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ant control outside?

Amdron...may be what Silver is talking about. Sprinkle a little here and there. Works on the same principal as boric acid...they eat it and it dehydrates them. Only thing that works on fireants Ive found....other than pouring something directly down the hole that you shouldn't, but that's too much like work anyway.

Effin fire ants. Bet the neighborhood cats would sit on the mounds like cheetahs on termite mounds if the bastards wouldnt chew him apart like piranhas.
 
Ud have to have fire ants and the mounds the build to understand the comparison lol a poor attemp to compare the fire ant mounds to the termite mounds and the cheetahs that sit on them to spot prey and how if the stray cats tried it the ants wud eat them alive. Poor humor attempt to break up late day work monotany
 
Sorry, the joke was lost on me...im fairly simple and anything with a hint of wit just skips off my forehead... lol
 
pappywith4 said:
I HAVE READ MIXING BORAX AND SUGAR , sorry for the caps hope your ears aren't hurting! BUT I don't want to try something I want to use something that works.
Click to expand...

I tried this and it was only mediocre for me. I mixed Borax, Sugar and water in the proportions listed on a bunch of different sites, and soaked cotton balls with the juice, then set it out where the ants were.
Next day, still had ants. Next week, next month, still... Ants.
yeah, it probably killed some, but it didn't finish the job.
Also, Borax will kill plants if you get to much of it watered in around them. I set my cotton balls on wood stakes a couple in a row so that I could move them when watering. They always had ants all over them, but it never killed the colony.


Now I use a couple of different methods. In my garden area, where I don't want chemicals getting into the soil or onto the plants, I use a propane soldering torch. yup, I torch the little bastards. The ants we have here are little black ones that build long shallow tunnels instead of deep ones with a big mound. I just sit with the flame focused down one set of holes, and pretty soon a good amount of burning flesh smelling smoke comes out of tons of other holes all around me. I've seen some come up as far as 4 feet away. I then hold the flame over every hole I can find that is connected with the first one.
Usually it only takes 2 "Torch Treatments" to kill off the hill.

If the ants aren't around my garden and I can use chemicals, I use Amdro. Sprinkle it on, goodbye ants.

For the ants that build mounds I use boiling water in large quantities if it is in a dirt area. Just boil a couple big pots of water and poor on mound. That always worked well when we had our horse property and got Red Ant mounds in the corral.
 
JustinNC said:
Amdron...may be what Silver is talking about. Sprinkle a little here and there. Works on the same principal as boric acid...they eat it and it dehydrates them. Only thing that works on fireants Ive found....other than pouring something directly down the hole that you shouldn't, but that's too much like work anyway.

Effin fire ants. Bet the neighborhood cats would sit on the mounds like cheetahs on termite mounds if the bastards wouldnt chew him apart like piranhas.
Click to expand...

No, Amdro is a different chem. Advion is a chem made by Dupont and is much faster acting (read 3 to five days).

My latest experiment with the fire devils is to drench their mound with a gallon of a very potent poison (recycled beer) and so far it seems to work, but it needs more testing. :)
 
I've used Hot Shot and Raid in the past... but I'm sure there's safer solutions. Definitely wouldn't want to use that near a garden. Or inhale it yourself when spraying.

There's a lot of ants around here. What's weird is that of all my potted plants, I only see them on my bell pepper plants. Don't know if it's something about the potting mix or the plants themselves, but I've seen several of them on flowers eating nectar (I would guess...). Ah well, as long as they're not herding aphids, and are helping to pollinate in the process...

But the first sign I see those on the plants I care about (habaneros, aji lemon, tabasco) or bringing on aphids, I'll fight back... by picking them off and throwing them off the porch in the first case, or poisoning in the second case. The ants around here are pretty big and black; no idea what type they are of if they're an aphid-herding threat.
 
The majority of problems we have with ants here in the southern US are caused by "fire ants" mound building suckers that swarm and sting when the mound is disturbed. They seem to like looser soils and
the warmth that raised beds or rows offer. They also are a little harder to get rid of in the garden because most poisons that will kill them are not approved for use in veggie patches. I accidentally discovered a effective way to remove a mound in the garden while side dressing some plants in the middle of summer, I was using 8 8 8 fertilizer, poking holes in the row and putting a handful of
fertilizer in the hole and watering it in. there happened to be a ant nest (mound that is not visible) right where I placed the fertilizer, so I said what the heck and put the fertilizer in anyway and watered it in really well,
the stick I was using to poke holes had fire ants all over it so I stuck it in the mound and located another and finished the side dressing, I then went back to the barn for some insecticide to spray on the nests (usually just makes em move) and went back to the garden, when I came to the nest the whole mounds population was in a "ball" on the stick, I simply sprayed the stick and had a massive kill
without spraying directly in the garden, since then I have used a propane torch, it does a wonderful job too. You can also make a tea with fertilizer and pour on the nest and they will relocate, if that is your desire.
 
Another thing that I've found that works in the garden is to mix up a batch of Spinosad at the same rate as if you were going to spray plants, soak some cornmeal with it and scatter that around the mound.
 
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