permaculture

["Marjory Glowka" <forestgarden@gvtc.com>]

We use a mix for fire and cut ants made of compost tea, orange oil, and 
molasses.  The compost tea contains bacteria the ants don't like.  The 
molasses feeds the bacteria so they last a while.  And the orange oil 
irritates the ants exoskeletons.  It will definately make a mound move, but 
not really eradicate the problem.  I don't mind if they are around as long 
as they move from where I am working.

We've tried Anti-Dote which is nematodes specifically grown to target fire 
ants.  It seems to work if the area stays moist - but if the soil dries out 
then the nematodes die out and the ants come back.

Finally, I've found that by being barefoot I've gotten less fire ant bites 
than by wearing shoes all of the time.  The ants will give small test bites 
before attacking en-mass.  So when barefoot I easily move or shift my feet 
to avoid them.  While wearing shoes you don't get that inital gentler 
inforamtion, and by the time you notice them they are waging a full out 
attack.  They seem to have telepathy - a bunch of them getting on you and 
getting in position, then on command they all start biting at once.

Good luck,

Marjory




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "KNat" <knat@sprintmail.com>
To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2007 2:26 PM
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Ants & how to make them go away


> Jody Troupe wrote:
> > The boric acid usually has to be mixed with something they would want to 
> > eat, not just straight. Ghost ants are picky eaters (or so I read) and 
> > for the most part they seemed to avoid anything that was tainted. Smart 
> > little guys I guess.
> >
> > J. Troupe
> Most ants are finicky (sometimes it seems they split the kitchen
> resources so sweet ants can nest in one end, grease ants in the other
> and mingle freely.) Anyway, it is always worth a bit of observation
> before spreading poisons to make sure you know your intended audience.
> We use bottle caps with favorite foods to ID which will be effective
> then add boric acid to the appropriate one. Samples are: grease, sugar,
> honey (honey and and sugar ants not the same), meat. Takes very
> small/short application (and allows dialog for understanding first.)
> Though one large nest out West we wound up using a dead bird as bait so
> your big nest may be larger scale for application.
>
> Anyone have methods with carpenter bees? My honey bees cleared the front
> but back seriously overrun.
>
> Peace,
> Kathyann
>
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