Aggravating ants

By Melanie Mathieson
Gardening Guru

Have you ever seen a lazy ant? I am sure you haven’t but you certainly at sometime in your life have had to deal with an infestation of ants either in your home or yard or garden.
Most people consider ants to be pests. They are not a direct pest to plants but their burrows in the soil can loosen the roots of young plants and cause them to die. But on the positive side if you have heavy clay soil these burrows can break up the soil and loosen it for better aeration and soil drainage. This may not provide you with enough positive soil amendment to want to keep ants around though. Many gardeners with peonies in their gardens will see ants crawling all over the flower buds. The ants are not doing the peonies any harm but are collecting the sweet nectar that the buds exude just before opening. This is an important food source for the ants and they love this nectar. As I mentioned before ants are not a direct pest to plants but by farming aphids they enhance the damage that aphids will cause on your plants. Ants milk the aphids for their sweet honeydew that they produce after sucking all of the nutrients out of your garden plants. TIP: get rid of aphids as soon as you see them on your plants because not only will they suck the nutrients out of the plants causing them to die, but aphids are known to carry and spread plant diseases and viruses. A strong steady stream of water from the garden hose will blast aphids away, as will my “remedy for all” one gallon of water mixed with one tablespoon of Sunlight dish soap and applied to the areas of the plants hosting aphids.
On a trip to a garden centre or hardware store you will find many chemical treatments to get rid of ants. These are very effective but remember they are poisonous not only to ants but to pets, birds and humans as well. If you have pets or small children or just prefer an organic method of pest control then you can choose one of the methods below for dealing with your ant colony.
1. Ants make hills with the excess dirt removed from their burrows that house the colony. The healthier and the larger the colony, combined with dry weather, the larger the hill will become. These can be a real menace in your yard as they are dangerous to hit with the lawn mower or can make navigating your yard treacherous. Boiling water is an extremely effective way to rid your lawn of the ants. Take a pail or planting pot, with the holes sealed, that is large enough to cover the top of the anthill and place it over the main hole of the burrow on the top of the anthill. Heat another pail of water (preferably about 5 gallons) to boiling and then pour into the soil surrounding the anthill, flooding the hill. Save enough water from the pail to fill the pail covering the anthill. The ants will seek refuge in the dry confines of the overturned pail and once the pail is full of the colony you can overturn the pail and fill it with the boiling water,
Use any of these suggestions tokilling all of the ants inside. You may have to repeat this a few times for really large hills.
2. Ants are repelled by certain aromatic herbs and plants. You can plant these directly in your gardens to keep ants at bay and then distribute leaves from the plant in areas where you see ants. Mint family (all plants), lavender, chives, garlic, tansy and onions.
3. A mixture of hot pepper flakes whirled in the blender, with water, to make a thin paste and poured on the hill or on the soil where ants congregate is a very effective method. As is a mixture or water and fresh orange peels whirled in the blender to make a thin paste. Make sure to replenish after a heavy rain.
4. To keep ants out of your trees a barrier of sticky paper forming a collar can be used. There are many commercial brands and types available, but the thrifty gardener can make their own by using a piece of permanent shelf liner turned sticky side out.
5. “Cream of Wheat” or grits sprinkled on the soil will be eaten by ants and then the wheat expands inside the ant, killing them.
6. The old farmer’s remedy of using Borax (boric acid) mixed with sugar and a bit of water to form a thick paste is a very effective way to kill ants. You can spread the paste on a board or stone outside (protect from rain) or place in jar lids to use in the house. This is a poison so you may not want to use it if you have children or any pets that will get at the paste because of the sweetness of the sugar in the paste they may think it is food.
7. An alternative to the boric acid, is to place drops of aromatic oils such as camphor, clove, lavender, spearmint, orange or grapefruit, into jar lids and placing throughout the house. Replenish as they oil evaporates.
8. Broken eggshells or a sprinkling of lime, bonemeal or powdered charcoal can be sprinkled on the soil as a barrier to ants. Make sure you use a continuous line or circle and replenish after heavy rains.
help you organically deal with your aggravation caused by ants and soon you’ll be ant free.