Ants, Ants, eating my Plants!

1.Keep a small spray bottle handy, and spray the ants with a bit of soapy water.
2.Set out cucumber peels or slices in the kitchen or at the ants’ point of entry. Many ants have a natural aversion to cucumber. Bitter cucumbers work best.
3.Leave a few tea bags of mint tea near areas where the ants seem most active. Dry, crushed mint leaves or cloves also work as ant deterrents.
4.Trace the ant column back to their point of entry. Set any of the following items at the entry area in a small line, which ants will not cross: cayenne pepper, citrus oil (can be soaked into a piece of string), lemon juice, cinnamon or coffee grounds.
5.Mix a half teaspoon each of honey, borox, and aspartame (Equal, Nutrasweet, etc.), in small bottles. Place bottles on their sides, with lids off, in areas of most ant activity. Ants will carry the bait back to their colonies. Important: use indoors only; must be kept away from pets and children.
6.Leave a small, low wattage night light on for a few nights in the area of most ant activity. The change in light can disrupt and discourage their foraging patterns.
7.Ants on the deck? Slip a few cut up cloves of garlic between the cracks.
8.Liquid peppermint soap, diluted in a squirt bottle will kill them. It will also prevent them from coming back
9.Citrasolve works wonderfully! Just mop or wipe with it and spread it around at entry point. ants will die in house, and won’t come back in again.
10.Ring your house with used coffee grounds and other acidic natural byproducts.
11.Spray bottle with vinegar works too
12.Dr. Bronners peppermint soap,
13.Try Boric Acid. It’s natural, safe and it works.
14.Peppermint oil–a few drops in a spray bottle of water.
15.Pouring lemon juice around areas ants frequent
16.Baking soda can deter ants – pour a solid line in areas of activity and they won’t cross it.
17.A puree blend of orange peel and water can be applied to an area to discourage ants from crossing.
18.Baby powder stopped them dead in their tracks.
19.Use a piece of chalk to draw a line over trails – again, the ants won’t cross it. Chalk also has the advantage of being able to be used on vertical surfaces
20.We up here in alaska work alot with carpanter ants. i use the original listerine the brown one. full strength and we spray it in there tracks and this kills them. I also find that they do not like the pepermint castile soap.
21.Several readers have had success with using powdered yeast. The ants usually disappear within one day!

Wow... several great ideas! Thanks.

This thread has been really helpful. We have ants in our garden and it was really hot on the weekend and they started to turn into the flying ones and threatened to come in the house! My flatmates poured boiling water and vinegar down the hole and chili powder on the cracks in our paving slabs and that seemed to sort it, but it they come back I will definately try some of Pinkweeds solutions. Using boiling water seemed a little cruel.

I'm glad to have been of help!

Take a spray bottle set it to stream, locate the ant hole and spray right down the hole several times, but don't flood the plants. do this once a day for a week.

Take a spray bottle set it to stream, locate the ant hole and spray right down the hole several times, but don't flood the plants. do this once a day for a week.

Borax and powder suger works really well. you mix a little poweder sugar with the borax, then the ants take it home and feed it to the queen. Good Bye ants! Also ants do not like cinnamon.

I will just add that ants love aphids so if you have a sudden infestation of aphids check very closely that they are not being helped by ants - it may help spot an ant problem before it gets out of hand

Give them lots and lots of cornmeal around their home. They can not digest it and they take it home for everyone to share. Buh-bye.

There are also some natural plants that ants do not like. The plants that they hate are Lavender, Mints, Pennyroyal, Tansy and Curry herbs. They hate the smell of lavender so even cutting a few sprigs and laying them by the doorways might help.

Finally, Watch out for Aphids. Be sure you have lots of lady bugs around! You can order them online. Ants, harvest Aphids and re-plant the eggs every year. Lady bugs LOVE eating aphids. Take into account the cost of spraying aphids V buying lady bugs and order around 3,000- 2-3 times a year until they start sticking around. This has been very successful for me!

ive tried a a few of those(the vinegar, the borax solution, cinnamon, citrus oil, citrus cleaner, baking soda, orange peel, cucumber) and they didnt work >.< i wonder if beeer will work for ants?? it works for rollie pollies eating the strawberrries

Anybody ever see that show in Kentucky about a pest controll guy?
He uses vex-con on all pest problems, and supposedly they use all natural plant derrivitaves to kill bugs... maybe some research on vex-con (not sure of spelling) will do the trick. Basically those "chemicals" are bad for pests but not harmful for humans to be around, if none of the at home remedies work.

I like ants. They're cute and funny.

my comment box & your original post are jumbled together :/

wow so many options thanks hmm is it okay if i spray the plant itself with the peppermint soap? or in this case, with any of the above mentioned solutions? thanks