Wednesday, April 30, 2014

DEAD ANTS

Remember a few weeks ago I blogged HERE about a fire ant colony in one of the raised beds?  I was not sure what to use to eradicate them since it was IN the bed I'd be planting vegetables and herbs in.  Well, a few suggestions involved boiling water and so that's what we did.  We put a kettle of water on to boil one evening and I poured it over the hill...

Empty fire ant mound
Last weekend when we were out there, this is what I found.  Totally gone and, hopefully, all dead.  There was another great suggestion recently involving club soda being poured into the mound.  I might try that the next time.

But until then...



...These are the only kind of ants we want to see at our farm.  The decorative, artsy kind!




5 comments:

  1. i just read about the club soda yesterday and it sounds like it should work!

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  2. Ants give me the creeps but I must admit, those fire engine red ones on your deck look awesome!

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  3. I am so happy to hear that the boiling water treatment worked on your fire ants. Since my vegetable garden is as organic as I can make it, it's great to find a natural treatment for those fiery menaces. And the club soda will be a great backup if the critters are too close to my veggies to use the boiling water.

    Now I have to go put out some beer in shallow pans to get rid of the snails. They crawl in, get drunk, and drown. At least they'll die happy!

    Texas Rose

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  4. I read on Scopes.com that club soda will only drown a few ants. I bet you are the type to have a tablecloth made of material with ants all over it!

    My fire ant mound would require many tubs of boiling water!

    Watch out for another mound starting. Sometimes, they just move.

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  5. A couple of caps full of orange oil mixed into a watering can of water (about a gallon) will kill them too.....sometimes you have to repeat the treatment as the survivors move, but this works....I live on 11.5 acres and my garden (which is very large) is totally free of ants!

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