I don't normally mind having ants in the garden, but this year there seem to be 10 times more thn normal! The garden is swarming with them.
I've tried putting down Nippon ant bait (the liquid type from sqeezy tubes) but there's no sign yet, after a week or so, of any fewer ants. A lot of the ants (there are at least 5 nests) don't seem interested in the Nippon at all.
Any ideas of other stuff to try..?
G.
You can buy a rather excellent spray - the can has a straw on it (like WD40) so you can direct it deep into the nest. It foams up and fills the next. I had 2 nests in the house and they seem to have gone (so far so good anyway...)
Scott
There do seem to be a lot of the little bleeders this year. You could try a teaspoon of Borax (from a chemist - it's used as a water softener) mixed with something sweet - honey, syrup etc. into a thick-ish paste. Put blobs of this where the ants are and they'll take it back to the nest. Where they die. Ha!
If you have animals then put it somewhere they can't get to it, obviously. I don't think it's *that* poisonous to animals but I dare say it won't do them any good.
Si
I never had any success with sprays, but I found that "Bio Ant Kill Plus" powder (£3.95 at the local garden centre) worked perfectly and the ants haven't returned after about a month.
'Swarming' is a precise word and ants don't swarm.
What's your problem with ants?
Mary
lol... I think you'll find it's a 'figure of speech'.
I know, but it's not scientific.
Mary
Do you understand metaphor?
They're often rather unsightly and annoying.
Jim.
er - in what way?
Mary
In the same way as magnolia, or that peeling piece of wallpaper, or rain, or all sorts of things, it's not necessarily rational, but still it's something I feel.
I'm sensitive to movement - when indoors moving ants attract my attention and stop me doing other things.
Jim.
OED definition of "swarm"
Large number or dense group of insects, birds,small animals, persons, etc-- moving about in a cluster or irregular body especially, around prey or enemy; in pl: great numbers of children, stars,people,bills(?) etc. cluster of honeybees emigrating from hive with queen bee to establish new home etc, etc, any large number of things. alt swarm, to climb rapidly .
Looks like ants to me!
LOL Capitol
When they march into the kitchen in columns of five abreast and head for the butter dish, embedding themselves stickily as a writhing mass then in the usual meaning of the expression they are 'a problem'.
Rather like the wasps from the nest in our loft (that SOFAR I have resisted fumigating), that about this time of year head for the shower room used by our foriegn (guest) students, and lie half dead and writhing in the wet shower tray causing considerable distress to naked humans unable to express their problem to us as they are here to learn English and as yet don't know the word wasp! They are also 'a problem'.
I suppose it's rather like weeds being a plant in the wrong place !
Andrew Mawson
This isn't a scientific Newsgroup, it's for DIYers. Not that the two things are mutually exclusive though!!
We have scientists and engineers here, and one or two artists as well :-)
.andy
To email, substitute .nospam with .gl
In message , Mary Fisher writes
they tickle
I should have explained more, it seems. Usenet is about communications, isn't it?
Effective communication is surely about precision, communication isn't effective unless precise words are used.
If someone talks about that thing on the wall with wires going to it, what does s/he mean? S/he knows but because it's imprecise the folk round here (i.e. on the DIY ng) won't be able to advise.
Mary
Mary
So do I.
Oh, OK :-)
But tickling isn't unsightly ...
Mary
You've counted?
Cover the butter dish then you won't be tempted to hyperbole.
That really suprises me, at this time of year it's rare to see worker wasps and there aren't many queens about in one place.
Its sounds as though the wasps are distressed too ...
What - the naked students???
That's a good point - the 'wrong' place being one we don't like. We are an arrognt lot, humans!
Mary
Are the wires going into the wall or coming out of the wall?!
You're thinking of Aunts. :-)
DG
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