Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
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I've used this mixture before also.
Here's an easy mixture to help you get rid of ants and maybe other bugs as well.
Mix water & dawn ...
use enough to make the water a little lighter in color of the soap, though of course it's the soap that kills the ants, so judge for yourself. The water helps the soap soak into the dirt and go down into the ant bed easier. Pour the mixture to saturate the ant bed, as much as you want, the more the better. I like to piss them off a bit by sticking a stick in a few spots on the mound to get them to the top so when I pour mixture on it kills more ants, and the holes you make helps to get the liquid down further in the bed. I make a gallon size container full and walk around the yard to pour on beds, sometimes during the summer I have to remake the mixture a few times. Though I like to pour a lot on. I don't want to get bit and don't want my pups to get bit. And the mixture won't harm your pups, you can bathe your pups with dawn soap.
It works great to kill a ton of ants, of course as with any ant killer the ones that live will relocate, but just keep after them. Check the ant beds the next day and you will see a bunch of dead ants on top of bed (on bigger beds anyways).
You can also mix a small amount of dawn (like just a few drops into a small spray bottle of water) into water to help kill or keep bugs on plants. I've even sprayed the soil in my garden with a small spray bottle to kill pretty large ant beds in my garden.
You can also use coffee grounds in your garden to keep ants out, they don't like coffee grounds, I don't think it kills them but keeps them out of garden soil and it's safe for plants.
Thanks! I didn't know that would kill ants. We always have a lot and the buggers bite me every time I mow my yard. Bah!
ants will move on out if you use coffee grounds, they hate it. I just don't want them in my garden, have at it in the road or in the woods. Problem with insecticides, is they kill beneficial insects too, the good bugs that will eat the bad bugs. Also, the birds eat bugs. If you can get your gardens into a nice balance, things do work out, it takes a few years.
The best thing to kill ants is a white powder. And I can’t think of the name of it, but the stuff is so pungent. You have to wear a mask with it. But it does the trick. Every single time. Best stuff ever.
I like the stuff but it’s so messy. Living in Arizona. It’s something that you would put a home barrier around your house for scorpions. Works great for that. Never tried it for ants though. Great suggestion.
Ticks are everywhere in Vermont now, my friends are always pickin em off, I free range my chickens after the garden is done, and before I plant out, there are no ticks on my property, anywhere, even where they don't go, I run my dogs through my small woods, nope. It's almost weird, as a matter of fact. I caught Lyme in Vermont, in 1985, before I bought my place. I was staying at a farm a friend had, about 2 miles away, go figure.
Thanks, I've killed regular ants with hot water or vinegar separately. Even used grits, ants eat grits and they explode. Fire ants are a different breed. It's very hard to kill them. Even poison or gas doesn't kill them all. They are so deep in the ground. A guy I used to work with said gun powder works, shooting mound with a shot gun. My husband says bullets are to expensive. I agreed.
Keep pouring coffee grounds into their hole, it will take a couple of weeks, they get messed up, forget to forage, the workers dont go back, the colony dies off, the hepped up workers wander off and die without the colony, they will stay away from then on.
Amdro, available at the big box stores. I lived in central Florida and fire ants are a big problem. They put me in the emergency department twice. The little bastards think Amdro is candy and they take it into the colony and feed it to the queen. I kept a bottle of it on the handle of the lawn mower. See a mound, sprinkle a capful. Pretty soon, they’re gone.
If you use hot water, it will kill your grass. I know from experience, lol. Husband didn't find it very funny though ;)
I also heard if you have two big ant beds, get a shovel and scoop up one ant bed and throw it on another ant bed, they will fight to the death, killing each other. Saw a video on it awhile back.