Well, right after I set-up our kids new swing-set, we notice a decently large ant nest right close to the swing-set. I want to get rid of them without any chemical treatment that would cause me to not allow my kids and pups out there. I read very hot water will do it, we tried that but the nest must be too deep. I've read of mixtures with Borax that are said to work, but haven't tried that yet...Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

They ain't fire ants. Why are you even bothering with them at all?

Because they are close enough to the play area. My 1 year old walks and crawls around the play area and these little buggers (the ants) will crawl on the kids and they do bite. I'd just assume get rid of them.

Maybe I should just do this!?!?

Not sure there is an easy way without chemicals...

Having said that, read up on the recommended chemicals as I am sure there are certain ones which are pretty much non toxic to humans and animals in the doses required to kill ants..

Diatomaceous earth will wear the legs off the little buggers - and is non-toxic to kids & pets.

I've read about this too...interesting concept.

everclear or rubbing alcohol at a high concentrate.

dump a bunch down the main hole and cover it with a bowl or something that can seal in the vapors. they will all be dead in no time. Gasoline also works but I wouldn't recommend it.

Also works pretty well on cockroaches, if you're fighting them. takes a while, but works. I like food-grade. Our local feed mill is my source. It's finer texture than the swimming pool stuff, and seems to work a mite better, IMHO.

permetherin, and keep the kids out for a few days. Poured down into the nest you won't have much residual up top anyway.

Kids breathe worse things day to day in the air..... exposing em to a bit of something ain't the end.....

Baby powder? I saw an old guy sprinkle it around a camp site. He said it killed ants.

Evaportative cooling works for me. Just pour a gallon of gasoline on it during the heat of the day and let it evaporate. The hotter the day, the better.

Gasoline does seem to work but can be dangerous.

Call your County extension agent and ask if there any steam ant killers around. They are used here quite a bit to kill fire ant beds in pastures. Steam injection works but the fire ants will eventually come back.

boiling water works if it's not too deep...it will kill the grass however.

You all do know that gasoline is a chemical right?

You have to use something that gets the queen, otherwise she will just lay more generations of workers.

Baby powder etc does not kill ants, it has scent which screws up their ability to lay scent trails and they avoid it, but these things are not likely to keep things out of the lawn.

Ant bait work the best, particularly the ones that get carried back to the nest. These come in stake form and can be driven into the ground.

borax etc are good killers of workers but tend to be temporary solutions

well, obviously...

Are your kids going to eat the dam dirt ? the epa ..got rid of anything that worked....and the rest of us here managed to make it thru all the old bug killer's...

Buy a can of Copenhagen snuff. Put it in a gallon jug of water and let it sit in the sun for a few hours, then pour it on the ant pile.

Watching how fast the results are may also make you quit dipping if you are a chewer.

They could...thats what kids do. That and cross-contamination when they track through it and such.

I misread the topic title.
Thought it said "antis ".

'd be a more entertaining thread but none the less...

WTF 's wrong with explosives?
Worked when you was a kid, didn't it?

Find another mound and mix them together. They will fight till death or move if they are from different colonies.

WTH is it with yankees and ants biting! Dogs bite, ticks bite, mosquitoes and chiggers and bed bugs bite. Ants and wasps and bees sting.

What is so difficult about that?

ants bite too.

Actually ants do bite and sting. These are the larger black variety that do bite because they have large enough mandibles to do so...

Cut their tail off and see if it hurts. They grab hold so they can STING crap out of you.

Scorpions dont hurt with _______ cut of. Fill in the blank.

Fire ants dont bite like FIRE.

You get stung enough and have an allergic reaction they dont give you a rabies shot Or antibiotics. You get epinephrine, steroid, and benedryl.

Hard headed?

PS, Borax mixed with sugar and cornmeal.

I've read that cinnamon will get rid of them.

So...any ideas to rid me of these pests or are you only here to continue arguing semantics?

http://www.greenlifestylechanges.com/getting-the-ants-out-naturally/

I hate it when a patient says they got stung by a spider, too, but i love your rifle.

Soapy water kills them. I mix up dawn and water in a sprayer to mist my young aspens. They get on the ends of the leaves and guard the aphids.

I've read it drowns them somehow. Pouring a soapy mixture in the hole is said to work.

You having your period ?

Must be a bad one, what with the Moon full.

GTC

a tube of crest toothpaste in a gallon of water. shaken not stirred! pour into ports of the hive. amazing how quick it kills ants. even works on carpenter ants.

Prolly no help in SD but the Texas Horned Lizard sits happily all day long next to an ant hole lapping them up.
Fact is, it's the only thing they eat.

Hearing about ants biting brings out the crossfire in me.

Ok, fire ants bite like fire, cross, just for you.

They cant stand the mint. Yep, wash it down their mound. Great idea.

Put about a 4-5 pound block of dry ice on top of the colony.

One friend that tried it swears that ants are wired to respond to the carbon dioxide of a large animal with his snoot down near the colony. Allegedly, they come swarming out of the colony and attack the dry ice.

Antsicles.

Chemicals! My dad made it one of my chores to spray fire ant mounds with Diazinon when I was a kid. Had to mix it myself. I turned out OK.

Throw some chemicals on the mound and make the kids stay away for a day if it worries you that bad.

Or move the swing set.

Mark, what are you paying for the 50lb bag of feed grade up your way ?

Greg

Pahntr760;
Good evening to you sir, hopefully this finds you and yours well outside of the ant issue.

We're quite inundated with several varieties of ants in our part of the world, have pets and once upon a time our girls were small too.

Here's a link to some other folks' solutions to ants.
http://bedbugger.com/forum/topic/what-brand-of-diatomaceous-earth-you-use-success

We've used Chemfree Insectigone quite a bit as well as another brand - whatever the local Walmart has in stock seems to work honestly.

Put lots down and make sure it stays dry. If you can find the entrance holes to an ant pile then blast as much diatomaceous earth down the holes as you can and they'll not like it.

I've also used One Shot brand foaming ant killer - but it's a chemical killer so don't use it where pets or kids can get at it.

Hopefully that was somewhat useful information for you or someone out there this evening, good luck with your ant extermination and all the best to you and yours.

Dwayne

This has worked for me about 50% of the time, on fire ants...

Take a water hose, turn it on full blast, and start washing out the nest. Keep working the hose into the ground while watching for the queen to 'wash up'. The queen will be a lot bigger with a white abdomen. Kill her and the rest of the nest will die/leave in about a day.

Id have soaked them in ajax dish soap to cut their surface oil and drown them. Ive seen too many balls of them floating in lakes and rivers after a rise.

PS, Ajax is one third the price of fragrance filled Dawn.

We've used icing sugar mixed with borax. Sprinkle it on top of the colony. I've heard that cornmeal works too. Something about it swelling when they eat it, which kills them. Never tried it though.


SS

How about a nice, hot, day or two long,campfire?

Go to your local co-op and get some acephate, it's a white powder ant killer that smells horrible. Treat the mound with that and keep the kids and dogs away for a couple of days, then it'll be fine to let them back there.

You can screw around with home remedies till the cows come home or get something that'll actually work. I'd rather just use something that works and get it fixed, then the kids and dogs can play in peace.

http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profiles/extoxnet/24d-captan/acephate-ext.html

Watch to see their most active period, then a good dose of Amdro right around the hole. They pack down, and it's gone in thirty minutes....no more ants.
Don't make mountain out of an ant hill, simple, fast, safe if that kind of thing worries you?

I don't know how well it would work outside but a 50/50 mix of icing sugar and baking soda got rid of the ants in my house.

I've used Borax around the house for ants and it works every time.

Just need to figure out if they are after "sugar" or "fat/protein". Borax with sugar, or borax with peanut butter has always worked. It takes a few days, but the ants take it back to the nest where they all eat it. Slow acting is actually a good thing here.

Perma-Guard pure Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth;

Link


Phil

pm sent

This should work and the kids will enjoy the heck out of it.

Water and Borax are chemicals.

Put ant stakes out so that the ants will carry the poison back to the nest and kill of the whole nest.

Supplies Needed

1/2 cup of sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons Borax (find Borax on Amazon with free shipping here!)
1 1/2 cups warm water
Cotton balls or paper towel

Instructions

1. Mix the Borax and sugar together until well combined.

2. Add the mixture to your warm water and mix constantly until the powder has been completely dissolved.

3. Seal the mixture in a jar or container for future use, and use only what you need in the next steps (and save the rest). It is important that you clearly label the jar, as it will just look like water. Do not leave this where children can get to it. (Because this is such an easy solution to make, however, I only kept what I made until after the ants had been gone for a week or more.)

4. Fill some jar lids, milk caps, or other shallow containers with cotton balls or a wad of paper towel.

5. Add the sugar-Borax solution to the prepared lids making sure to soak the cotton balls (or paper towel).

6. Wait. It may take the ants a while to find the solution. But, once they do, let them feast (and take the solution back to their home).

Am I the only one here who has ever used Amdro??? Maybe yall's ants are just pickier than mine. Sprinkle a few teaspoonfuls on the mound, wait a couple days, and they take it to the queen. Problem solved. I used to sprinkle it around the perimeter of the house,too. Ants seem to do pretty good at finding it and taking it to nearby holes/mounds.

Drink a quart of beer and pizz on 'em!!

Have been told Simple Green works to control sugar ants.

Going to give it a try. Got them all over my kitchen counters.

Virgil B.

This is a timely thread - yesterday I found a fairly large fire ant nest/pile on our place and was told by all of the visiting relatives that I need to do something about it.

Fipronil and be done. All these stupid home remedies are nothing more than feel good hippy bullschidt. None will work and by the time you're on the third one you've created a toxic waste dump of household cleaners that are worse for your kids health than just using a good registered product in the first place. Call in a pro if you don't want to do the application.

Just dig all the way back in the old shed and find that bag of chlordane powder.

I have had good results with vinegar. Dumped about a half-gallon on an anthill then on the following day scattered it a bit and dumped on another half-gallon. The ants did not return.

Take a scoup from one and colony and add it to the other and vise versa.
The two will go to war with each other.

What if they arent pizz-ants?