Method 6. Ammonia
The familiar ammonia solution has a very pungent smell. Many insects do not tolerate it and feel it even after a person does not hear it. I decided to try it out in the fight against ants, making a solution of 1 liter of water and 1 tablespoon of ammonia. I put it in a sprayer and carefully treated an old dry tree that was left for children’s games on our site. This year, ants have settled in it.
After some time, when the solution dried, I saw that the ants were not particularly impressed. It was a pity, because this method seemed to me optimal for dealing with ants living in such a difficult place for processing. I made a more concentrated solution — about 4 tablespoons per 1 liter of water and sprayed again. It worked! After a couple of hours I didn’t find any ants, and the next day I didn’t find any. I conclude that ammonia is a good tool for fighting anthills in such inconvenient places, as in my case.
Method 7. Kerosene
Kerosene is praised by many: it is inexpensive and multifunctional. I tried it out on an earthen anthill, which is located right next to Hosta. It was built by small black goosebumps, they are almost invisible against the ground, so you probably won’t be able to see them in the photo.
I dug the ant hill a little with a trowel, put a cotton cloth on top of it, and poured kerosene over it. I pressed everything down on top with a plank so that the liquid wouldn’t evaporate any longer. After a while, I checked — the effect is there! There are only a few ants under the Board. The smell, of course, is stunning, so you do not want to use kerosene in a greenhouse or near recreation areas. The next day, I didn’t find any ants in the processing area, so Yes, the kerosene is working.
Method 8. Boiling Water
May the protectors of all life forgive me, but I know of no better remedy for ants. When a column of insects walks along the paths along each crack, when it is impossible to stop without fear of being bitten by the legs, any means are used.
Just take boiling water and water it. And the result is like an old advertising poster: “Fast, profitable, convenient.” The cheapest and easiest method, which has one fat minus: it can not be used among plants-it will be cooked. Last year, I tried to carefully pour boiling water over the edge of the path on the border with the lawn — I spoiled the grass for a long time.
Method 9. The ready-made bait
On my land, the garden is not allocated the largest area: there are 7 narrow and slightly raised beds and a small greenhouse. Every year the ant problem does not avoid the territory of a party. It was here that I decided to try out the bait, which I found a lot of positive reviews on the network. It includes diazinone-a poison. For the experiment, I chose a completely creepy anthill, which was built by small black ants in a bed prepared for planting peppers.
At first glance, it was not so bad: a couple of small holes next to the fence Board, a few goosebumps. But when I dug a little into the loose earth, it turned out that there were a huge number of them, plus there were white eggs. As it is written in the instructions, I dug out the ant hill a little and sprinkled bait on its interior. Then she covered it with earth and waited.
The next day it was all over. There were no ants in that bed. To be honest, the action looked very convincing. For me, a separate significant plus was that there is no need to breed, cook or mix anything. I need to get the maximum effect with a minimum of time and effort.
Where there are no anthills
It is also necessary to mention places where there are no anthills on my plot of 25 acres. Where mint, Origanum vulgare, thymus and Hyssopus are planted, it is almost impossible to meet these insects. They do not like the proximity of these plants, as well as, for example, with Artemisia and Lavandula. Other than that, I’ve never seen ant houses in beds of garlic, dill, and parsley.
I also want to say that on the farthest border of my land there is a real large ant house — red ants have lived there for many years. To build new floors, they use fallen pine needles, to which they have trodden a real path-a highway, you might say. This anthill we do not touch, it does not interfere with us or our neighbors, so it has been in its place for many years.
Ants, despite the fact that they are “nurses of the forest”, as we were taught in childhood, are often simply unbearable on the garden plot. They spoil the garden, lawns, aphids colonize young branches, chewing on the flower petals and just bite. Therefore, many gardeners and gardeners have to deal with them on their land plot.
Summing up my experiment, I want to say that not all the methods that I had hoped for have shown their effectiveness. Cinnamon, millet and jam did not give any result at all, although they help many people, if you believe the reviews. And another important conclusion: different methods are good for different cases. For example, on the beds it is most effective to use bait, to drive insects out of the log will help spraying with a solution of ammonia, and on the paths I will use boiling water. How do you deal with this problem?
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