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.
I use COMET scrub powder, it kills one it gets on and stops them from crossing it.
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
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
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:
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.
Hope that helps.
:) 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.
Yes salt is toxic, but must you minimize pesticides?
I recently read that argentinian ants will range over 200 feet from their nest. That's a lot of room to move. Good point!
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
:) >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.
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:
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 pasteStir 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.
:) Boric acid is deadly to roaches :) but it is not toxic to children or animals.
Though it is low in toxicity it will probably be more toxic than the commonly used insecticides used for insect control. Usually 6-8 thousand people are seen a year for borate poisoning with a death a year. 5 grams can kill a child and there is no known antidote for borate poisoning. If a little one can get a pinch in their mouth it will be a trip to the hospital.
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.
Here's something reported on another discussion group concerning boric acid and ants:
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
Careful not to negate least toxic solution that work!
Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets. To plant a pine, one need only own a shovel.
-- Aldo Leopold
Toxicity While exposure to boric acid has been linked to adverse health effects, experts agree that careful application offers a safe and effective alternative without the indoor air problems associated with sprays. Boron is a naturally-occurring element in the earth?s crust and background levels even circulate in the human bloodstream. Boric acid?s exposure risks are minimal because of its method of application.
However, while boric acid has become one of the chemicals of choice for many urban pest control programs, it can be toxic. EPA considers boric acid as a moderately acutely toxic due to acute effects including oral and dermal toxicity, and eye and skin irritation. EPA?s reregistration document states that a subchronic borax feeding study using dogs resulted in blood and metabolism disorders as well as effects to the testes, endocrine system, brain weight, and size ratios among various organs and glands. In chronic oncogenicity studies using mice, rats and beagle dogs, boric acid and borax were found not to be carcinogenic; however, testicular effects and decreases in body weight resulted at high dose levels. EPA has classified boric acid as a ?Group E? carcinogen, indicating that it shows ?evidence of noncarcinogenicity? for humans. In reproductive and developmental toxicity studies using rats, mice and rabbits, maternal liver and kidney effects and decreased weight gain as well as decreased fetal body weights were observed. In two studies, at the highest dose levels, no litters were produced. Prenatal mortality occurred at the highest dose levels in the rabbit study. Boric acid does not cause mutagenicity (U.S. EPA 1993).
Applicators and others in treatment areas may be exposed to boric acid and its sodium salts during or after application. However, there is no reasonable expectation that these pesticide uses may constitute a hazard or risk to people involved in, or near to, handling or application activities. Proper care and adhering to label directions and precautions should reduce exposure and any associated risk (U.S. EPA 1993).
Ecological Effects Boric acid is practically nontoxic to birds, fish, aquatic invertebrates, and relatively nontoxic to beneficial insects. It?s noncrop herbicidal use may harm endangered or threatened plants, and therefore EPA is requiring three phytotoxicity studies to assess these risks (U.S. EPA 1993).
Effectiveness An EPA assessment of a boric acid pilot pest control program conducted at the U.S. Army?s Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland found that boric acid was both more economical and more effective than monthly spray treatment. At least one study has shown that the combination of heat, 110 degree F for two hours with boric acid, will increase the speed at which the German cockroach is killed. References:
Barlow, S.M. & F.M. Sullivan. 1982. Reproductive Hazards of Industrial Chemicals: An Evaluation of Animal & Human Data. Academic Press, New York, NY. pp. 130-135.
Bianchini, R.J. 1987. ?The use of borate-treated wood in structures.? Presentation by U.S. Borax at Forest Products Research Society Conference on Wood Protection Techniques and the Use of Treated Wood in Construction. Memphis, TN. October 28-30.
?Borate prospects are seen as promising.? Chemical Marketing Reporter. November 16, 1987.
?Boron found to have role in hardening bones.? Chemical Marketing Reporter. November 9, 1987.
Casarett, et al. 1980. Toxicology: The Basic Science of Poisons. 2nd ed. Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. New York, NY. pp. 440-441.
Gosselin, R.E., et al. 1984. Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products. 5th ed. Williams & Wilkins. Baltimore, MD.
?IN-CIDE: Pest control insulation.? Energy Design Update 4 (11):13-14.
Olkowski, W. and S. Daar. 1987. ?Boric acid: New formulations and application equipment.? The IPM Practioner 9(6-7):3-4. Bio-Integral Resource Center. Berkeley, CA.
Siegel, E. and S. Wason. 1986. ?Boric acid toxicity.? Pediatric Clinics of North America 33(2):363-367.
Sprague, R. 1972. ?The ecological significance of boron.? U.S. Borax Research Corp. Anaheim, CA.
U.S. EPA. 1993. ?Boric acid.? R.E.D. Facts. EPA-738-F-93-006. Office of Pesticide Programs. Washington, DC.
U.S. EPA. 1985. ?Guidance for the reregistration of pesticide products containing boric acid and boron containing salts as the active ingredient.? Office of Pesticide Programs. Washington, DC.
Weir, R. and R. Fisher. 1972. ?Toxicological studies on borax and boric acid.? Toxicology of Applied Pharmacology 23:351-364.
Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets. To plant a pine, one need only own a shovel.
-- Aldo Leopold
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