permaculture

[Jody Troupe <jodyt2@mac.com>]

This is entirely speculation, and might be more costly than someone would 
want, but I battle ants all the time (indoors) just since I live in a 
tropical area and they seem to detest any essential oils. I've used lavender 
& peppermint mainly. (Note: except if they're army ants, like the freaky 
masses in Costa Rica - I experimented with lavender oil and it seemed to 
excited them further! Not what I'd meant to do.) I was wondering if a 
low-concentration spray, or something that could infuse their nests would 
make them leave?

The effect of the essential oil seems to last for quite a while - but not 
more than a day. They do seem to go hate it though, and if its 'in' their 
nest, perhaps it would be disruptive enough that they'd move?

A better option perhaps: I heard a guy on a radio show say that ants don't 
like to cross any very, very fine powder, like talc, because it blocks their 
breathing apparatus (the holes in their bodies). You could try any number of 
inventive things with talc to see what that accomplished (again, I'm afraid I 
don' t know if this is costly).

Good luck!

Jody Troupe





On Wednesday, August 01, 2007, at 10:11AM, "mIEKAL aND" <dtv@mwt.net> wrote:
>I've tried this, it works for the very smallest of hills.  Some of  
>the hills I have here are 5' x 5' across?I've dug down 2-3 feet in  
>search of the queen & not seen the bottom of them.  Plus I have  
>literally hundreds of them on our 3 acres.  I don't want to remove  
>all of them, just the ones popping up in the middle of planters,  
>trees, & other in the middle of pathways.  Interestingly enough, once  
>fall begins they all retreat & go down under, but this time of year  
>they are climbing on every tree, bush, vine, plant on the whole  
>property.  Luckily these are non-biting small black ant & they don't  
>seem to damage much except some fruit.
>
>~mIEKAL
>
>
>http://www.sustain360.org/index.php?showtopic=50
>
>
>
>On Aug 1, 2007, at 11:19 AM, paul wrote:
>
>> I get rid of ant mounds using this easy method. Remove the top of  
>> the mound with a shovel and then continue to dig down another 4"/ 
>> 10cm. Set a garden hose to trickle into the depression so that  
>> there is no runoff but the basin is always full of water. Leave  
>> this in place for 2 weeks. Ants move or drown. I have clay soil so  
>> it doesn't seem to use much water. I don't know if it would work in  
>> sandy soils. This method has worked well for me.
>>
>> Paul Cross
>>
>
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