Ant infestation!?

Question

I've just finished my garden and have about 15-20 freestanding terracotta pots of varying sizes with plants in. The problm I now find is that in the soil of each pot families of black ants have decided to make their home. There's hundreds of them and eggs etc and each time I try and kill them I never seem able to do enough to wipe out the entire nest. Anyone got any ideas please, before £100's of pounds worth of plants get destroyed??? Thanks.

Answer 1

boiling water every day got rid of mine and its free

Answer 2

go to local D.I.Y garden type store, ask for an insecticide called nippon, its relativley cheap and specializes with ant problems, basically you put it near the nest, they eat it, transport it to the queen, the queen eats it and over a period of 2-5 days they all die

Answer 3

i had the same problem last year and my elderly neighbour told me to slice some cuecumber half it then lay it round the bottom of the pots i thought she had gone mad but i gave it  aago anyway as i have young children and didnt want to put ant powder down and it really works apparently something in the middle of the cuecumber ants dont like so they didnt come near the pots again try it you may be suprised good luck

Answer 4

Hmmmmmm....

I'd suggest smoking them out. There will be those that die, and the rest will move on to find another home.

Answer 5

Have you tried Nippon?

Put a couple of drops onto a piece of card or something and they'll take it back to their nest and eat it.

It'll wipe the ants out in a day or two.  Please note it is poisonous so don't use if there are any animals/children in your garden.

Answer 6

Try this site.  They have a bunch of ideas that won't hurt your plants.

http://www.howtogetridofstuff.com/pest-c...

This is what they suggest:

Place the potted plant in a plate partially filled with soapy water (To keep the ants from leaving).

Fill a bucket of similar size with loose, dry earth and place it also in a plate of soapy water.

Create a bridge from the plant to the bucket with a ruler, some twigs, a length of tape, anything that the ants can easily cross.

Begin flooding the plant. Flood it and let it drain - then flood it again and keep repeating. You will see the ants start to swarm out and clamor across into the bucket carrying their eggs and young. Continue flooding until you see no more ants emerging to escape.

Take the bucket outside and dump it out away from your home.

Answer 7

Use a mix of cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle it here and there. The ants will come and pick up the sugar, along with the cinnamon, and take it back to their queen. Ants can’t digest cinnamon and once the queen dies from not being able to digest the cinnamon the colony will die without her.

Answer 8

hmm.. I know there is this insect killer for all types of bugs, ants, etc, it's called Seven Dust it comes in a red bag. You can get it in a powder or like a grain, I would reccomend the powder, and it's made to be safe around food, so it works for your garden.

Answer 9

kill or destroy as many as possible and put out grape jelly and boric acid to kill the colony

Answer 10

I agree with champagne 3 ...Nippon gel, we used it and it was very effective,give it a try.

Answer 11

This may sound strange but, if you believe that everything has consciousness and responds to the energy of thought, you may find this will work for you. This has been quite effective for me and I found I was able to rid my house of the ants without harming them. I believe that the colony acts as a singular organism. I believe it is like a large animal with many small bodies. If you simply tell the creature firmly, and repeatedly, to leave then they will oblige. Tell him/her that it is not their home and that she/he is invading your space. You must be very firm and tell this to them several times. Keep it up until you see them begin to retreat. Eventually, they will disappear and find a new home.

Answer 12

put a circle of ant killer around each pot, they will carry it back to the nest when they walk in it and hopefully kill the queen.

you wont have to do it forever, once the queen is dead they will all go away.

Answer 13

or an inexpensive way is to follow them back to the nest and pour boiling water down the holes