"James Brasch" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> spaketh thusly:
We find a good way to control ants in the greenhouse, rock garden, around
>the house generally is to add borax ,available in large supermarkets--at
>least here in Canada-- to Carnation millk until a stiff paste is produced.
>We add a little red coloring.
>Mix thoroughly and drop little 'cookies" onto wax paper. In a few days the
>cookies will become solid and they can be placed along the ant paths or in
>pots, etc. Be sure to keep them away from kids and pets. Borax carried to
>the queen usually cleans up the sand piles.
...and reminded me of a little trick.
Mix two cups of sugar with one cup of water. Add in two
tablespoons of boric acid ("Roach Pruf," etc.). Check the labels on
powdered cockroach killers; they may be 99%+ boric acid. Dissolve
both components, and then saturate cotton balls with the solution.
Put cotton balls in jars with lids. Punch a hole in the lid
for ants to get in. Baby food jars are ideal. Put the "bombs" where
the ants are found.
The jars sequester the cotton balls so they don't get wet,
and pets can't get to them. Even if they could, boric acid has very
low mammalian toxicity, and is much safer than most commercial
pesticides. Borax (the commercial laundry cleaner) may also work, but
you may have to play with the quantities. Too much, and the ants
won't eat it. Too little, and it won't work. I've wiped out entire
ant colonies with the bombs that commercial pesticides wouldn't touch.
Another solution is fipronil (Maxforce, Over 'n Out, Regent,
Termidor). It's safe enough with mammals that the applied tick
treatment "Frontline" uses the stuff to systemically poison parasites on pets.
My "advice" (whatever that's worth) is no substitute for
reading the label.
Cheers,
-AJHicks
Chandler, AZ
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