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Best Ant Killer

Crispee-FL

Crispee-FL

I have ants that are moving pests onto my pepper plants. (Aphids, Scale) I have tried outdoor ant baits with limited success. DE does little, as it seems to wash away with passes rain showers. Any other suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks
 
You should try to control them, not exterminate them. Ants are cute!

Anyway, I have seen them walking indifferent past gel bait and chemical pesticides are things that I would personally avoid and not recommend. In any case, they will be back if the nest is not destroyed.

There are some control agents that make them go away. These I think are pheromones, the ones that ants secrete when and where a danger is found so other ants will avoid the area. As far as I know, these are natural and harmless to plants, people or animals. You can probably find them where they sell agricultural supplies.

Introducing other insects, like Ladybugs, or letting birds do their work may also help.

I guess you grow outdoors?
 
 
Ares Schizas said:
You should try to control them, not exterminate them. Ants are cute!

Anyway, I have seen them walking indifferent past gel bait and chemical pesticides are things that I would personally avoid and not recommend. In any case, they will be back if the nest is not destroyed.

There are some control agents that make them go away. These I think are pheromones, the ones that ants secrete when and where a danger is found so other ants will avoid the area. As far as I know, these are natural and harmless to plants, people or animals. You can probably find them where they sell agricultural supplies.

Introducing other insects, like Ladybugs, or letting birds do their work may also help.

I guess you grow outdoors?
 
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Yes I grow outdoors. And thanks, I believe ants for the most part to be beneficial but when they start messing with my pepper plants that is a different story. I grow organically so it just makes it more difficult
 
Man, ants are the worst this time of year. I've also been trying to use DE, but it's been raining 6 days a week here.

Those pheromones sounds interesting, Ares. I've never heard of that, wonder if you can find them in the U.S.
 
Jubnat said:
Man, ants are the worst this time of year. I've also been trying to use DE, but it's been raining 6 days a week here.

Those pheromones sounds interesting, Ares. I've never heard of that, wonder if you can find them in the U.S.
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Most likely they are synthetic chemicals that work like pheromones or they might be synthetic pheromons; something like that.
In any case, I would not ask for them as "pheromones"; maybe "repellant" or "natural repellant" will probably work better.

In Greece, we have such products for Cockroaches and Ants, and they are used to keep them away for food storage and processing areas, kindergartens, stables and anywhere else where using insecticides would be a poisoning risk.

Ants don't like crossing through Talcum Powder (we use this method at home) but it will be useless outdoors. Vaseline around the pot can prevent them from climbing, thick lines, like 3-4 inches will most likely do the trick.

Kindly note: only Alates are capable of flying and they do so only during the mating period. After that period, male Alates end up as dinner, and female Alates (Queens) try to find a suitable place to establish a nest and shed their wings. Your average everyday ant is a worker. Some species also have major workers aka soldiers.

As for killing them, there are some natural recipes using Boric Acid, Sugar and Cocoa Powder, that are supposed to also work for Cockroaches, but I never saw ants bitting these baits.

What might work is a combination of artificial sweeteners and food preservatives. I have seen many ants laying dead after I feed them some types of candy that I now avoid eating myself.
 
I had pretty good success last year mixing cayenne powder and water together and just spraying a line I didn't want them to cross. i sprayed all the way around my raised bed last year in a continuous line. I think the smell/ spice of the pepper powder throws off their scent trails or they just don't want to cross it. Either way within a week or 2 last year i didn't see much if any ants around my plants. I would just respray the line every now and then, and if I did see a place I missed or they found a way through I would hit that spot and they stopped.
 
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