Ants in garden - Best way to kill?

Scottish_Mike

I use a mix of vinegar, fairy liquid and warm water. Mix it in a Pyrex and pour it over the nest. Does the job.

On one hand I do feel a tiny bit bad about killing the ants, but on the other hand, the amount of trouble they caused last year farming aphids makes me a bit more determined.

I know I won't wipe them all out, and I don't want to, but I'm not having nests near the backdoor.

M0ney

Sounds crazy but a 50:50 mix of icing sugar and bicarbonate of soda seems to work well, the ants cant tell the difference and eat both, the sugar is fine but the bicarb kills them.

ripplyuk

Here's a photo of what happens when I go out to the garden. This was just one ant yesterday, when it looked even worse. It feels like a burn and my whole wrist feels like it's on fire. Could anyone tell me how much a professional pest controller will cost, roughly?

bouicca21

It sounds like they may be wood ants. The ordinary black ants don't sting; wood ants are agressive and spray their venom which would explain why you are so extensively affected by just one.

Boiling water poured over the nest?

nimbo

Call your local council - they may offer pest control and as an idea of price may be worth them being the first call?

I know when I needed to get rid of a bees nest they were very good. (Not honey bees the bee man was intrigued as he didn't recognise them - they kept coming in the front room and dying on the window sill as they were locked in all day while I was at work). Had it been movable the bee man would have done it for free. As if was up the chimney where the boiler was it would have been £90 to treat and kill - apart from the risk with the gas. I had to get a sulphur candle and fumigate myself as no one else could treat behind the back boiler and I'm massivly allergic to them. they seemed to fly out the top of the chimney - so I hope it didn't do them too much harm to move house.

ripplyuk

I'll look up wood ants. They're a reddish/light brown colour and the charts I was looking at are confusing. I thought they were pharaoh ants but I think they're too big to be that.

I've tried the boiling water a number of times but with no effect. Also nippon, maxforce, various ant sprays etc. There just seems to be more and more of them. I'm also concerned about the neighbours next door as they have young children playing in the garden (it's a terraced house).

I'll ring the council about it. I'm in a council house so should I should contact them first? I don't know if they help with this sort of thing. It has to be dealt with as it's driving me crazy and I'm sure my GP is now tired of writing scripts for steroid creams etc. I just hope it doesn't cost a fortune.

bouicca21

I think you need to kill the queen who will probably be lurking somewhere safe at the bottom of the nest.

fairy_lights

I've also got ants in my garden, I'd happily leave them to their own devices if there were only a few but there are a LOT of them. I know the previous owners of the house had problems with ants in their kitchen so I want to nip it in the bud before it gets to that stage.
I've spent ages watching them but can't find the nest, I think it might be in a neighbouring garden.
I've got a cat and have lots of visiting cats so don't want to put anything down that would be harmful to them or that they would try to eat - can anyone recommend any feline friendly ant poisons?

Callie22

I've got a small walled border at the front of my house, which is full of ants - I was pulling out some bedding pants yesterday and there are thousands of them, with huge clumps of eggs. I don't like killing things but they do seem to be destroying anything I plant there. Same in my greenhouse, I think there's a nest under the paving slabs in there. Like fairy lights I have a cat so I'm worried about putting anything down that the cat might eat, so I'm a bit unsure what to do ...

Floppypaws

I've just found that chemical sweetners kill them. On a dry day sprinkle it around, they eat it, take it back to the nest and their bodies can't process it and it kills them. There's a warning for us all there somewhere....

I've also used smolina, which expands when they eat it, vinigar, lemon juice and diatom to keep the numbers reasonable.