How can I get rid of red ants in the garden.?
Question:Don't want to put down poison as I have 3 cats.
Answers:
Check out this website, it is a dandy! I use it ALL the time and it has some lovely ideas.
http://ipm.ucdavis.edu
I think the best one for your situation would be to get some bait (shouldn't harm your pets). On the other hand, are the red ants really bothering you? I just read that 90% of urban pyrethroids (a class of insecticide) are used on argentine ants! Crazy!
pour hot salt water into the nest, works on most nesting insects
http://www.terro.com/
fire ant killer on the ant piles
Fire
Put boiling water into the nests
Put down black pepper, it won´t kill the ants but it will make them move on, Try and corner off the area where they are . Put lot´s around the opening they are coming from, they will then carry this into their tunnels, and Achoo. gone.
With a Gattling gun just mind the cats.
Alternatively leave them there as they were in your garden millions of years before you.
Find the nest (or whatever it's called) and poor some peppermint essential oil around and into it. Grow peppermint plants near the entrances to your house, in pots or the ground. Ants absolutely hate the stuff. Put it onto the shelves they walk on. Put it onto cotton buds and place them strategically around your house. Put some drops into the contents of one of those mist spray things and squirt around your house. They will go and live somewhere else.
Other oils you can use; spearmint, pennyroyal, garlic and citronella. Those plants can also be grown, as can Tansy, which too will convince them that they'd rather be somewhere else.
I know peppermint works, a friend rid herself of an ant infestation years ago. I have never tried the others.
Best of luck.
Rhere are organic methods but I find a quick solution is chilli powder. It may take a few foes but it keeps the numbers down.
Put down a tin pie plate with water in it.Then sprinkle cornmeal all around the pan.The ants eat the cornmeal,which then makes them thirsty ,the ants drink the water and the cornmeal expands and kills the ants.
Get Ant bait, it comes in it's own container that the ants go into and eat the bait. They then go back yo their nest and infect the rest of the nest. After a few visits the ants should either go or be minimised.
Try the link below for mnore info
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