ants & bulbs

Theladygardens@aol.com Theladygardens@aol.com
Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:07:37 PDT
Yes I have had huge ant problems.  As you know an ant nest can easily  
cover your entire property.  We live on a huge any nest and turning a  shovel 
over usually involves millions of ants.   Ants also feed on  termite larvae so 
if they are crawling out of electrical sockets all over your  house, have 
the house treated for termites.
For most garden variety ants, The ant pro system works and you can find  
them on line at _www.kmantpro.com_ (http://www.kmantpro.com/)    Seems 
expensive but it's easy to use, doesn't require much work on your part and  will get 
the nest in about 3 weeks time.  But you need a lot, read their  
information to guesstimate how many bait stations you need.
You can also do it yourself cheaper and with a lot more work by using empty 
 spice jars.  Collect as many as you can, mix boric acid, sugar or honey 
and  water, heat to make sure all is dissolved, cool and put a small amount in 
each  spice jar, put the lid with holes back on and lay them on their sides 
all over  your garden.  This allows ants to crawl in the small holes but 
not most  other bugs, lizards, birds, etc.  To be effective in killing the 
nest make  the solution with boric acid a bit weak and each ant can make 7-8 
trips back to  the nest with the 'food' before he dies.  But if you have 
enough empty  spice bottles maybe you just want to kill as many ants as you can 
and keep them  coming to the toxic food station.  Clean all of the jars out 
and refill  with fresh mixture often, maybe even daily.  Watch the ant 
traffic to see  how often they need to be cleaned and filled.  With the AntPro 
system you  do it once every few months.
Don't buy pharmacy grade boric acid in small jars for several dollars but  
purchase a large container (about quart size) of Roachproof.  Read the  
ingredients, it's boric acid and is much cheaper allowing you to make a  lot.  
There are many recipes on-line using boric acid water and sugar or  honey.  
Using less acid takes longer but allows them to carry lots of food  back to 
the nest.  Good luck!
Carolyn Craft


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