primitives discuss their ant-farms, hardware stores

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=246x14491

Oh my.

Suich  (1000+ posts)      Sat Jun-18-11 04:03 PM
Original message
 
One of my planter boxes is infested with ants.

Any suggestions on how to get rid of them?

Denninmi  (844 posts)      Sat Jun-18-11 09:15 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. Ants. I hate them in the garden like Indian Jones hated snakes.

I don't dislike them in general, I just don't like them in the garden. I know they can be beneficial, but we have a couple of tiny species here, one red, one black, that are very aggressive and do sting quite nicely when accidentally disturbed. I can only imagine what people in the South go through with fire ants. Ours are nothing compared to those.

Oh, yeah, maybe I should actually answer your question instead of ramble.

Conventional control -- any good granular insecticide for soil based insects should take care of them.

Organic control -- try putting about an inch of diatomaceous earth on top of the planter. As they track through it, they'll get coated and take it into the nest.

Manual control -- if you can do it without too much damage to the plants, you can try to dig into the nest, disturb it, and as they come to the top to see what is happening, cook them with a propane torch. Keep stirring and cooking until there aren't any survivors. This works in the garden, but in a planter may be too tight of quarters to do this safely. Pouring boiling water into the nest works, too, but will also kill plants in a planter box most likely.

Kolesar  (1000+ posts)        Sun Jun-19-11 06:56 AM
Response to Reply #1
 
4. I destroyed an ant nest with diatomaceous earth

No muss, no fuss, no pesticides!

trud  (921 posts)      Mon Jun-20-11 04:40 AM
Response to Reply #5
 
7. about diatomaceous earth

Wasn't there some thought that that is a respiratory hazard to humans?

Curmudgeoness  (1000+ posts)      Mon Jun-20-11 07:28 PM
Response to Reply #7
 
9. I have not heard that, but I have no doubt that it would not be safe to breathe it in. Come to think of it, diatoms are silica, and they get rid of insects by tearing into them, so yes, that would damage the lungs too. Thanks for saying that.

Curmudgeoness  (1000+ posts)      Sat Jun-18-11 10:30 PM
Response to Original message
 
2. Although I don't have an easy answer, it is important to know what kind of ants. Or at least are they black ants or brown/red ants. For the most part, black ants are attracted to sweet and brown/red are attracted to oily. The only way I know that you could get rid of the ants would be to use a poison unless you dump the whole planter and start over. Any home remedies that I know about will kill the plants as well. Bait poisons have to be for the right kind of ant, since sweet will not attract oil-liking ants and vice versa.

trud  (921 posts)      Sun Jun-19-11 06:30 AM
Response to Original message
 
3. I would dump the contents of the planter box far away and wash the heck out of the planter box. Also wash off the area well around it since ants follow trails, is my understanding.

Lisa0825  (1000+ posts)      Sun Jun-19-11 11:22 PM
Response to Original message
 
6. Cayenne Pepper repels ants. I have used it and it worked for me.

mopinko   (1000+ posts)        Mon Jun-20-11 11:48 AM
Response to Original message
 
8. in my experience it is impossible to control ants. i have them in my house, and they have actually done a lot of damage. my kitchen is in my basement, and the little bastards just wont give up. gives me a reason to love winter, when the little bastards are hibernating.

i will try the remedies here. i like the propane torch thing. satisfying, i think.

Curmudgeoness  (1000+ posts)      Mon Jun-20-11 07:35 PM
Response to Reply #8
 
10. If they are the black ants that like sweet, I control them with a product called Terro liquid ant bait. This has not worked for me on ants I once got in my Crisco that were brown ants. But it works wonders every time with black ants. Really rather disgusting for a day or two---you put it out where you see ants and let them take it. They will go get all their friends and really gross you out, but after a day or two, no ants. I have used this for about 40 years, and although the formula is not the same as then (it was arsenic), it still does work.

So, if you find ants "impossible to control", this is worth it.

mopinko   (1000+ posts)        Mon Jun-20-11 07:41 PM
Response to Reply #10
 
11. i haven't used that. thank you for reminding me. 

i recall way back when that it did a good job, and had a good reputation.

i have a great hardware store near me that i bet money will have it. they sort of cater to building owners and maintenance guys. every single thing they sell is the best, and is what the customers ask for. great service, too.

Curmudgeoness  (1000+ posts)      Mon Jun-20-11 08:22 PM
Response to Reply #11
 
12. I have one of those hardware stores in town too.

Locally owned, and it has survived for years with Lowes and Home Depot up the road a few miles. I go no place else.

mopinko   (1000+ posts)        Mon Jun-20-11 10:45 PM
Response to Reply #12
 
13. if only they had building supplies. 

but- light bulbs? they have a zillion. locks? only the best. bulk janitor supplies. TTOOOLLSS. good ones, not the pared down crap they sell at the home despot.

[Karin]

A propane torch amongst the potted flowers?  These advice threads are the funniest ever. 

That dia-whatever earth is good stuff, good for flea problems too.  Wear a dust mask when using, cause you will get a sore throat for a couple days otherwise. 

[I_B_Perky]

That dia-whatever earth is good stuff, good for flea problems too.  Wear a dust mask when using, cause you will get a sore throat for a couple days otherwise. 

Now to really gross ya all out... restaurants use diatomaceous earth. They add it to the shortening, oil, grease, whatever ya want to call it when they filter it. It pulls the moisture out of the shortening and collects on the filter pad and takes out microscopic particles. It will pass thru humans digestive tract without harming them but is real hell on bugs.

[Chris_]

Now to really gross ya all out... restaurants use diatomaceous earth. They add it to the shortening, oil, grease, whatever ya want to call it when they filter it. It pulls the moisture out of the shortening and collects on the filter pad and takes out microscopic particles. It will pass thru humans digestive tract without harming them but is real hell on bugs.

That's what that stuff was... I don't remember ever seeing a label on the box.  It was just 'filter powder'.

[GOBUCKS]

When I was a kid, I got a microscope kit for a present one time. One of the samples of stuff they included to look at was a little tube of diatomaceous earth. It's chock full of teeny tiny little shells, like fossils, that you could see under the microscope.

[I_B_Perky]

That's what that stuff was... I don't remember ever seeing a label on the box.  It was just 'filter powder'.

yep that's what we called it too. Only reason I knew it's real name was cause I did the ordering.

A good little story. We had a water line break under the restaurant one time. To get under the building you had to go into the storage shed. So the plumber comes, sucks a bunch of water out, fixes the line and accidently knocked over the 100lb box of DE powder getting back out. Well he thought it was lime and spread it all under the store.  We didn't see a bug for over a year!! 

[LC EFA]

I had ants in potted ornamental plants before - they were attracted by the fertiliser I'd used (fish emulsion) because I'd used too much of it.

Mixed up some borax and honey and left it in an ant friendly container on the soil.

Couple weeks later - no more ants.

[GOBUCKS]

The best way to get rid of ants is to wait until a sunny day. Then take a magnifying glass...

[vadawg]

i find the twelve gauge works pretty well, but i use birdshot as im not like those nutters who use slugs, freakin idiots...

[BlueStateSaint]

When my parents had an inground pool, the filter was a DE filter.  It used to do a pretty good job.  We used to have to "bump" the filter elements every other week or so, though.

[ChuckJ]

I don't dislike them in general, I just don't like them in the garden. I know they can be beneficial, but we have a couple of tiny species here, one red, one black, that are very aggressive and do sting quite nicely when accidentally disturbed.

I wish we had some of those. The ants we have don't sting nicely at all. They are rather bitchy about it.

I had a friend once telling me about his dad's problem with ants. He had tried everything he could think of without much success. Someone finally told him to shovel up one ant hill and throw those ants on another ant hill. The theory was that the ants from the different ant hills would battle and kill each other. I laughed and asked if it worked. He laughed and said that his dad was pretty sure that instead of battling they just screwed each other and bred a stronger breed of ant that nothing would kill.

[FreeBorn]

Murderers!!! Those ants have rights, dammit!!! Who are you DUmmmies to contemplate their demise?

They have built the perfect model of a harmonious and Utopian socialist society that we should all revere and strive to emulate!

So, what is it REALLY? You hate them because they're black! Admit it! You're all RACISTS!!!

[JohnnyReb]

'Us" in the south wouldn't have to put up with these damn fire ants if it weren't for you Yankee city dwelling, back to nature, all chemicals are bad, fracking liberals.

[GOBUCKS]

'Us" in the south wouldn't have to put up with these damn fire ants if it weren't for you Yankee city dwelling, back to nature, all chemicals are bad, fracking liberals.

Don't complain too loudly. If the wackos hadn't got DDT outlawed, the best insecticide known to man,  the howling, destitute masses of the third world would be avoiding millions of malaria deaths per year. If those countless millions were surviving and reproducing, how many would have slipped into this country and today be registered democrats on the dole?

The fire ants are a fair tradeoff.

[Randy]

Don't complain too loudly. If the wackos hadn't got DDT outlawed, the best insecticide known to man,  the howling, destitute masses of the third world would be avoiding millions of malaria deaths per year. If those countless millions were surviving and reproducing, how many would have slipped into this country and today be registered democrats on the dole?

The fire ants are a fair tradeoff.

Besides when the DUmmies start their lil revolution those fire ant mounds will be handy to stake the survivors to. 

[franksolich]

If the wackos hadn't got DDT outlawed, the best insecticide known to man.....

Actually there was a report put out by the United Nations some years ago--sometime during the second term of George Bush--and it's been suppressed or minimized, but anyway, it said that the hippies and environmentalists (it didn't exactly call them that, but heavily suggested that) were the biggest mass-murderers of the 20th century, surpassing even Mao, Stalin, Hitler, and Lenin.

The toll in the third-, fourth-, and fifth-worlds from malaria has been horrendous.

And we got the hippies and environmentalists to blame for it.

But what do they care?  They feel good, and that's all that matters to them.

[I_B_Perky]

Don't complain too loudly. If the wackos hadn't got DDT outlawed, the best insecticide known to man,  the howling, destitute masses of the third world would be avoiding millions of malaria deaths per year. If those countless millions were surviving and reproducing, how many would have slipped into this country and today be registered democrats on the dole?

The fire ants are a fair tradeoff.

Not to mention chlordane. Best anti bug stuff ever. dad put some down in the 70's and we never saw ant or termite one until the late 90's.