Ant Hills

[DoubleR]

What's the best way to get rid of a couple of ant hills I have around my barn?
I tried to goggle it but just seemed to get the run around. About all I came up with is to dump hot water on them until they go away.

 

[dzc3]

I mixed sugar and borax together worked for a while

 

[Tom in Ga]

Liquid Seven works pretty good. Seems like about 2 or 3 ounces to a gallon of water. Stir them up and then soak them good.

 

[gmccool]

I had a problem with ants in my greenhouse. A friend told me to sprinkle corn meal around there hills. I tried it & the ants left. That was late spring early summer. They haven't came back yet.

 

[Tom in TN]

I've used a product named "Amdro" with some success. Not perfect, but worth a try.

Tom in TN

 

[DAVISFARMS]

I have used esteem but I think it is off the market

 

[da.bees]

If they are Red Harvesters,I would spare them. Red Hervester numbers were reduced to near extention when wide poisoning was used in effort to eradicate imported fire ants. As Red Hervesters have reestablished in Tx,toad numbers increased and fire ants decreased. If you have never incountered fire ants,I'll bet James and Nancy can spare enough to stock your place. Shucks,they might even let you have them all next time they tear up some equipment or crawl up a pant leg and start stinging.

 

[ShadetreeRet]

Are you referring to just plain old "ants", or are you referring to fire ants? Different types sometimes call for different strategies. Fire ants are almost impossible to kill off because the queen is so far underground. Regular household ants respond better to various baits. For years we had success with "Terro", the active ingredient being Borax. This year we have a different species. They don't go for sweets, they go for anything with grease, or cooking oil in it. Never seen them before. I can't even find where they are coming from! In the past, I have used concoctions that would work, but the EPA frowns on them now.

 

[DoubleR]

They are just plain old ants. They are not fire or red ants. The two hills are about twenty feet apart underneath an electric fence I have for a small feed lot. They don't really hurt anything I guess. I just figured I should get rid of them.

 

[LP-Always]

feed them grits,they eat them and swell up and die

 

[ShadetreeRet]

"underneath an electric fence" hmmmm, wonder what would happen if you wet 'em down and stuck the electric fence in the ant hill? LOL

 

[UncleTom]

i have pored boiling water on the hill and it kills them and heat soaks down into the mound.

 

[John A]

Guys, Here in South Central Texas, We have many ants but the most prevalent are......
Fire Ants,
Red Ants,
Sugar Ants/AKA/P!ss Ants
Tree Ants
*Fire ants we Kill, Poison, any way we can, there are numerous Name Brands and all will work to varying degrees of success!
*Red Ants yrs ago we would poison them, but since the onset of Fire Ants No Longer. Besides Red and Fire Ants are natural enemys, mounds will War on each other! the Red Put up a H3LL of a fight Kill many Fire ants But eventually Loose and are over taken by the Fire ants. So we No longer poison them!!
*Sugar Ants, the kind that make their way to a soda can or cookie on the kitchen counter, Black Flag or raid, follow the trail to where they come into you house and spray, Done!
*Tree Ants, Get all low limbs off the roof problem usually solved.
+
Regular old Sevin Power will take care a lot of problems besides Ants!
Sulfur power will work too
On fire ants for a wide area control I prefer Lodgic it is a $ex hormone for ants! it breaks the reproduction cycle of the Fire Ant! Causes the mound to die off and in-plode!
Later,
John A.

 

[showcrop]

My disc bine seems to do pretty good job on them.

 

[Tx Jim]

John A
It would be nice if the Horned Toad made a come back similar to the Red Ant. I remember in my youth watching the Horn Toad gobble up Red Ants.

 

[Hal/ Eastern WA]

The next time you change the oil in one of your vehicles, while the oil is still hot, dump the used oil onto the ant hill. It helps to make a bit of a hollow out with a shovel beforehand.

I don"t know if the oil kills the ants, or they just leave and go somewhere else, but I have never had the hot oil treatment fail to make the ant piles I have used it on become vacant within a few days. Good luck!

 

[Dr. Walt]

RAID Ant & Roach Killer, available at Wally World. Works great, kills on contact, but also spray heavily into their nest holes - kills everything in the nest. :>)

 

[4play]

A good dose of poison or deterrent will usually be effective but if you don't kill off the colony and queen you might be just slowing them down for a bit. Lets say you kill half the colony and the queen is still alive they will start working overtime to reproduce and bring the colony back. I like the baits/poisons that they can take back into the colony and spread it throughout so basically you don't want to kill them immediately.

Borax (boric acid) is what's in a lot of baits and poisons and its great on killing little bugs. They will ingest the borax and it will slowly kill the ants/bugs. This works best because if you use it as bait so the ants will take it back to the colony before they die for the colony to eat too.

If you make your own bait just use around 2-4 tablespoons of Borax and mix it into something like honey, jelly or peanut butter and set in on a plate, you can even put it in a box or container and poke little holes for the ants to get in/out. put bait close to the colony or higher ant traffic places but they will still find it if not too far. Just make sure other critters or animals you care about cant get into the bait.

 

[Ellis Kinney]

I shoveled the top off and dug down a ways with a post hole digger. Poured in a little gas with a match. Ellis