How to get rid of bull ants in your house
Laura_lou26
18 years ago
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mistymorn
18 years agoparadisi
18 years agoRelated Discussions
How to get rid of ants in a potted orange tree?
Comments (23)This thread has reminded me of one of my many nightmare stories about fire ants. These ants are simply a part of life in much of the warmer parts of this country. I was living in S. Carolina at the time. I got into my car, backed down the driveway, and started down the road. After about two or three minutes, I felt a sharp sting on my calf. Immediately, I felt stings all over, including down my blouse. A huge swarm of the ants had entered my car at some point from the time I had driven it earlier in the day till the moment they all tried to sting me at once. The nurses counted dozens and dozens of stings from my toes to the top of my head. I was bothered by 'phantom' ant stings for months after that, lol....See MoreHow to get rid of fire ants in the pot?
Comments (16)Living in Texas, I don't know of a permanent solution other than living with them, or constantly using a bait or other ant killer. Last year, just about every one of my containers had ants. As a short term solution, I would combine two of the methods listed above. Bare-root the tree and spray the ants with a sharp stream of water. You may damage a few roots, but your tree won't miss them. Afterwards, soak the root mass in a bucket of water. The second step will flush out the ants (and more specifically, the queen, if they have bored into the trunk under the basal flare (yes, they sometimes do that). You will want to soak for a couple of hours. To prevent the ants from infesting your containers to begin with, you can set your container on something and treat whatever it's sitting on. For example, my containers were on two strips of treated wood to keep them off the ground. One could soak the wood in an ant killer, or smear it with Tanglefoot or petroleum jelly to prevent the ants from crossing into the container. In order for something like this to be successful,however, you would have to make sure the top of the tree doesn't touch anything else and that grass around the container doesn't come in contact with it. Those ants will find anything they can to use as a bridge. Or you would have to effectively control the entire yard. Whatever you do... do NOT plunge your hand into the growing medium without checking for ants. It's been two weeks since I forgot that rule and my right hand is still swollen. ~james...See MoreHow to get rid of ants
Comments (14)The most effective ant deterrent I've found, for my garden, is pouring ground cinnamon in alternation with ground garlic (garlic about every 4th application)all around and on the plants. That combined with ensuring my plants have adequate nutrients, sun, drainage, etc. has helped more than insecticidal soap or anything else I've tried. I just buy it in bulk & reapply whenever I see ants on my plant kids. After application, they are gone by the following morning. For ridding ants from anywhere else, I use Dawn. I pour that stuff around the corners of any place I see ants intruding into spaces where they aren't welcome. That works 100% of the time. I don't recommend putting it around your plant pots, though, unless you want a soapy mess every time it rains. ...(yes, I totally tried doing that...)...See MoreGetting rid of ants in your plants
Comments (15)When it comes to ants, roaches, bedbugs and many other crawling insects in and around my home or plants I use FOOD GRADE Diatomaceous Earth. I put a small amount of Diatomaceous Earth in a PUMP sprayer with water, the sprayer must be shaken to keep sprayer from clogging up and I spray it evenly around the house or on plants, once the water evaporates the Diatomaceous Earth goes to work cutting up insects and drying them up. I found that ants won't even walk on this stuff. Once the insects are dead or have moved on you can mist the plants to clean the Diatomaceous Earth from the leaves. It can take 3 days for some insects to die once the Earth is on them other insects like roaches can take a bit longer but they all die. Ants run from the stuff, and I leave it down year round for bedbugs only because I don't trust my neighbors or anyone for that matter not to bring them in from their travels. Food grade Diatomaceous Earth is safe around people and animals (I even take a tablespoon daily in the mornings for, well that is another story). Now if I can find something that really works to get rid of gnats I will be insect free....See Moredaisy22loca
16 years agomiketrees
16 years agoflibbity
15 years ago1dustyfarmer_gmail_com
13 years agofitznelia_bigpond_com
13 years agoSandy Hamilton
8 years ago
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