ants & bulbs
Theladygardens@aol.com (Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:20:22 PDT)

As you know one ant nest can easily cover your entire property. We live
on a giant ant nest. Ants feed on termite larvae. If they are coming out
of electrical sockets and crawling in a steady stream through your house
and into another socket or such, then have the house tented for termites.
For ants all over the garden, the Ant Pro system works very well. It
seems expensive but is very little work on your part and wipes out most of the
nests in about 3 weeks. You can find it on-line at _www.kmantpro.com_
(http://www.kmantpro.com/) Read their information to determine how many bait
stations you need.
You can do the same thing with a lot more work but cheaper yourself.
Collect as many empty plastic spice containers as you can find. The kind with
the plastic lids with holes to sprinkle out spices. Make a solution of
boric acid, water, sugar or honey, heat to dissolve everything, cool and put a
small amount in each container. Put the lid with holes back on and lay
these on their side all over your garden. This allows ants to crawl in and
feed but anything larger than an ant cannot crawl in. If you have dogs
that would pick these up and chew on them then it may not be a good idea.
If you use this method, you should check the containers almost daily to
make sure the ants like your mixture, to clean and refill as necessary. So
make a list of where you put them.
You can find many recipes on line for the boric acid mixture. Using less
boric acid allows each ant to carry the toxic food back to the nest 7-8
times before dying. Using a little more kills them quicker.
For boric acid, do not buy the pharmacy grade which is more expensive but
go to the hardware store and buy Roachproof. It comes in a plastic
container closer to quart size for two to four dollars. I will last a long time.
Good luck, Carolyn Craft