Anderson" wrote in message ... "flower faerie" wrote in message ... Hello I have lots of ant hills appearing all over my lawn. I prefer not to mow the lawn too short but want to try and get the ants to live somewhere else like in the flower borders. Also I dont want to put down ant powder. any ideas? ff We have found that Talcum Powder does the trick. It's not totally chemical free but I guess it's much less damaging than other powders suggested here! Talcum powder, like any solid, liquid or gas is a chemical. What on earth is all this paranoia about "chemicals"? As far as I know, talcum is just finely divided Mg3 (OH)2 Si4 O10. The other powders which have been suggested here were Vim and Ajax. I may be wrong, but I think both of them are just powdered chalk. Franz Hi Franz I think the resistance to 'chemicals' is the side affects of using certain chemicals. Chemicals that kill aphids, for example, also kill the predatory insects such as lady bugs and the worms in the ground. It is this kind of 'chemical' that we do not want to use because of those harmful side affects. I don't think that talcum powder falls into the 'bad chemical' category. Talcum, then, is not the kind of chemical that we are trying to avoid. Hello Gary, I realise what is behind the paranoia. What I don't like is the way folk are overreacting to the use of chemicals in the garden. I grant you that there are chemicals whose overall benefit is dubious, but it is quite unnecessary to lump everything except manure and compost together as "chemicals" and therefore to be avoided. By the way, if you used "organic" means other than the highly ineffectual ladybirds to control aphids, you are also killing off your ladybirds. They will simply die of hunger if there are no insects around for them. I actually have my doubts about the efficacy of ladybirds for controlling aphids. I have noticed that the years in which I have large populations of ladybirds coincide with years in which I have serious infestations of aphids. Clearly the ladybirds are having a whale of a time. But unfortunately those are also the years in which there is most aphid damage in my garden, so when all is said and done, the ladybirds were fighting a losing battle. Have you ever stoped to think how many ladybirds you would need in one garden to consume a horde of a few million aphids before they breed? Franz |
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