[MartHale7]

Borax laundry detergent mixed with a sugar, and a fat makes a good mixture for ants to thin them down.

Ants are good in that they multiply fungus, they are bad as they farm aphids on your plants.

https://youtu.be/XP3GnU99M5Y

I have found mixing in some jello or peanut butter oil helpful as well.

[Mercy-House-Figs]

Thank you for that suggestion/ ant bait recipe…I have noticed quite a few more ants since all the rain we had a couple of weeks ago.

[MartHale7]

You are welcome, I keep refining it as I am in Florida. Some ants like sugar, others like fat, I find what they like and add borax to what they like. Mine love chicken fat… I guess all love chicken :-0

[Mercy-House-Figs]

Yep, everyone’s favorite! 😂

[Herbs4u2]

Thank you!!!!! Borax now on this weekends shopping list!

[Heidi]

Diatomacious (sp) earth– sprinkle around the plants–breaks their exoskeleton.

[Lilu]

sometimes the very hard clay soil attracts ants because they’re able to create nest-pathways and canals that don’t collapse. A nice fertile soft soil that crumbles is not a good environment for them to build nests.

Borax/sugar mix can create issues for the soil balance so don’t sprinkle it in your soil but rather poke holes in a plastic container with a tight lid and make traps. But, fasten traps cause the opussoms can haul your traps away and eat the poison and die. This business with the ants it’s kind of a balance. Although they farm aphids, the lady bugs love to eat aphids and the “aphid ant farm” can attract them. So there’s always a big “depends “on anything you do in the garden.

If they’re not causing harm, I just let them be. What I do before I put a raised bed is work the clay soil about 3 feet under my raised beds and it seems to help prevent nesting.

You can buy a cheap small plastic insecticide duster in Amazon, one of those that people used to dust pesticides in home environments, and use food grade diatomaceous earth to dust your plants. only food grade….. but again the diatomaceous earth can kill the Friendly bugs.

Really, my strategy is to leave them be if my plants don’t mind them. Nature has a way to balance itself if you keep the plants well fed and with strong immune systems. just like humans, good nutrition = string immune system.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by  Lilu.

[Woodsman]

My way is nature’s way.

[Louisiana]

How this is used in Human health.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfBXtupgZKM&ab_channel=-CougarRidgeRanch

[Mercy-House-Figs]

Thank you for this info.