A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Plant pests and problems Biting black ants (carpenter?)

Hideee-ho everyone!

We have a colony of nasty :mad: biting black ants (the larger ones, instead of the tiny-weeny) in a front garden flower bed right along the driveway & front walkway. We have 2 boys under 4 who *love* to dig (especially in that area while I'm working in the flowerbed). I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for an organic (non-chemical) way of ridding our flowerbed/front garden of these little beasts.

Someone mentioned to me something about chrysanthemum (sp) spray/powder to kill the colony. Has anyone tried it?? How does it work?? I'm checkin' w/all you wonderful seasoned gardeners before lookin' to google.

Thanks in advance!!

Well chrysanthemum spray is a Pyrethrum. you can get natural Pyrethrums in some prodcuts and others have synthetic. they synthetics are vary hard on beneficial insects.

But... sprays are not the best method for controlling ants. Baits are the better way to control ants. Sprays just kill the ants you see where baits will take the ant killer back to the colony and kill the nest. You would be putting out far less chemicals using a bait then spraying. Also you can get baits with borax in then, that would be safe to use.

hello,

i ve had ant problems before,almost every year , inside and out.well just yesterday i ve discovered an army on my kitchen floor,well just put cooffee grain on it or powdered chalk or simply powder(baby powder ) it gets into their lung and as much as i hate killing a living thing let me tell you those ants implode with the powder in their lungs.cooffe is a bit more like when you don t want a colony to come near your stuff, but it worked well for me yesterday.

good luck.


Franny.

franny! i'm so glad to see you here.

so, just regular coffee on the ants? (i like that idea, it smells good and i have loads that is older than i like to use)