Ants are undoubtedly amazing creatures. With large, complex societies, empire-building techniques, the good thing is that they are so small and have not yet developed an overwhelming hive mind. But if their active life position runs counter to your understanding of order, you will have to take action.
- What types of ants are sensitive to boric acid?
- How does boric acid work against ants?
- Top 5 recipes for preparing ant bait
- How to Place Boric Acid Ant Baits
- Duration of fighting ants with boric acid
What you need to know about garden ants
The ants themselves in the garden are beneficial, by the way. But many species of ants feed on honeydew, which is secreted by aphids that feed on plants. Ants protect aphids from other predators, such as ladybugs, to provide a reliable food source. Increased aphid activity in your garden, especially when they have bodyguards, can have disastrous consequences for plant life, as aphids can move unhindered through your garden, sucking all the juices out of your plants.
Before you turn into Rambo and unleash righteous fury on the unsuspecting ants in your garden, ask yourself these questions:
- Are they in an isolated area of my garden?
- Are they a threat to me or my family?
- Are they threatening my home?
There is no need to fight just for the sake of fighting. Now that the moralizing is taken care of, let's get down to business. A fairly simple and effective way to get rid of ants is to spread baits with boric acid. Boric acid can be found at your pharmacy as an ingredient in some medications, including eye drops. You can also find boric acid powder in the fertilizer section of large garden centers. We will be happy to tell you how to make an effective remedy against garden ants from boric acid powder.
Let's escape from the greenhouse once and for all
Please note: if you broke the arrows on the garlic and placed them next to each other, the ants will avoid that pile. Therefore, experienced summer residents have already come up with a reliable way to forever protect the greenhouse from uninvited guests: we weave thin ropes from garlic arrows and tie them around the foundation of the greenhouse.
Ants also really don’t like the smell of sunflower oil, wild mint, wormwood and elderberry leaves. By placing a couple of twigs with leaves in the greenhouse on time, you will quickly get rid of uninvited guests who accidentally drop by. Ants also do not like ground cinnamon.
But don't try to destroy absolutely all the ants in the greenhouse - just strictly control their population. If you get rid of them all, then the ecosystem of this closed ground will be disrupted, and completely unexpectedly for you, other parasites will begin to become active.
Ants, after settling in a chosen area, first of all destroy all their competitors: spider mites, whiteflies and the like. Therefore, if you are constantly and unsuccessfully fighting this scourge, let the new “tenants” deal with the old ones, and then ungratefully expel the majority of these too.
Source: vasha-teplitsa.ru/virashivanie/kak-izbavitsya-ot-muravev-v-teplice.html
What types of ants are sensitive to boric acid?
Boric acid-based ant repellent is not effective for all types of ants. Poison baits work best against house ants, but boric acid powder has been reported to be effective against garden ants, but forager ants, or fire ants, are not as susceptible to boric acid baits. Therefore, several approaches to the projectile will be required :)
You can learn more about other areas of application of boric acid in this detailed material >>>>
How does boric acid work against ants?
Baits with boric acid powder act as contact-intestinal agents, and those based on sweet water (wet) act mainly as intestinal ones. Gradually, as it accumulates in the insect’s body, its intestinal effect appears.
Boric acid is effective against ants because it affects the functioning of their nervous system: serious disturbances lead to insect paralysis after a few hours. A very tiny amount of poison is enough to kill one ant, so this is a very effective and cheap remedy. The simplest application is to sprinkle boric acid powder in places where ants most often make their route or at the entrances to an anthill.
The option of using dry and liquid baits gives the best results. The ants not only eat the bait themselves, but also take it to the anthill, to the misfortune of their relatives.
Remember that the bait should be inaccessible to pets and beneficial insects.
Benefit or harm
Thus, if there are ants in the greenhouse, then before you start fighting them, you need to weigh all the pros and cons of the presence of these insects.
So, the pros:
- Ants destroy all other types of insects, such as spider mites and the larvae of other pests;
- in the process of building their colony nests, they loosen the surface layer of soil, which facilitates the flow of more air to the root system of plants;
- The result of the life activity of an ant colony is the enrichment of the soil with nitrogen, potassium, and humus, which improves its quality.
Disadvantages of having colonies in greenhouses:
- garden blacks feed on seeds and sprouts of young plants, causing their death;
- Sugar is necessary for the life of adult blacks. In order to get it, ants create “herds” of aphids, which they settle on plants;
- they can pose a threat to the health of people and animals, as they sting quite painfully. The formic acid they inject during a bite can trigger an acute allergic reaction.
If, after analyzing all the pros and cons of the presence of ants in a greenhouse or greenhouse, you come to the conclusion that you need to get rid of them, you need to think about what methods will be used.
Top 5 recipes for preparing ant bait
Some ants have a sweet tooth, while others are more inclined to seek out fats. Before choosing a recipe, mix boric acid with a couple of different foods to see which one attracts the most ants. You can dissolve sugar in water, use honey, vegetable oil. Here are 5 basic recipes for anti-ant baits:
1 Dilute 5 g of boric acid in 100 ml of warm water, add 1 tsp. jam and 2 tbsp. l. Sahara. Mix the mixture and pour into a flat container, which is best placed near ant paths. Cover the top from the rain with a piece of plastic.
Grind 2 2 egg yolks with ½ tsp. boric acid, make small balls (the size of a pea or smaller) from the resulting mass and place them in key places.
3 1 tbsp. mix a spoonful of water with 2 tbsp. l. glycerin, add 1 tsp. honey, 1/3 tsp. boric acid and 1.5 tbsp. Sahara. Mix everything thoroughly and roll bait balls from the mixture. This recipe is good because the bait remains wet and soft for a long time.
4 3 medium boiled potatoes in their jackets, 3 boiled yolks, 10 g boric acid, 1 tsp. Sahara. Grind the peeled tubers and yolks, add boric acid and sugar to the mixture. Mix thoroughly again and roll the resulting dough into balls.
5 Mix 1 tsp. boric acid powder with 1 cup of aromatic food. If using sugar water, add about 8 tsp. sugar to 1 glass of water, and then add 1 tsp. boric acid. If ants are not as attracted to your baits as you would like, reduce the amount of boric acid to 1/2 teaspoon. per cup of 1 percent solution.
It is important to remember that increasing the amount of boric acid in the bait does not increase the effectiveness of its use - the ants will die before reaching the anthill, and the colony will simply raise other worker ants to replace it.
Use fat or glycerin as an adhesive for boric acid powder for baits.
How to Place Boric Acid Ant Baits
You can use a small jar, such as a baby food jar, with holes in the top, bottle caps, 2-inch drinking straws, wax paper, or tin foil. Ants can get into most containers. If you see a line of ants, place the bait directly in its path. Don't skimp on baits—it may take 20 or 30 to effectively tackle an ant problem.
Baits with boric acid can be placed at the entrance to the anthill
Duration of fighting ants with boric acid
Using a homemade boric acid ant killer is not an instant solution to your ant problem. It is a slow-acting remedy, and each ant that brings it into the colony shares it with only a few other ants. Staged poisoning may take some time to reach the queens and effectively kill the colony. It may only take a few days for you to notice a decrease in the number of ants near the bait, but it may take three to four weeks for the colony to be completely eradicated. Change the bait every few days to keep it fresh. Ants disappear en masse when boric acid is used approximately 2-4 weeks after the start of use.
Other ways to control ants on your property.
Chemicals
A huge number of different pesticides are sold that do an excellent job of killing ants: long-acting gels, powders, and crayons are common. Keep in mind that they are recommended to be used when it is not possible to get rid of insects using folk remedies that are safer for plants . To properly deal with ants, familiarize yourself with the distinctive features of toxic compounds:
| Drug name | Active ingredient | Operating principle | Characteristics of the drug | Application | Price |
| "Thunder-2" (10 g) | Diazinon. | Destroys ant colonies. Adults eat the product, feed it to the larvae, poison the body: insects experience convulsions, paralysis, and suffocation. | It has a pleasant aroma for ants. Effectively fights soil flies, fungus gnats, and ants. Used in garden plots, greenhouses, apartments. | The top layer of the anthill (2-3 cm) is removed, the poison is poured out (if the nest is large, use 2 packages), a layer of earth is poured in, and a sheet of plywood is placed. | 11 rub. |
| "Muracid" (10 ml) | Diazinon. | Contact intestinal poison. Adults and larvae die after a day: spasmodic pain and paralysis occur. | Safe for people, animals, plants. The effect of the poison lasts 2-3 months, so it can be used 1-2 times per season. | 1 ampoule of 5 ml is mixed with 10 liters of water. The solution is used to treat areas where pests accumulate. | 51 rub. |
| "Aardeater" (1 ml) | Diazinon. | Noticeable effect after 3 days. Contact-intestinal effect: causes paralysis, leads to rapid death. | Release form: ampoules. Effectively fights against different types of insects: mole cricket, wireworm, weevil, fruit moth, cabbage fly, ants. | For processing 5 sq. m use a solution of 1 ml of the drug, 10 liters of water. Carry out the procedure in the morning or evening: remove the top layer of the nest, pour in the solution. | 16 rub. |
| "Ant" (10 g) | Diazinon. | Poisons the uterus. | Granular powder. Suitable for garden plots and residential premises. Protects vegetable and flower crops, fruit trees, berry bushes, lawn grass. | Buried inside the nest to a depth of 2-3 cm. Consumption rate: 30 g per 10 square meters. m. | 14 rub. |
| "Delicia" (500 g) | Chlorpyrifos. | Rapid poisoning of adults and larvae. | Universal granular powder. Helps fight ants, lice, crickets, larvae, ticks, cockroaches, fleas. | Nests are falling down. | 665 rub. |
| "Raid" (300 ml) | Butane, propane, isobutylene, solvents, fragrance. | Remains active for 2-4 weeks. Nerve-paralytic effect: the poison enters the body, penetrates the cover, and destroys the pest. | The aerosol helps fight ants, bedbugs, fleas, cockroaches, moths, mosquitoes, flies, mosquitoes, and skin beetles. Safe for people. It has a pleasant lavender scent. | Shake the container well before use. The product is sprayed inside the greenhouse, where there are pests, from a distance of 20-30 cm, for about 2 seconds: droplets should not be allowed to form on surfaces. | 294 rub. |
| "Karbofos" (30 g) | Malathion. | It is an enteric contact agent: if it comes into contact with or inside an insect, it has a detrimental effect. | It has an unpleasant odor that helps fight pests, which quickly disappears. Can be used in garden plots to kill bedbugs, red and black ants, mites, aphids, moths, moths, mosquitoes, lice, and bees. | Can be used up to 2 times per summer. Take 10 liters of water and add 60 g of dry powder. Solution consumption: 1-2 l per 10 sq. m. | 30 RUR |
