How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

I don't want to use anything toxic because it might affect my produce. Are there any natural methods to drive the ants away? They have quite a mound. I tore it up when I planted but they are rebuilding fast and their home is right in the middle of where my plants should be growing.

I have wondered if vinegar or some such would make them find a new place.

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

pyrethrins should do the job with no long term residual.

if you are looking for natural...

boric acid?
d.e.????

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

just curious, why are you getting rid of them? Are they fireants?

Ant crap is a good fertilizer & ants can help pollinate and clean up your garden of insects.

Problem with them is that they have symbiotic relationships with aphids & other "scale" bugs.

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

Here are some ideas. If they don't work...maybe an anteater or an aardvark from your local zoo. Plus, they could fertilize it while they were ridding you of your ant problem. (Truly...how cool would it be to have an aardvark in your garden?) :9536:

Lots of brand names in the list below. Makes you wonder if they might just be big advertisers in Prevention magazine, doesn't it?

http://www.prevention.com/cda/articl...home/gardening

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

Cinnamon powder. Diatomaceous Earth.

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

Hot soapy water poured down the hole for the small ants and big ones. Repeat as needed. Eventually they will go away.

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

Dig up the mound with a shovel to expose the eggs, take a propane torch and start burning up the eggs and any ants. After you have sifted through most of the loose dirt, give them a day to regroup and repeat until they disappear. It takes a little effort, but you will eventually kill the queen(s) and wipe out the eggs and that will be the end.

I had a huge fireant nest in my compost pile and got rid of them this way. After that, it became my preferred fireant killing method.

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

Boric acid will kil the ants, but it will also make your soil unfarmable for years.

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

Corn Meal

or

Find another ant hill. Stick a shovel in the one you want to destroy to open it up. Scoop up the second ant hill and dump into the first. They will fight till the death. Any survivors will usually leave.

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

boiling water works like a charm... might damage some roots if they are too close.

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

This sounds like fun. Sort of like being an elite banker, financing both sides and profiting from the mayhem.

Thanks everyone for the ideas. I've got nothing against ants, it is just that they have ideas for my garden that differ from mine.

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

I used to have a huge fireant problem. My property borders a school playground and after they would spray the field all the ants relocated to my backyard. Ever since I got my chickens I have not had one problem with ants in the backyard. :) I have a fence around my garden to separate the chicken from the veggies but when I notice a few insects munching in my garden I take one of the chickens over to that area for a spot bug treatment. They are quicker at picking them off than I am and the chickens get a protein treat.

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

You know how you're supposed to purge your hot water tank from the bottom every year or so to keep it clean? well I keep my tank HOT, maxed out on the thermostats most of the time. Well, I hook the garden hose to that and kill two birds (and a shed load of ants) with one stone.

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

http://animal.discovery.com/mammals/...ee-picture.jpg

Enough said.

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

I live in Texas and fire ants one big pain in the a&%

I found through harrasing the nest is the easiest method to get rid of them , take a shovel every 2 days and turn the nest they spend so much time rebuilding,and not foraging the population dwindles to 0
Works everytime
As I walk around my yard I always stomp on the nests they don't have time to crawl up your leg
this is slower than a shovel but it works
My yard is always ant free
Oh and my friends and nieghbors always ask what products I use to get rid of them ;)

contaminating the ground just makes the Queen move a couple of feet to clean earth

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

Chickens apparently work well. They go after the eggs rather than the ants. Someone I know let her hens out in an area that had carpenter ants and they did a very thorough job of ripping the nest apart and eating the eggs.

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

Yeah, fire ants are buggers. I did the hot water thing and it worked, but now after reading R U Insured I might have just harassed them to the point they left. Hmmm.

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

SERIOUSLY ----- piss on 'em. (the anthill) .

Works for me.

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

Growing up... my Dad used a little bit of gasoline and a match.

Worked wonders!

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

I've heard/read that artificial sweetners (i.e., splenda, aspartame, etc) will kill ants...

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

:111:I've heard if you have crabs, one way to git rid of them is to stand naked if front of a mirror, the crabs see the other bush and try to jump to it, crabs gone, problem solved. Just in case anyone has crabs.:cry1:

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

I have been playing with the ant piles this week. One pile of carpenter ants had about 1/2 inch high and about 5x5 circle of millions of ants. I poured boiling water on them and that was that. There were some still around the hole so I poured baby powder around them, still had ants. Poured baby powder around all the ant mounds around the yard. They just moved their hole. I read that if you pour chew spit around the hole or on them, it will kill them. So today, I got hubby's spit bottle and poured. It went down the hole, but I still saw ants. I will ahve to see if it killed them tomorrow.

Its funny how they say to use all these things like baby powder, arm and Hammer, because it will kill them. Isnt this all stuff we use on ourselves?

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

brand name = VIRAL MARKETING

.

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

I just use orthene. A couple of tablespoons on the mound and they dead within HOURS. They dont move to another location.

Screw the organic stuff. Don't bring a knife to a gun fight with fire ants... seriously.

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

nobody uses Amdro?

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

I like orthene because I can see ant death and destruction. I'm that kind of guy.... I take some perverse pleasure in seeing fire ants die a nasty horrible death.

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

I can dig it..

Seems to me you could get your jollies outta the above mentioned flaming death methods though:emotions16:

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

I used the the gas and match when I worked. Pretty effective.

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

I had a huge ant hill in my backyard and basically dug/watered it down repeatedly. It's basically under control now, but it took 4-5 times of taking them back out after they regrouped. I'll have to try some of the other ideas.. cream of wheat/etc if they come back again.

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

Speaking of ants, can anyone help me identify what ant is harassing me?

It is a large ant, being about 1/4" or slightly longer in size.

It's body is mostly a brick red color except it's butt which is black.

They are extremely aggressive and respond quickly to any perceived threats. They are trying to move into my shed house and they carry in all this debris from outside which I have to constantly clean out.

What are they and how to get rid?

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/ants/

You did not provide enough info but if you use the linked resource and your eyeballs you can tell us.

Best guess:
http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/ants/Cants.shtml

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

VX or sarin usually works for me!

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

It's an old wives' tale that grits, cornmeal, etc will kill ants. You're just feeding them.

Boiling water or mixing the boric acid with the cornmeal is a much better idea.

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

Boric acid is not that good of an insecticide when used alone.

Some years ago it was usually combined with arsenic trioxide; Terro ant killer used to be this way, and Terro used to work very well. It doesn't anymore. It used to kill off the ants totally in just a few hours, and now they have to suck the shit up for days. I think the sweetener just gives them diabetes and they die from that.

You cannot get over-the-counter pesticide anymore that contains arsenic trioxide, because the pest-control companies lobbied congress to declare arsenic trioxide "too toxic" for over-the-counter pesticides. The stuff that the Orkin guy sprays still has it, but nothing an ordinary person can buy does. I don't recall which year exactly they did this, but it was 10-15 or so years ago.

I recently searched online for a source of arsenic trioxide, but didn't find any company selling it, that would sell it to a regular person. Sadly, a lot of chemical companies in the US will not sell ANYTHING to individuals at all anymore--for their liability protection, you need to prove that you represent a company or a school.

(-and most SCHOOLS will not allow students to work with real chemicals anymore either, because of their liability. Oh well, who needs chemists anyway. .....What the f*** is it with retarded people running the country?......)

--------

One thing I know you can get is caffeine. If you search the subject online you will see that caffeine is quite toxic to insects, it is an organic compound, and United Nuclear sells it to ordinary people. It is also extremely bitter, so you would need sugar to sweeten it up. I do not know the ratio of sugar-to-caffeine, but I bet it's a pretty-large amount of sugar to a rather-tiny amount of caffeine.

You would also need to protect it from any pets or children around.

I have not tried using caffeine as insecticide, because as I looked I found a couple other ant-killing baits that used newer chemicals, that worked for the ants I had to get rid of (these are Illinois ants, I dunno what kind but they're not fire ants for sure).

{- the two I found were Raid Ant Bait stations, which contain avermectin B1 1%, and Hot Shot liquid ant baits, which contain dinotefuran .05% -}

Do note that pure caffeine is toxic to humans, in even seemingly small amounts. In large enough doses it will cause blood pressure swings, heart arrhythmia and cardiac arrest. To handle it you need proper equipment--double gloves, a respirator and goggles, and you need a place to store it where nobody unwitting would find it. If you get it on your bare skin, you can absorb enough through the skin to experience toxicity risks. In pure form it is a toxin and must be treated as such.

-end-

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

I use baby powder (the cheap equate brand at Walmart) on fire ant mounds, they move within a day or so.

It disturbs, but doesn't stop, the texas leaf cutters.

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

If it is just a few piles try pouring boiling water on the nest. I've done that with good success on fire ants.

Re: How do I get rid of an ant hill in the garden?
 

A can of hairspray and a grill lighter make a nice mini-flamethrower to cleanup any stragglers too :rofl: