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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

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Original poster

ANTS ANTS ANTS ANTS ANTS ANTS ANTS ANTS ANTS ANTS ANTS

27 replies

SlightlyMadSalmon · 08/07/2007 10:34

Guess what - we have ANTS!!!!

DP has just gone to mow lawn hand has uncovered at least 3 very large ants nests (with proper mounds and all).

Currently dowsing them with boiling water which is going to destroy my lawn. Will put Nippon around the house.

Anything else we can do?

OP posts:

Original poster

SlightlyMadSalmon · 08/07/2007 10:53

OP posts:

Original poster

SlightlyMadSalmon · 08/07/2007 11:39

Ended up with 6 nests.......I dread to think how many ants were living in those nests

OP posts:

EllieG · 08/07/2007 21:11

Sorry don't know but didn't want you to feel ignored anymore.

snowwonder · 08/07/2007 21:11

white ant powder, - its the white they dont loke apparently??????? so maybe you can get away with plain flour

elesbells · 08/07/2007 21:12

zap them with your hairdryer

littlelapin · 08/07/2007 21:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

iota · 08/07/2007 21:22

we had a very unsettling ant experience yesterday - flying ants came in through the air vent in my kitchen window and swarmed - I walked in to see the window alive with ants.

I think that they may have nested in the grille and were trying to get out.

A huge battle ensued - I was wiping them off the window with wet kitchen roll and dh was spraying ant killer at them.

I think we won. Took a while though

Original poster

SlightlyMadSalmon · 08/07/2007 21:34

There are just thousands of them.

We dowsed the nests with boiling water and destroyed half of my lawn.

Within 30mins it was crawling again...with the workers trying to carry out eggs. I dotted Nippon all over the mud patches and hat did seem to attract the ants so I thought it would work.

A few hours later there is a lot less activity, then I look at the patio and they have just upped and moved.....and are currently acting as funeral directors carrying the bodies away.

I have put Nippon bait traps down to try and stop them moving into the house but we have just had a major storm and I think we areset for more rain so I don't see the point of putting powder down.....I just don't think I have ever seen so many ants at one time.

OP posts:

whomovedmychocolate · 08/07/2007 21:34

A line of cinnamon is pretty effective, apparently it burns their feet and they can't cross it. But the cat looks like a twonk when he sniffs it and sneezes!

mytwopenceworth · 08/07/2007 21:37

They don't like cinnamon. Sprinkle it in lines across doors and windows to stop them coming inside.

Cornflour swells up inside them and bursts apparently.

Or stick your hoover pipe right down into the middle of the colony and suck the little bleeders up!

But we used these little white square things you buy from b&q, they've got something inside them I guess, a poison, that the ants carry back. Got rid of them in a week.

mytwopenceworth · 08/07/2007 21:38

oh, I just read somewhere that foaming carpet cleaner right down their hole (in the ground I mean!) works a treat.

Plus should shine your lawn right up.

whomovedmychocolate · 08/07/2007 21:40

Or make cinnamon custard with cornflower, they'll hate the taste and then explode. Hilarious! Do remember to film it and put it on youtube so we can all have a look though!

iota · 09/07/2007 10:04

more corpses on my window-sill this morning

stealthsquiggle · 09/07/2007 10:28

Little white square things (assuming they are the same as little black square things I bought) do they really work? I have a feeling they may have killed off one set only for another set to move in..

I laugh at your "6 nests" - we must have closer to 100 - all over the lawn and, more worryingly, in the walls of the house - and I hate ants. The barrier spray stuff is pretty effective at keeping them out of the house, but I need an industrial (agricultural?) scale solution for the walls and garden - all suggestions welcome!

Original poster

SlightlyMadSalmon · 09/07/2007 16:04

I should say at least 6 nests on the lawn that are close tot eh surface. And a couple of them seem to be hug 50cm*30cm!!!!

There seems to be a bit less activity today.

In the past the best product we have found is Nippon ant killer liquid in refillable traps. Not sure if this attack might beat it though

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stealthsquiggle · 09/07/2007 16:28

Refillable traps. Thank you. I am taking notes and heading for the local agricultural merchant. I think it needs a team approach as we will have to do them all (or as many as poss) at the same time to stop them just relocating. It's the ones who are eating the house from the outside in which really bother me...

Original poster

SlightlyMadSalmon · 09/07/2007 16:54

this is what we used. Except when DP went to get extra ones yesterday he brought pre-baited which can't be topped up!!!

If you have a big problem the ants can devour the 1-2drops of liquid you are supposed to use within a couple of hours so either add loads to start with (which is what we did yesterday) or top up regularly.

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summer111 · 10/07/2007 19:45

There are two different types of ants - lawn ants are red and when they bite you, you'll feel it! The black ones are your common patio ants that are those that will move in with you...
My dh discovered a load of lawn ant nests this w/e and after extensive internet research, discovered that there doesn't appear to be any safe product on the market to kill them. The only realistic thing he found was 'nematodes' which is a method of controlling aphids (using one living organism to control another). More people are using the predatory nematodes as a means of controlling both greenhouse and garden pests and aphids. From what dh read, the lawn ants hate them but aren't necessarily killed by the nematodes...they may however pack their bags and take up residence in your neighbours garden instead!
Dh couldn't source them in B&Q so will buy them online.

The black pesky patio ants I kill with boiling water and nipon/ regular ant powder, which does the trick.

SlightlyMadSpider · 10/07/2007 20:07

The ones on our lawn seemed to be black ants and they seem to have been killed by Nippon (which specifies it is for black ants).

currantbunmum · 10/07/2007 20:22

We have used baby powder before to get rid of ants, not sure if it kills them or just hacks them off so they pack up and leave. Added bonus of getting rid of all the baby powder you bought before you realised you shouldn't really use it.

JackieNo · 10/07/2007 20:34

I found a load of anthills and flying ants on Saturday when I was mowing the lawn - we had some of this in the garage, so I used it. Seemed to work. Mind you, they did just start coming out of the steps and patio, so I had to keep going back and checking where they'd moved to.

stealthsquiggle · 10/07/2007 21:10

trouble is, with a 20ft radius I would need dozens of them...

I will get organised and go and see what farmers use tomorrow.

I beg to differ on the red ant / black ant thing. The little bastards who are ruining the lawn are the same as the ones eating the house and they are all black.

Bainmarie · 10/07/2007 22:14

Yuk, us too!
Have used chilli powder to try and deter them, think it is meant to have the same effect as cinnamon? (also may have hoovered upa few too....)

Sorry not very helpful for outside ones though.

PrettyCandles · 10/07/2007 22:24

The only thing that will get rid of ants is a poison that the woirkers (the ones you see, mostly) can carry back to the queen ant. When she eats enough of it she dies and the whole colony dies with her as they can't survive without a queen. So all these 'natural' remedies might do for the worker ant that picks them up, but won't have any effect on the nest itself. Similarly boiling water - unless by some good chance you manage to parboil the queen.

Nippon is good, but not weatherproof. Plus, being in refillable containters, I don't consider it safe where there are children. It's sweet, to attract the ants, and I'm fairly sure that tasting a drop won't harm a child, but I'm not taking that risk!

Raid do a good product in a non-refillable container, that is good for 3m outdoors, and can also be used indoors. It's been effective for us. But it's no good just putting it near a nest. You have to put it on the ant-run itself.

PrettyCandles · 10/07/2007 22:25

The Raid product is good for 3 months, BTW, not 3 metres!

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