5 Ways To Eliminate Ant Hills - Wisconsin Garden Video Blog 598
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- čas přidán 13. 07. 2024
- www.WisconsinGarden.com - We are going to experiment using 5 ways to eliminate ant hills. We will be testing the use of hot water, cold water drowning, boric acid mixture, club soda myth, and our least favorite, but effective, chemical bait granules. Obviously if you live in a water restricted area, or have fire ants, these techniques might prove to be ineffective in killing ants. An hour later we revisited these areas to see what really worked. If you have ant hills then this video may offer you a great solution to eliminating ants.
I bet she'd be the coolest grandma.
That is so very sweet. Our grandson, Logan, thinks so too. Thank You! GMa Lynn & GPa Richard
I have tried almost all your ideas, I find the best way is to let them fight it out, I take a scoop from one hill and put it on another hill, the more hills you have the more scoops you take, they'll have an ant war going.... voila decimate each other, just keep doing it, till they move to your neighbors.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: I misspoke when creating this video 5-6 years ago. I used Borax not Boric Acid powder. CAUTION: Many chemical combinations could become highly dangerous and toxic and not something we would recommend trying unless you really know your chemistry. Even then, be very careful.
The only method we now use is our garden hose. It may or may not flood the Queen's chamber, but at best, flooding encourages the colony to move from our lawn into other garden areas where there is plenty of food for their colony.
As mentioned, this video focused on small, newly found, common Ant Hills and not Fire Ants. No matter what method used, it can help eliminate where a colony lives.
Many other viewers have kindly shared helpful home-remedy methods they have tried eliminating ants, many of which we haven't yet tested or could successfully report. They've included; dish and bar soaps, boiling water, hot coffee, coffee grounds, Terro, Tobasco sauce, cooking oil, essential oils, cinnamon, jalapeno pepper, rice, grits, oatmeal, cornmeal, baking soda, Diatomaceous Earth, baby powder, borax, vinegar, club soda, dry or wet molasses, fruit jelly, white and powdered sugar, sugar based syrups , bleach, gasoline, motor oil, fire and torching, plus other chemical combinations and products. Then there is both the health and cost-effective factor to consider when using chemicals.
Plus, since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
As mentioned, of all these suggestions from thousands of viewer responses, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. But depending upon where one lives, it may or may not work for them. Yet, after just 15-20 minutes deep into the Queen's chamber, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding. But again, this is for newly forming ant hills. Established mounds will be more difficult to eliminate. But again, we caught it early before it became a bigger problem. Don't know if our ideas will help, but keep trying until you find something that works for you.
As we post our 950th garden video, we’d like to offer you our free 21-page Directory Index eBook, listing all of our garden videos by Topic of interest A-Z, filled with lots of ideas and positive inspiration. No Spam - No Hype - No Selling - just Family-Friendly informative garden videos with us working in our eclectic experimental gardens. If you'd like your free copy, email me at lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and add the letters A-Z in your message. We will email your copy ASAP.
We hope to hear from you soon. Thanks again for watching, caring and sharing you gardening adventures. We continue to wish you, your family great health and a prolific garden. We look forward to your future comments and suggestions. Your garden friends from Wisconsin, Lynn & Richard - www.WisconsinGarden.com
😂 that would be method #6 has not worked with my 5 brothers🤣
@ crochet that is a brilliant idea!!
😅
This was God talking......
I got rid of the uncles, and the ants went away.
Good morning Steve. Since we only have 1/2+ acre, mostly gardens and lessening lawn areas, it much easier for us to keep an eye out for pending problems. We tried having a rational discussion with these ants, but they continue to ignore our requests and we feel badly every time we have to address resolving newly formed ant hills. As much as we appreciate all lifeforms we do our best to encourage them to move away from our house which is our main lawn area.
Since this video was produced about 6 years ago, we hope you have a chance to see our latest video #951 Update Eliminating Ant Hills: czcams.com/video/14NzdCxdVKM/video.html.
We needed to clarify and update that we are only dealing with little brown, red and black ants, not fire ants, hopefully moving newly formed ant hills away from destroying our lawn by simply using water rather than chemicals and home-made recipes. Doubt if we could ever boil enough hot water anyway. This works best for us, and more importantly, protects all of the families with young children and pets who visit and walk through our gardens. So, we cannot leave any chemicals lying around.
If you enjoyed this video, we still would like to send you our free 21-page garden video directory and index of our 950 garden videos listed by topic from A-Z. Email: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. Your garden friends from Wisconsin. Lynn & Richard - See our latest garden videos posted on our website: www.WisconsinGarden.com.
Years ago there was a video that showed the underground shape of an ant colony. A man melted a gallon or more of aluminum and poured it into the center entry to the colony. He left it a day to cool and then dug it out whole. It looked like a tap root wandering down with several levels extending away from the tap. The levels branched out from the tap like spokes from the center of a wheel. At various distances from the tap, the radials widened out into dens/living areas. It was surprising just how far down that colony reached. That guy was digging and digging. It had to be almost 2 feet in diameter!
I had bad monster ant hills and simply repeatedly poured huge pots of boiling water down the holes a couple/few times. To the water I added a strong grease-cutting laundry/kitchen detergent. On one application I added in a gallon of bleach full strength after the boiling water went down. Insecticide was $10.00 per 32 oz. bottle. Bleach was $1.50 per gallon. It worked.
Established ant hills can turn into massive mounds when not addressed early. The underground chambers can become enormous and much more difficult to effectively eliminate, compared to the much smaller new colonies we found developing in our lawn. There are times when it's wise to call in a professional exterminator.
I also misspoke when creating this video 5-6 years ago. I used Borax not Boric Acid. CAUTION: Many chemical combinations could become highly dangerous and toxic and not something we would recommend trying. Plus, items such as bleach, boiling water, or fire torching could very well have a long-lasting unattractive effect on one's lawn, and even harshly effect important garden plants. Unless one is a professional exterminator, be very careful. Fire ants require another more serious approach, often professional.
Many other viewers have kindly shared helpful home-remedy methods they have tried eliminating ants, many of which we haven't yet tested or could successfully report. They've included; dish and bar soaps, boiling water, hot coffee, coffee grounds, Terro, essential oils, cinnamon, rice, grits, oatmeal, cornmeal, baking soda, Diatomaceous Earth, borax, vinegar, club soda, dry or wet molasses, white and powdered sugar, sugar based syrups , bleach, fire torching and many other natural minerals and chemical combinations and products. Then there is the cost-effective factor to consider.
Since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
While boiling water, is an interesting concept for walkways and driveways, it would extremely difficult to boil enough to penetrate deeply enough flooding the complex underground chambers, especially the Queens. Superficial flooding will just move the ant colony a little farther away.
Yet, of all these great suggestions from thousands of viewer responses, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. After 15-20 minutes deep into the Queen's chamber, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding. But again, this is for newly forming ant hills. Established mounds will be more difficult to eliminate. But again, we caught it early before it became a bigger problem.
Much depends on identifying the type of ant causing problems. Thank goodness, we're only dealing with black carpenter, brown and red ants in our lawn and garden areas. Like most gardeners, we need ants for many helpful reasons, just not in our house. That's when other approaches are required. Fire ants are another matter that also needs more serious and sometimes professional services. We hope this was helpful.
If you enjoyed this video, we'd like to offer you our 'free 21-page Directory' listing all of our 900+ garden videos by Topic A-Z.' No Hype - No selling, just us working in our eclectic experimental gardens. Send us an email at lynn@WisconsinGarden.com. Please add the letters A-Z in your message to us and we''ll send your copy ASAP.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. We wish you, your family and friends a wonderful, healthy and a prolific year gardening and look forward to your future comments. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
I live in NC & I discovered a HUGE mound next to my flowers/large rocks surrounding them. in middle there was a pine tree (they live it it...but also used the ivy that grew around the tree for years & was very thick. My grandson cut it all down off the tree & the ants had to move. When I saw this HUGE mound I KNEW it was all the ants (had NO idea how many actually lived in the tree?) making their home from the nice soil next to the rocks edge. I had to do something QUICK..nothing in house except...(light bulb moment) generic Dawn from w.mart. I know this kills a few so why not the whole mound? I heated up water in microwave (large plastic container full), as HOT as I could stand to carry from kitchen to front yard. First i poured maybe 2 cups or more down each little hole they'd built (there were a LOT of those) then added the HOT water...over this. It bubbled up & couple tried at first to get away..but too late..they were toast! After that I saw NOT ONE ant! NONE...this had killed the whole batch..but "just in case" there were a few left...i repeated this once more...NO ants! I started out seeing a few in my kitchen & wasn't sure where they were coming in from...so I tried all kids of tricks/formulas but NONE worked for me...so I decided I HAD to get rid of their TRAIL. I noticed how one would come out to scout..then go back to where ever they were to notify the others where food was. I smashed a couple but then thoguht...hum...i'll wet the counter real good, then pour the Dawn substite onto that & slather all this together to get rid of the trail. It worked..but took couple times doing this to get rid of them. Now each time I see a scout..first thing i do is get out the dawn substitute & wet the area a bit...to make it lather up real nicely...problem solved again! Hope this work for others inside home...with way less trouble AND money!
You guys are fun to watch! I love the experimentation spirit you two share. I have an ant mound just waiting for the boiling water in my back yard. Thanks for sharing! 👍🏽
Thank you for your kind comments. We deeply appreciate hearing from you. Many other viewers have kindly shared helpful home-remedy methods they have tried eliminating ants, many of which we haven't yet tested or could successfully report. They've included; dish and bar soaps, boiling water, hot coffee, coffee grounds, Terro, essential oils, cinnamon, rice, grits, oatmeal, cornmeal, baking soda, Diatomaceous Earth, borax, vinegar, club soda, dry or wet molasses, white and powdered sugar, sugar based syrups , bleach, fire torching and many other natural minerals and chemical combinations and products. Then there is the cost-effective factor to consider.
CAUTION: Many chemical combinations could become highly dangerous and toxic and not something we would recommend trying. Plus, items such as bleach, boiling water, or fire torching could very well have a long-lasting unattractive effect on one's lawn, and even harshly effect important garden plants. Unless one is a professional exterminator, be very careful. Fire ants require another more serious approach, often professional.
Since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
While boiling water, is an interesting concept for walkways and driveways, it would extremely difficult to boil enough to penetrate deeply enough flooding the complex underground chambers, especially the Queens. Superficial flooding will just move the ant colony a little farther away.
Yet, of all these great suggestions from thousands of viewer responses, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. After 15-20 minutes deep into the Queen's chamber, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding. But again, this is for newly forming ant hills. Established mounds will be more difficult to eliminate.
Much depends on identifying the type of ant causing problems. Thank goodness, we're only dealing with black carpenter, brown and red ants in our lawn and garden areas. Like most gardeners, we need ants for many helpful reasons, just not in our house. That's when other approaches are required. Fire ants are another matter that also needs more serious and sometimes professional services. We hope this was helpful.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. We wish you, your family and friends a wonderful, healthy and a prolific year gardening and look forward to your future comments. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
You might enjoy access to our free 21-page Directory with active hyperlinks to all of our eclectic experimental garden adventures and video blogs you may have missed, currently 946 and counting.
We even listed by 'Topic of Interest A-Z' to make your searches easier. No Hype, No selling, just us playing in our eclectic experimental gardens .Visit our website or simply send us an email. Add the letters A-Z in your message to us.
Email: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and we''ll send your copy ASAP.
Thanks!✔️
Try sprinkling the mound with grits, which is ground corn. They eat it and their internal moisture causes the grits granules to swell and suffocate the ants from the inside.
Thanks PG for the suggestion. In areas next to a house this along with sprinkling Diatomaceous Earth would work in time. Of all the methods we've tested, deep flooding with water works most effectively and within 15 minutes. In really large nests, it may take another flooding but if you catch the ant hill early 15 minutes and that lawn area is saved. Thank again for watching, caring and sharing. Stay safe, healthy and happy. #KeepTheLoveGrowing - WisconsinGarden.com :) Lynn & Richard
Y'all are delightful to watch. Thanks for keeping these chores somewhat more fun. 😄😄
Thank you for your very kind support. Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard. Access over 1,000 of our family-friendly garden video blogs anytime at - www.WisconsinGarden.com
Thank you for the timely video. Love the not-so-happy face on the lid. That’s a real 70’s-80’s thing; I have grandchildren so still use it on anything I haven’t wanted them into, only my faces have crosses, or exes, for eyes. Good luck. (Happy Mother’s Day!)
Happy Mother's Day Valerie. We try to avoid chemicals and have still found the garden hose and watering was the fastest and most efficient way of eliminating the entire colony, drones, workers and hopefully the queen. Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard
A few things I have tried. Take a shovel full of an anthill from 2 anthills and switch them. They are supposed to kill each other. Cayenne pepper did not kill them. We have a lot of sumac bushes. I planted one in several hills. Both worked (sort off) but not all of the time. Using the shovel and switch method worked the best for me. Our gardening season is just starting. The buds on the trees are just coming out. My daffodils are up though. Take care and stay safe from Sue in Atlantic, Canada.
Thank you for your suggestions and for watching, caring and sharing. We continue to wish your family, friends and neighbors great healthy and a prolific year gardening. We look forward to all of our future comments. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
P.S. If you enjoy watching more of our eclectic experimental garden adventures, we'd love to send you our free 21-page Word document with direct hyperlinks to all of our 900+ garden video blogs listed by Topic of Interest A-Z. If you'd like a free copy visit our website or simply send me an email at: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com. and add the letters A-Z in the subject bar.lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and add the letters A-Z in the subject bar.
we just use our weed torch....works great.
I tried the boric acid and sugar and even though I have several ant hill mounds, not one ant was inside after several days. I've done the hot water and it killed some of the grass, but it worked. Thank you for this video. I wish I was part of a couple like you two.
Hi Daisy. Thank you for your sweet and kind comments. So far, the garden hose flooding seems to most effective and environmentally friendly. Doubt if we could ever make enough hot water to penetrate the entire colony. Glad you found a solution that works best for you. Thanks for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard
Daisy Mae French THIS REALLY DOES WORk!!!
@@cjboac9864 see see x2 for
Daisy Mae, I tried the method with brown sugar, a little honey, 20% boric acid, and a bit of water and gelatine. Your goal is to make a semi solidified paste, with particles that ants would hoard back to the colony and queen. once the queen is poisoned the colony is done. Honestly you can use any ingredient that you believe ants would send armies to stock up on and mix with a bit of borax and water. My neighbors got rid of their hills by using a bunch of stale crushed sweet cereal mixed with the borax paste and honey.
I get the straight boric acid powder. It's sold in pharmacies, but some ant killers have it as the sole ingredient.
I moved to the country & found that huge ant mounds pop up in different spots. So I go out with my garden tools, peel back the top layers, and let them have it. I try to make sure I get it on the "fatter" ants. (I don't know if they are like the queens in a bee hive or they are carrying young ones. I don't care. I can't live with ants that close to places my dogs and I walk. (So heartless, I know, but I saw that movie too!)
I have used a whole bottle on some hills. They pop up a few yards away sometimes, but I go after them again.
Boric acid powder is really made up of very fine crystals & it gets in-between the parts of their exoskeleton so they eventually can't breathe. It's used it in all kinds of eye drops & washes, so it us pretty benign to us.
But there are videos of guys pouring melted aluminum down ant hills. They dig it up & it looks like a silver tree. Some are 4 feet deep!
I love your sense of humor😄. Thanks for all the demos!
Good Morning Christine. Since doing this video last year we've had to rethink how we have to resolve Ant problems. We just had several people stop and tour our gardens including 2 very young children. Actually we prefer not to use any chemicals. Now we prefer the simple garden hose technique which actually is our most successful and environmentally friendly solution. No chemicals lying around or accessible to children or pets. One of our latest Videos: Video Blog 883 - Easiest & Fastest Way To Eliminate Ant Hills czcams.com/video/auY32duA_38/video.html - - - was a live demonstration of the easiest and fastest way to eliminate ant hills without using harmful chemicals. Yes, there are a variety of liquid and granular chemical available, but that’s not what we will be using today. First, there are 3 basic ants we will be addressing, carpenter ants, odorous house ants and driveway ants. The weapon of choice is the garden hose, spraying water penetrating deeply into the underground chambers and completely flooding the nest. The goal is simple, eliminate the Queen and thus destroy that ant colony. While some workers from that next may return, all they will find is a wet flooded nest. After 10-15 minute of really flooding the entire colony nest area, they won’t have a colony nest to greet them back home and will die. Fire Ants are a completely different story and approach to safely eliminate without being swarmed and attacked. For that, you may have to call in a professional service. We hope you try this for yourself to see how effective this method really is. Thanks for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard - www.WisconsinGarden.com
Loved this show. You pleasant to watch. Kind of entertaining.
Hi Felicisima. We're pleased to hear you enjoyed this video. Since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. We wish you, your family and friends a wonderful, healthy and a prolific year gardening and look forward to your future comments. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
P.S. If you found this video helpful, we;re offering a free 21-page Word Directory with active hyperlinks to all of our eclectic experimental garden adventures and video blogs, currently 900+ and counting, that we've listed by 'Topic of Interest A-Z.' It links you instantly to a lot of helpful gardening information without selling or promoting a bunch of products. Visit our website or simply send us an email. Add the letters A-Z in your message to us. Email: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and we''ll send your copy as soon as possible.
I tried this with a Styrofoam cup and the ants actually buried the cup and made a hill over it-lol
Hi Kat. Now that would have made a great CZcams video. They are very active little creatures. Thank for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard - www.WisconsinGarden.com
Lmao
P0
@@WisconsinGarden q
😂😂😂
I love the commentary between the 2 of you! I hope me & my husband are as cute as you guys when we're older. Xo
Well thank you. Even though we'll be celebrating our 50th anniversary next year we don't feel older. Richard always claims he's only 12 and I believe it. Thanks Melissa for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard
i had fire ant hills approx 3 ft round and every day when i was refilling the water cooler i would dump the day b4 water on the nest. after a few weeks the fire ant nest died and they hadn't just relocated. the ac drippings collected in a water cooler helped add a lot more water per day and never really worried about wasting good drinking water. since then i flood all ant hills and my yard is ant hill free.being i am a patient man i didnt mind a few weeks to kill all ants on the property.glad to see others not using poison on good ole mother earth
Just a quick update. I also misspoke when creating this video 5-6 years ago. I used Borax not Boric Acid. CAUTION: Many chemical combinations could become highly dangerous and toxic and not something we would recommend trying. Plus, items such as bleach, boiling water, or fire torching could very well have a long-lasting unattractive effect on one's lawn, and even harshly effect important garden plants. Unless one is a professional exterminator, be very careful. Fire ants require another more serious approach, often professional.
Many other viewers have kindly shared helpful home-remedy methods they have tried eliminating ants, many of which we haven't yet tested or could successfully report. They've included; dish and bar soaps, boiling water, hot coffee, coffee grounds, Terro, tobasco suace, essential oils, cinnamon, jalapeno pepper, rice, grits, oatmeal, cornmeal, baking soda, Diatomaceous Earth, borax, vinegar, club soda, dry or wet molasses, white and powdered sugar, sugar based syrups , bleach, fire torching and many other natural minerals and chemical combinations and products. Then there is the cost-effective factor to consider.
Since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
While boiling water, is an interesting concept for walkways and driveways, it would extremely difficult to boil enough to penetrate deeply enough flooding the complex underground chambers, especially the Queens. Superficial flooding will just move the ant colony a little farther away.
Yet, of all these great suggestions from thousands of viewer responses, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. After 15-20 minutes deep into the Queen's chamber, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding. But again, this is for newly forming ant hills. Established mounds will be more difficult to eliminate. But again, we caught it early before it became a bigger problem.
Established ant hills can turn into massive mounds when not addressed early. The underground chambers can become enormous and much more difficult to effectively eliminate, compared to the much smaller new colonies we found developing in our lawn. There are times when it's wise to call in a professional exterminator.
Much depends on identifying the type of ant causing problems. Thank goodness, we're only dealing with black carpenter, brown and red ants in our lawn and garden areas. Like most gardeners, we need ants for many helpful reasons, just not in our house. That's when other approaches are required. Fire ants are another matter that also needs more serious and sometimes professional services. We hope this was helpful.
If you enjoyed this video, we'd like to offer you our 'free 21-page Directory' listing all of our 900+ garden videos by Topic A-Z.' No Hype - No selling, just us working in our eclectic experimental gardens. Send us an email at lynn@WisconsinGarden.com. Please add the letters A-Z in your message to us and we''ll send your copy ASAP.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. We wish you, your family and friends a wonderful, healthy and a prolific year gardening and look forward to your future comments. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
what is b4 water?
@@car-less-ness6770 i'm guessing it's the Day Before's Water ie previous day's water
We have a supercolony of what we think are termites at our barn, it has entrances seemingly everywhere around the outside walls and they’re beginning to dig through the insulation and even the wood beams of the walls. We were gone for 2 months and came back to a few hills around the barn, it escalated from there on out. We’ve had exterminators, tried setting hoses around every entrance for days, tried poisoning them with natural and artificial insecticides, we even tried using digging machinery to destroy the colony itself. Our worst experience yet was seeing one of our cupboards full of termites crawling from the corner in and out, carrying little pieces of food from bags they tore into. The colony is growing every day with more and more holes and hills, at the moment we’re searching everywhere we can for a solution.
Hi Teri. We're so sorry to hear you're dealing with a major infestation. While water works best for our little invaders, yours sounds like it requires a major attack. Richard's sister lives in southern California and they have to leave their home for days as the entire building is enclosed in plastic while they fumigate. Depending upon the extent of the colony, it may take several treatments including specialized chemical spraying. It's a scene right out of a space invasion movie. I wish there was an easier solution. I guess we would recommend getting several other well-respected exterminators who specialize in termite elimination to see what else they recommend. We wish you the very best in your search to solve this major problem. Please let us know what solution they use so that we can share with others who may be experiencing a similar problem. Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard - www.WisconsinGarden.com
I was asked to sing at an outdoor wedding years ago. The person that sat my chair and table up sat it on an ant hill🤦🏻 wedding started and so did the ants!! I had them traveling everywhere lol. Needless to say, that was one time I sung “the Rose” REALLY fast😂🌹
Hello Mary. Oh Dear Oh Dear. Ants in the pants can spontaneously cause anyone to start dancing and singing. I can only imagine your joyful voice singing with lots of passion. As always, thank you for watching, caring and sharing. Stay safe, healthy and happy. #KeepTheLoveGrowing - WisconsinGarden.com :) Lynn & Richard
Hi guys! Just watched your video. We've got a couple of ant hills in our yard. One is about 2 feet by 3 feet or so. The other is more of a circle that's about 20" in diameter. I've tried pesticides but they seem to keep coming back eventually. I'm going to try the flood method on one and the boiling water on the other. I'll keep you informed! Thanks so much for taking the time to post these techniques.
Very good and helpful tips. In the spring/early summer I will definitely try the boiling water and the flooding thing. Thanks for sharing
Hi Chrystal. Our favorite is the eco-friendly water flooding technique, especially for active environments with children and pets. Thanks for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard
I just enjoyed watching you two.
Hi CB. Glad you enjoyed watching our little experiment. The garden hose drowning remains the #1 best method hands down, or should we say, ants down. Soak the area for a good 10 minutes or more depending upon the size of the mound and then observe to see if any ant activity remains. If there is, give it a thorough flooding again looking for other entry or escape channels nearby. Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard
After experiencing SE Texas fire ants for the first time, I used this 1 step, no prep method:
1. Go buy Tea Tree Oil (aka Melaleuca Oil)
2. put 10 drops into the main (or only) entrance to the hill.
I've never had to do this more than once to kill the entire hill. Stumbled on this at my previous house that had ants seasonally. I noticed that when the ants followed each other using their scent trail, when I smeared across the trail with a drop of Tea Tree Oil, they stopped and went waaay around the oil. Then put a single drop on an ant and it instantly fell over writhing for a few seconds then died.
Tree Tree Oil penetrates very well but will not harm pets or children (we actually treated our dog's tail with it) It's natural and potent.
Sounds like you have found a method that works best for your Fire Ants. Thank goodness we don't have them here in Wisconsin. Hopefully, your tip will be read by our viewers who do have to deal with Fire Ants as a remedy they can try. Thanks for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard - www.WisconsinGarden.com
@@WisconsinGarden Thank you for the video. I should have mentioned Tea Tree works on wasps as well.
Thanks again for the tip. TKS Lynn & Richard
@@gpalmerify
Good to know! Thanks!
@@gpalmerify Old post, but thank you! I have ants and wasps and will try this method.
I once sat on an ant "nest" in the rock wall in my garden without realizing it. The little black ants (maybe Sugar Ants) came swarming out and got onto and underneath my clothes. These little ants bite and sting you. I was much more careful after that!
Hello Happy Days. Just think if you had created a CZcams video, titled "Ants In My Pants And Other Places. Even though we think of them as tiny critter, they do know how to protect their colony. What a painful memory. Sorry.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. We wish you, your family and friends a wonderful, healthy and a prolific year gardening and look forward to your future comments. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
P.S. You might enjoy access to our free 21-page Word Directory with active hyperlinks to all of our eclectic experimental garden adventures and video blogs you may have missed. Currently 946 and counting. We even listed by 'Topic of Interest A-Z' to make your searches easier. No Hype, No selling, just us playing in our gardens over the years.Visit our website or simply send us an email. Add the letters A-Z in your message to us. Email: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and we''ll send your copy ASAP.
I’ve done that before too. It wasn’t pretty 😂
Borax and boric acid are essentially the same thing and normally associated with making homemade laundry soap. Both materials contain the element boron. Usually, Borax is mined and refined from tourmaline, kernite, and colemanite. Boric acid is mined from the mineral sassolite. Borax is sometimes confused with boric acid. Both borax and boric acid are known as borates, which are compounds that come from the element boron.
I have Used Borax With Maple Syrup and it Works.
Hello Kathryn, thank you for your explanation. I love how gardeners enjoy sharing their knowledge with other gardeners. Good to know Borax and maple syrup work.
We recently created a free 21-page Word document with hyperlinks to over 900 garden video blogs listed by Topic of Interest A-Z, giving you direct access anytime, day or night. If you would like us to send you a free copy, simply send me an email at: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and we'll email your copy, as soon as possible.
We continue to wish your family, friends and neighbors to stay healthy and garden smartly. We look forward to all of our future chats as well. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
Effective. Lovely and fun presentation!
Hello Lingfen. We thank you for your kind comment. IMPORTANT UPDATE: I misspoke when creating this video 5-6 years ago. I used Borax not Boric Acid Powder. CAUTION: Many chemical combinations could become highly dangerous and toxic and not something we would recommend trying unless you really know your chemistry. Even then, be very careful.
Since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot lawfully afford to leave any food or chemical based products lying around that could possibly cause them harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
Thankfully, we only deal with little red, brown and black ants, along with carpenter ants here in Wisconsin. So, the only method we now use outdoors is our garden hose. It may or may not completely flood the Queen's chamber, but at best, flooding encourages the colony to move from our lawn into other garden areas where there is plenty of food for their colony. As mentioned, this video focused on small, newly found, common Ant Hills and not Fire Ants.
Many other viewers have kindly shared helpful home-remedy methods they have tried eliminating ants, many of which we haven't yet tested or could successfully report. They've included; dish and bar soaps, boiling water, hot coffee, coffee grounds, Terro, Tobasco sauce, cooking oil, essential oils, cinnamon, jalapeno pepper, rice, grits, oatmeal, cornmeal, baking soda, Diatomaceous Earth, baby powder, borax, vinegar, club soda, dry or wet molasses, fruit jelly, white and powdered sugar, sugar based syrups , bleach, gasoline, motor oil, fire and torching, plus other chemical combinations and products. Then there is both the health and cost-effective factor to consider when using chemicals.
As mentioned, of all these suggestions from thousands of viewer responses, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. But depending upon where one lives, it may or may not work for them. Yet, after just 15-20 minutes deep into the Queen's chamber, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding. But again, this is for newly forming ant hills. Established mounds will be more difficult to eliminate. But again, we caught it early before it became a bigger problem. Don't know if our ideas will help, but keep trying until you find something that works for you.
If you enjoyed this video, we recently posted our 950th garden video and thought you may also appreciate accepting a free copy of our 21-page Directory Index eBook, listing all of our garden videos by Topic of interest A-Z, filled with lots of ideas, activities and positive inspiration. No Spam - No Hype - No Selling - just Family-Friendly informative garden videos with us working in our eclectic experimental gardens. If you'd like your free copy, email me at lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and add the letters A-Z in your message. We will email your copy ASAP.
We hope to hear from you soon. Thanks again for watching, caring and sharing you gardening adventures. We continue to wish you and your family great health and a prolific garden. We look forward to your future comments and suggestions. Your garden friends from Wisconsin, Lynn & Richard - www.WisconsinGarden.com.
I liked. Very practical vid. And so lovely to have an couple interacting with such fond banter. I use warm water that not too hot as too harm plants with lavender oil three teas per bucket pour onto flowers or veg beds or anywhere to repell ants, this won't kill them but they will not stay around For stubborn nests where plants are tough or not in harms way use four teas eucalyptus oil in a bucket of warm water instead -will stop. 🌿🌻. Rosemary is also a natural insecticide that would work. 🍀
Hello K Lim. Thank you for sharing your favorite technique in eliminating ant hills. Since producing this video we have received thousands of tips and techniques that work for our viewers. Our focus with this video was primarily for ant hills in our lawn. Of all the techniques we've tried, deep flooding works really fast and often eliminates the nest within less than 10-15 minutes, especially when caught early. With all the children, pets and visitors who walk through our gardens, we don't want any potential liability leaving any chemical products that could be seen as a problems, so water is still our best remedy. Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. Enjoy the summer, stay safe, cool, healthy and happy. #KeepTheLoveGrowing - WisconsinGarden.com :) Lynn & Richard
Awww “Hubs” that was so very NICE of you to compliment your wife..that doesn’t happen very often in our Society
Hi Becky. Yes, he's a very special man in many ways. I say that after being married to him for 52 years and mutually best friends.
Many other viewers have kindly shared helpful home-remedy methods they have tried eliminating ants, many of which we haven't yet tested or could successfully report. They've included; dish and bar soaps, boiling water, hot coffee, coffee grounds, Terro, essential oils, cinnamon, rice, grits, oatmeal, cornmeal, baking soda, Diatomaceous Earth, borax, vinegar, club soda, dry or wet molasses, white and powdered sugar, sugar based syrups , bleach, fire torching and many other natural minerals and chemical combinations and products. Then there is the cost-effective factor to consider.
CAUTION: Many chemical combinations could become highly dangerous and toxic and not something we would recommend trying. Plus, items such as bleach, boiling water, or fire torching could very well have a long-lasting unattractive effect on one's lawn, and even harshly effect important garden plants. Unless one is a professional exterminator, be very careful. Fire ants require another more serious approach, often professional.
Since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
While boiling water, is an interesting concept for walkways and driveways, it would extremely difficult to boil enough to penetrate deeply enough flooding the complex underground chambers, especially the Queens. Superficial flooding will just move the ant colony a little farther away.
Yet, of all these great suggestions from thousands of viewer responses, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. After 15-20 minutes deep into the Queen's chamber, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding. But again, this is for newly forming ant hills. Established mounds will be more difficult to eliminate.
Much depends on identifying the type of ant causing problems. Thank goodness, we're only dealing with black carpenter, brown and red ants in our lawn and garden areas. Like most gardeners, we need ants for many helpful reasons, just not in our house. That's when other approaches are required. Fire ants are another matter that also needs more serious and sometimes professional services. We hope this was helpful.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. We wish you, your family and friends a wonderful, healthy and a prolific year gardening and look forward to your future comments. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
You might enjoy access to our free 21-page Directory with active hyperlinks to all of our eclectic experimental garden adventures and video blogs you may have missed, currently 946 and counting.
We even listed by 'Topic of Interest A-Z' to make your searches easier. No Hype, No selling, just us playing in our eclectic experimental gardens .Visit our website or simply send us an email. Add the letters A-Z in your message to us.
Email: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and we''ll send your copy ASAP.
Oh, my gosh! I know this is an older video, but it popped my eyes open when I saw the Sad face you'd drawn on the lid! You're the only other one - I swear - who dies this! I do it, all the time, as it was common in the late 70's/early 80's when our kids were little. Can't fathom why it's still not taught. Thanks for the video & the memory💖. PS I'd always heard to mix baking soda & icing sugar, then leave it out, on a plastic lid, under a piece of wood held up by a rock - to keep the mixture dry - & they eat it for the sugar but can't toot, so they blow up from the action of the baking soda. Some swear by it !!!💖
Dear fellow lid drawer. I know, we did it all the time through the 60's till now. I guess it's still a wise habit to add a warning label. We gave those darn ants a chance to be warned. But Oh No, they had to cross that boundary between house and outside. Richard still loves the water method as being most environmentally friendly and very quick. Thanks for watching, caring and sharing. May you and your family enjoy a blessed holiday season. Lynn & Richard
I have tried boiling water on spaces between tiles of the sidewalk but the ants came back after initial success. The best remedy has been sprinkling on diatomaceous earth also called sharp earth. Ants eat it and it tears their digestive tract. It doesn't kill plants. The ants don't come back . The price varies widely. Always cheaper to buy in bulk. I enjoyed your show.
Good morning Naomi. It has been amazing in how many viewers have kindly shared helpful home-remedy methods they have tried eliminating ants, many of which we haven't tested. Prior suggestions have included; dish and bar soaps, boiling water, Terro, essential oils, grits, cornmeal, baking soda, Diatomaceous Earth, borax, vinegar, cane, molasses, white and powdered sugars, hot coffee, coffee grounds. bleach, and many other natural minerals and chemical products to the list. Many would destroy our lawn, and perhaps garden plants.
However, Since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
While boiling water is an interesting concept, it would extremely difficult to boil enough to penetrate deeply enough flooding the Queen's chamber. Plus pouring boiling water on one's lawn would have a long-lasting effect.
Yet, of all these great suggestions thousands of responses from our viewers, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. After 15-20 minutes deep into the Queen's chamber, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding. But again, this is for newly forming ant hills. Established mounds will be more difficult to eliminate.
Much depends on identifying the type of ant causing problems. Thank goodness, we're only dealing with black carpenter, brown and red ants in our lawn and garden areas. Like most gardeners, we need ants for many helpful reasons, just not in our house. That's when other approaches are required.
You might enjoy access to our free 21-page Word Directory with active hyperlinks to all of our eclectic experimental garden adventures and video blogs you may have missed. Currently 946 and counting. We even listed by 'Topic of Interest A-Z' to make your searches easier. No Hype, No selling, just us playing in our gardens over the years.Visit our website or simply send us an email. Add the letters A-Z in your message to us. Email: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and we''ll send your copy ASAP.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. We wish you, your family and friends a wonderful, healthy and a prolific year gardening and look forward to your future comments. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
Awesome tips. You guys sound like such a sweet couple. Have an awesome day.
Thank you for your kind comment. That's what happens after 49 years of marriage where Richard grows sassier each and every day. Thanks Phillip for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard
Lovely couple. I enjoyed listening to the video just as much as I found it useful. I've tried the boiling water, and it does work, altho I only tried it on lawn areas as I wouldn't wanna kill my shrubs and plants. I haven't tried the boric acid/sugar method, so that's next. Flooding them out is not a solution for me as there is too much ground to cover, and also I am surrounded by farmlands and a meadow, so I suspect that I might be in a never ending battle with ants. A well presented video; very helpful. Thank you for sharing. :)
Hi Laurie. We recently did a video a couple of weeks ago highlighting the method we prefer without using any chemical because we have visitors, children and pets visiting our gardens. Please feel free to visit our website www.WisconsinGarden.com for nearly 900 garden videos from our eclectic experimental gardens and see how our gardens have changed since we started posting our videos on CZcams. Sometimes it's a little scary, because some of our viewers remember more about our garden than we. Anyway, welcome and thank you for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard
I have been watching so many crime TV episodes lately that it's been bringing a lot of discouragement. I hopped onto my PC instead and said "God, I want to hear from You!" and then your video appeared. When you talked about Noah I thought "THESE ARE MY KIND!" Thank you. You ARE sweet. I loved your sweet conversations with the ants. It reminded me so much of myself that it made me laugh.
Hello Elise. Positive energy brings sweet like-minded souls together. You are very kind and we truly appreciate hearing from you. We'd like to share our free, useful and helpful index guide to all of our first 950 garden videos listed by topic of interest, from A-Z as a quick reference guide. Currently, it's a free 21-page eBook Directory with direct hotlinks to our garden videos for easy access, day or night.
Simply email me at: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and add 'A-Z' in your message. NOTE: We respect your privacy and do not SPAM or share information provided to us with anyone!
Thank you again for watching, caring and sharing. Your garden friends from Wisconsin. Lynn & Richard - See all of our latest garden videos on our website: www.WisconsinGarden.com.
Very helpful and informative and to the point
Thank you
Hi Victoria, glad you found some usable information. Where you are and what kind of ant you are dealing with always makes a difference. Enjoy the rest of the warm season.
Thanks for watching, caring and sharing. Stay safe, healthy and happy. #KeepTheLoveGrowing Lynn & Richard - www.WisconsinGarden.com
Diatomaceous earth is great. I like to use it around house plants anytime I find ants crawling on the pots. Local farm and pet feed stores usually sell it by the pound very cheap.
+radrickdavis - Great solution for slugs and crawling insects. Just be sure not to eat it unless it's specifically listed as food grade. Only a couple of mines in the world produce the eatable grade quality. Research indicates it's great for digestive cleansing. We tried it for one month every morning but can't honestly note any change. Thanks for watching and sharing. Lynn & Richard
Yup! Three gigantic ant hills in my front yard - tried DE and it worked like a charm!
Where to buy it ?
Lynn, I've been using boiling water for years and it works the best for me. I found that a canning pot filled safely to the top and boiled which is about 5 gallons on 1 mound takes care of them completely and finally.
A Layne That's a great tip for really large mounds. Our 2 little tea pots did the job really well. Thanks for watching and sharing. Lynn & Richard
Our mound was so large that we heard the water gurgle all the way down to the queen. I took that for everyone of the mounds (large) we had. Thanks for the video.
A Layne I believe you. Their tunnels are amazingly complex. Thanks for watching. Lynn & Richard
Thank you for sharing your experiment!
Hi Urana, you are welcome. Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard - www.WisconsinGarden.com
Love your interaction.... and of course the information is great!
Hi Kathleen. After being together for over 50 years life is always a surprise when living with Richard. I never know what he'll be encouraging me to do next. It's always a true pleasure hearing from you and all of our viewers who enjoy watching our garden video blogs. Thanks again for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard
Corn grits are extremely effective .Just apply a large amount on top of the nest .The mound will be dead in about a week .
Hi Loretta. Thank you for sharing your use of corn grits.. Many other viewers have kindly shared helpful home-remedy methods they have tried eliminating ants, many of which we haven't yet tested or could successfully report. They've included; dish and bar soaps, boiling water, hot coffee, coffee grounds, Terro, essential oils, rice, grits, oatmeal, cornmeal, baking soda, Diatomaceous Earth, borax, vinegar, club soda, dry or wet molasses, white and powdered sugar, sugar based syrups , bleach, fire torching and many other natural minerals and chemical combinations and products.
CAUTION: Many chemical combinations could become highly dangerous and toxic and not something we would recommend trying. Plus, items such as bleach or torching could permanently destroy sections of the lawn, and even garden plants. Unless one is a professional exterminator, be very careful. Fire ants require another more serious approach, often professional.
Since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
While boiling water, is an interesting concept for walkways and driveways, it would extremely difficult to boil enough to penetrate deeply enough flooding the complex underground chambers, especially the Queens. Plus pouring boiling water on one's lawn could very well have a long-lasting unattractive effect.
Yet, of all these great suggestions from thousands of viewer responses, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. After 15-20 minutes deep into the Queen's chamber, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding. But again, this is for newly forming ant hills. Established mounds will be more difficult to eliminate.
Much depends on identifying the type of ant causing problems. Thank goodness, we're only dealing with black carpenter, brown and red ants in our lawn and garden areas. Like most gardeners, we need ants for many helpful reasons, just not in our house. That's when other approaches are required. Fire ants are another matter that also needs more serious and sometimes professional services. We hope this was helpful.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. We wish you, your family and friends a wonderful, healthy and a prolific year gardening and look forward to your future comments. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
You might enjoy access to our free 21-page Directory with active hyperlinks to all of our eclectic experimental garden adventures and video blogs you may have missed, currently 946 and counting.
We even listed by 'Topic of Interest A-Z' to make your searches easier. No Hype, No selling, just us playing in our eclectic experimental gardens .Visit our website or simply send us an email. Add the letters A-Z in your message to us.
Email: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and we''ll send your copy ASAP.
I've used the '20 mule team boric acid' also to get rid of cockroaches, an exterminator recommended this, works great. cheep, and can be used indoors also.
There are many workable solutions and Borax is an economical solution. Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard - www.WisconsinGarden.com
kachinasw1 Did you mix your borax with sugar and water? Or plain ol' dry borax powder?
50/50 confectionary sugar and borax. But it normally works only on sugar ants
@@gregschroer2314 yes, I saw a video that explained as ants go through their lifecycle some look for different food. If the sugar mixture doesn't work try mixing borax or boric acid with a protein like peanut butter or shredded (cooked) chicken. I've also heard scrambled egg and/or bacon grease. I would be worried about using these proteins outside as they might attract other critters. You could definitely use them inside. But of course use with caution around kids and family pets.
Thank you. I'm going to try! You two are so adorable 😍.
bkbori6, thanks again for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard www.WisconsinGarden.com
Thank you for Richard s help
You're welcome. TKS Lynn & Richard
Here in Alabama we've used black pepper in our vegetable gardens -- non toxic but the ants don't survive. Must use a lot in the nest -- I've heard others use jalapeno, shaking tobasco sauce on small mounds in their veg gardens.
Hi Autimuse. Just a quick update. I also misspoke when creating this video 5-6 years ago. I used Borax not Boric Acid. CAUTION: Many chemical combinations could become highly dangerous and toxic and not something we would recommend trying. Plus, items such as bleach, boiling water, or fire torching could very well have a long-lasting unattractive effect on one's lawn, and even harshly effect important garden plants. Unless one is a professional exterminator, be very careful. Fire ants require another more serious approach, often professional.
Many other viewers have kindly shared helpful home-remedy methods they have tried eliminating ants, many of which we haven't yet tested or could successfully report. They've included; dish and bar soaps, boiling water, hot coffee, coffee grounds, Terro, tobasco suace, essential oils, cinnamon, jalapeno pepper, rice, grits, oatmeal, cornmeal, baking soda, Diatomaceous Earth, borax, vinegar, club soda, dry or wet molasses, white and powdered sugar, sugar based syrups , bleach, fire torching and many other natural minerals and chemical combinations and products. Then there is the cost-effective factor to consider.
Since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
While boiling water, is an interesting concept for walkways and driveways, it would extremely difficult to boil enough to penetrate deeply enough flooding the complex underground chambers, especially the Queens. Superficial flooding will just move the ant colony a little farther away.
Yet, of all these great suggestions from thousands of viewer responses, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. After 15-20 minutes deep into the Queen's chamber, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding. But again, this is for newly forming ant hills. Established mounds will be more difficult to eliminate. But again, we caught it early before it became a bigger problem.
Established ant hills can turn into massive mounds when not addressed early. The underground chambers can become enormous and much more difficult to effectively eliminate, compared to the much smaller new colonies we found developing in our lawn. There are times when it's wise to call in a professional exterminator.
Much depends on identifying the type of ant causing problems. Thank goodness, we're only dealing with black carpenter, brown and red ants in our lawn and garden areas. Like most gardeners, we need ants for many helpful reasons, just not in our house. That's when other approaches are required. Fire ants are another matter that also needs more serious and sometimes professional services. We hope this was helpful.
If you enjoyed this video, we'd like to offer you our 'free 21-page Directory' listing all of our 900+ garden videos by Topic A-Z.' No Hype - No selling, just us working in our eclectic experimental gardens. Send us an email at lynn@WisconsinGarden.com. Please add the letters A-Z in your message to us and we''ll send your copy ASAP.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. We wish you, your family and friends a wonderful, healthy and a prolific year gardening and look forward to your future comments. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
I grew up on a farm and we used the borax and sugar near the house and animals. For stubborn hills away from house and animals we sometimes used bleach which we also used for thistles.
Hi Robin. We have a nasty hill of ants that formed along our main driveway this year and will try using bleach and see how effectively that works. Thanks for the tip. Thanks again for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard
WisconsinGarden just keep in mind that bleach will kill everything in that small area.
You two are charming. It makes your videos fun to watch, even though I don't currently have ants.
I know this is a garden vlog, so it may not apply, but in my last house there was an apparently endless supply of tiny sugar ants that would find their way inside whenever it rained. Food grade diatomaceous earth piled up over their entry source (baseboards, usually) was always effective, but because it is a fine powder it will spread out over the floor and may require packing some into the crack or gap the ant trail is coming from.
Good morning B30. We purchased a lot of Diatmoaceous Earth food grade many years ago, if an when we see ants trying to enter near our entry doors we sprinkle it around both interior and exterior areas.
It has been amazing in how many viewers have kindly shared helpful home-remedy methods they have tried eliminating ants, many of which we haven't tested. Prior suggestions have included; dish and bar soaps, boiling water, Terro, essential oils, grits, cornmeal, baking soda, Diatomaceous Earth, borax, vinegar, cane, molasses, white and powdered sugars, hot coffee, coffee grounds. bleach, and many other natural minerals and chemical products to the list. Many would destroy our lawn, and perhaps garden plants.
However, Since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
Yet, of all these great suggestions thousands of responses from our viewers, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. After 15-20 minutes deep into the Queen's chamber, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding. But again, this is for newly forming ant hills. Established mounds will be more difficult to eliminate.
Much depends on identifying the type of ant causing problems. Thank goodness, we're only dealing with black carpenter, brown and red ants in our lawn and garden areas. Like most gardeners, we need ants for many helpful reasons, just not in our house. That's when other approaches are required.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. We wish you, your family and friends a wonderful, healthy and a prolific year gardening and look forward to your future comments. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
P.S. You might enjoy access to our free 21-page Word Directory with active hyperlinks to all of our eclectic experimental garden adventures and video blogs you may have missed. Currently 946 and counting. We even listed by 'Topic of Interest A-Z' to make your searches easier. No Hype, No selling, just us playing in our gardens over the years.Visit our website or simply send us an email. Add the letters A-Z in your message to us. Email: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and we''ll send your copy ASAP.
What a beautiful, grand garden.
Good morning LR. We thank you for your kind comments and are please to hear you enjoyed this video. Since we just posted our 950th garden video, we’d like to offer you our free 21-page Directory Index eBook, listing all of our garden videos by Topic of interest A-Z, filled with lots of ideas and positive inspiration. No Spam - No Hype - No Selling - just Family-Friendly informative garden videos with us working in our eclectic experimental gardens. If you'd like your free copy, email me at lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and add the letters A-Z in your message. We will email your copy ASAP.
Thanks again for watching, caring and sharing you gardening adventures. We continue to wish you and your family great health and a prolific garden. We look forward to your future comments and suggestions. Your garden friends from Wisconsin, Lynn & Richard - www.WisconsinGarden.com
the best thing about this is you can use the grits anywhere . inside or out
Today, I think eating grits would be more useful for us humans. TKS Lynn & Richard
The ants probably enjoyed the club soda...especially on a hot day...
That could be it Suzi. I know we do. We thank you for your suggestion and glad to hear it works for you. IMPORTANT UPDATE: I misspoke when creating this video 5-6 years ago. I used Borax not Boric Acid powder. CAUTION: Many chemical combinations could become highly dangerous and toxic and not something we would recommend trying unless you really know your chemistry. Even then, be very careful.
The only method we now use is our garden hose. It may or may not flood the Queen's chamber, but at best, flooding encourages the colony to move from our lawn into other garden areas where there is plenty of food for their colony.
As mentioned, this video focused on small, newly found, common Ant Hills and not Fire Ants. No matter what method used, it can help eliminate where a colony lives.
Many other viewers have kindly shared helpful home-remedy methods they have tried eliminating ants, many of which we haven't yet tested or could successfully report. They've included; dish and bar soaps, boiling water, hot coffee, coffee grounds, Terro, Tobasco sauce, cooking oil, essential oils, cinnamon, jalapeno pepper, rice, grits, oatmeal, cornmeal, baking soda, Diatomaceous Earth, baby powder, borax, vinegar, club soda, dry or wet molasses, fruit jelly, white and powdered sugar, sugar based syrups , bleach, gasoline, motor oil, fire and torching, plus other chemical combinations and products. Then there is both the health and cost-effective factor to consider when using chemicals.
Plus, since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
As mentioned, of all these suggestions from thousands of viewer responses, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. But depending upon where one lives, it may or may not work for them. Yet, after just 15-20 minutes deep into the Queen's chamber, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding. But again, this is for newly forming ant hills. Established mounds will be more difficult to eliminate. But again, we caught it early before it became a bigger problem. Don't know if our ideas will help, but keep trying until you find something that works for you.
As we post our 950th garden video, we’d like to offer you our free 21-page Directory Index eBook, listing all of our garden videos by Topic of interest A-Z, filled with lots of ideas and positive inspiration. No Spam - No Hype - No Selling - just Family-Friendly informative garden videos with us working in our eclectic experimental gardens. If you'd like your free copy, email me at lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and add the letters A-Z in your message. We will email your copy ASAP.
We hope to hear from you soon. Thanks again for watching, caring and sharing you gardening adventures. We continue to wish you, your family great health and a prolific garden. We look forward to your future comments and suggestions. Your garden friends from Wisconsin, Lynn & Richard - www.WisconsinGarden.com
Or maybe they built a swimming hole for their young uns.
I once knew someone that would feed his kitchen counter ants. I bet he still lives in *MADison!!!* ♥♥
I think the reason you only add a little water to the Borax is so that the mixture stays a solid and the ants feed and also take come back to the colony for other ants to feed on and die. If it's too much of a liquid it will the ant, but it can't take any back to the colony.
Thank you, Saladlamp, always like to hear from other gardeners and what they have learned. We appreciate your sharing. Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard www.WisconsinGarden.com
Very informative. Thank you !!
Glad you found our garden video blog helpful. Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. We truly appreciate hearing from you. Stay safe, healthy and happy. #KeepTheLoveGrowing - WisconsinGarden.com :) Lynn & Richard
the one experiment I was hoping to see was using cornmeal. I've used it on an emerging colony the next day there were hundreds of dead ants on the sidewalk.
Hi April. We know ants are attracted to cornmeal but they can't actually digest it. Hopefully, if they don't find something else to eat they would starve. At least it's safer for pets and children than poison. We still prefer flooding the ant hill with water. It's safe and works quickly compared to all the other methods we've tested so far. Thanks for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard
after my first attack being assaulted by fire ants, I went with the most drastic measure, but I will go on and try other methods for beatles and other insects
Hi Chuck. Fire ants are a completely different and very serious matter. We "Do Not' recommend any of these techniques for Fire Ants. Unless you've dealt with them before I would talk to the experts on how to safely eliminate Fire Ants.
Thanks again for watching, caring and sharing. We wish you, your family and friends a wonderful, healthy and a prolific year gardening and look forward to your future comments. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
Thank you for this information, very helpful.
Thank you Lynda for watching, caring and sharing. Enjoy the summer, stay safe, cool, healthy and happy. #KeepTheLoveGrowing - WisconsinGarden.com :) Lynn & Richard
Your yard is lovely . Thanks for the tips !👍🏻
Hi Laura, you are very sweet. Thanks for watching, caring & sharing. Keep The Love Growing - Lynn & Richard - www.WisconsinGarden.com
My hero. I will be trying all of these!
Hi Avius. Consider the type of ant before using this method. None are recommended for fire ants. That requires Boric Acid. For our ants the garden hose had proven to work the best and environmentally friendly. It gravitates deep down into all the chambers and basically drown the entire colony. We've also been told using Diatomaceous Earth scratches their exoskeleton and eventually their body dehydrates. You have to test different methods to see which one works best for your ant colony. Thanks for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard
Is this anything like a heavy rain??😊
Old LEATHER SMITH here, I use RICE, on fire ants it takes about 7 to 10 days but the mounds and ants disappeared, so now I use it on the whole lawn with a grass seed spreader works, the bigger the mound the longer it takes but it does work. GOD'S BLESSINGS ✝️⚾🙃
Good morning Jim. We love the idea of using the spreader for larger areas. We pleased to hear you enjoyed this video on eliminating ant hills.
We're pleased to hear you enjoyed this video on Ant Hills. It has been amazing in how many viewers have kindly shared helpful home-remedy methods they have tried eliminating ants, many of which we haven't tested. Prior suggestions have included; dish and bar soaps, boiling water, hot coffee, coffee grounds, Terro, essential oils, rice, grits, oatmeal, cornmeal, baking soda, Diatomaceous Earth, borax, vinegar, club soda, dry or welt molasses, white and powdered sugar syrups , bleach, and many other natural minerals and chemical products to the list. Many would destroy our lawn, and perhaps garden plants. Fire ants require another more serious approach, often professional.
However, Since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
While boiling water, is an interesting concept for walkways and driveways, it would extremely difficult to boil enough to penetrate deeply enough flooding the complex underground chambers, especially the Queens. Plus pouring boiling water on one's lawn could very well have a long-lasting unattractive effect.
Yet, of all these great suggestions from thousands of viewer responses, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. After 15-20 minutes deep into the Queen's chamber, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding. But again, this is for newly forming ant hills. Established mounds will be more difficult to eliminate.
Much depends on identifying the type of ant causing problems. Thank goodness, we're only dealing with black carpenter, brown and red ants in our lawn and garden areas. Like most gardeners, we need ants for many helpful reasons, just not in our house. That's when other approaches are required.
You might enjoy access to our free 21-page Word Directory with active hyperlinks to all of our eclectic experimental garden adventures and video blogs you may have missed. Currently 946 and counting. We even listed by 'Topic of Interest A-Z' to make your searches easier. No Hype, No selling, just us playing in our gardens over the years.Visit our website or simply send us an email. Add the letters A-Z in your message to us. Email: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and we''ll send your copy ASAP.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. We wish you, your family and friends a wonderful, healthy and a prolific year gardening and look forward to your future comments. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
dry rice?
@@B0Nnaaay yes dry, when they take in water the rice expands and kills them. Works GOD'S BLESSINGS ✝️⚾🙃
A few years ago a 8 ft trench was dug and ants beds were nearly to the bottom of the trench. I do not think boiling water would get that far down? ha ha but I have heard of someone making a beautiful design by melting brass and pouring into an ant bed. After it cooled the people dug out the brass and had a beautiful design.
Hello Pat. Since we only have 1/2+ acre, mostly gardens and lessening lawn areas, it much easier for us to keep an eye out for pending problems. We tried having a rational discussion with these ants, but they continue to ignore our requests and we feel badly every time we have to address resolving newly formed ant hills. As much as we appreciate all lifeforms we do our best to encourage them to move away from our house which is our main lawn area.
Since this video was produced about 6 years ago, we hope you have a chance to see our latest video #951 Update Eliminating Ant Hills: czcams.com/video/14NzdCxdVKM/video.html
We needed to clarify and update that we are only dealing with little brown, red and black ants, not fire ants, hopefully moving newly formed ant hills away from destroying our lawn by simply using water rather than chemicals and home-made recipes. Doubt if we could ever boil enough hot water anyway. This works best for us, and more importantly, protects all of the families with young children and pets who visit and walk through our gardens. So, we cannot leave any chemicals lying around.
If you enjoyed this video, we still would like to send you our free 21-page garden video directory and index of our 950 garden videos listed by topic from A-Z. Email: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. Your garden friends from Wisconsin. Lynn & Richard - See our latest garden videos posted on our website: www.WisconsinGarden.com.
Thank u! And yes I bet she is a great grandma!❤️
Hi Leonor. That is so sweet to hear. Thank you for watching, caring and sharing - Lynn & Richard - www.WisconsinGarden.com
Thanks! I will try the boric acid mixture on the fire ants.
Hi Nina. None of our recommendation were for fire ants. Boric acid is the best feeding method to kill them off. It's safe to use as well as for the environment. Be very careful, especially if you have allergies because being bit can have deadly consequences. Call in an expert when in doubt. We've been told never disturb the fire ant colony mound, rather sprinkle your mixtures just before sunset and let it work it's magic through the evening hours. Here's a good video link that further explains how boric acid works. czcams.com/video/39gn_c3a7F4/video.html Enjoy. Thanks for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard
Such a cute couple haha thanks for the video 😁😍
Good morning Geraldine. Thank you for your kind comment. Since doing this video last year we've had to rethink how we have to resolve Ant problems. We just had several people stop and tour our gardens including 2 very young children. Actually we prefer not to use any chemicals. Now we prefer the simple garden hose technique which actually is our most successful and environmentally friendly solution. No chemicals lying around or accessible to children or pets. One of our latest Videos: Video Blog 883 - Easiest & Fastest Way To Eliminate Ant Hills czcams.com/video/auY32duA_38/video.html - - - was a live demonstration of the easiest and fastest way to eliminate ant hills without using harmful chemicals. Yes, there are a variety of liquid and granular chemical available, but that’s not what we will be using today. First, there are 3 basic ants we will be addressing, carpenter ants, odorous house ants and driveway ants. The weapon of choice is the garden hose, spraying water penetrating deeply into the underground chambers and completely flooding the nest. The goal is simple, eliminate the Queen and thus destroy that ant colony. While some workers from that next may return, all they will find is a wet flooded nest. After 10-15 minute of really flooding the entire colony nest area, they won’t have a colony nest to greet them back home and will die. Fire Ants are a completely different story and approach to safely eliminate without being swarmed and attacked. For that, you may have to call in a professional service. We hope you try this for yourself to see how effective this method really is. Thanks for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard - www.WisconsinGarden.com
Them! lol...great movie!....to a kid ;-) ...thanks for the experiments and childhood memory!
Hi Laura. Glad it brought back some childhood memories. Of all the suggestions thousands of viewers have offered, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. After 15-20 minutes, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding.
Much depends on identifying the type of ant causing problems. Thank goodness, we're only dealing with black carpenter, brown and red ants in our lawn and garden areas. Like most gardeners, we need ants for many helpful reasons, just not in our house. That's when other approaches are required.
More importantly, since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. We wish you, your family and friends a wonderful, healthy and a prolific year gardening and look forward to your future comments. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
P.S. If interested, we'd like to offer you our free 21-page Word document with direct hyperlinks to all of our 900+ garden video blogs listed by Topic of Interest A-Z. If you'd like a free copy visit our website or simply send us an email at: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com. and add the letters A-Z in the subject bar.
TRY DRY GRITS! Just sprinkle or pour a half to a cup of dry grits on the hills. Ants carry some to the hive for food for queen and other ants to eat there and they eat some too. The grits combine with moisture in the ant and swells up inside ant and will kill them. Inside house, use grits that have cheddar cheese in them. Dry grits!
Sounds like a plan, John. Thank you kindly. Thanks for watching, caring sharing. Keep The Love Growing - Lynn & Richard - www.WisconsinGarden.com
I live in the Seattle area. There are huge ant problems and we get more than enough rain to drown them. I don't think drowning works. They still thrive.
Hi MM. Of all the suggestions thousands of viewers have offered, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. After 15-20 minutes, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding.
Much depends on identifying the type of ant causing problems. Thank goodness, we're only dealing with black carpenter, brown and red ants in our lawn and garden areas. Like most gardeners, we need ants for many helpful reasons, just not in our house. That's when other approaches are required.
More importantly, since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. We wish you, your family and friends a wonderful, healthy and a prolific year gardening and look forward to your future comments. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
P.S. If interested, we'd like to offer you our free 21-page Word document with direct hyperlinks to all of our 900+ garden video blogs listed by Topic of Interest A-Z. If you'd like a free copy visit our website or simply send us an email at: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com. and add the letters A-Z in the subject bar.
get a weed torch....works great.
Might have to do with the type of soil you have as well. I'm also in Wisconsin but in an area of Franklin where it is mostly clay soil and the flooding does not work well as it's hard to get the water to flood them sufficiently to kill them out. I've yet to find a decent method of dealing with them around here. I have two particular pesky mounds that just keep coming back year after year even after I seemingly get them or most of them and this has been ongoing for over 20 years. 😆 I even had a backhoe come in one year to dig them out and he dug down 8 feet and there was still tunnels going down even further.
2 Oz orange oil, 2 Oz molasses , gallon of water.
We have a place in Steves Point and our soils is VERY sandy!! Our grass is getting thin and it's like walking on hocky pucks as there are SO many hills....it looks like Swiss cheese with all of the holes. I've tried borax and sugar, but I don't think they are sugar ants. I've done chemicals dozens of time, and they just seem to continue to grow the colony. Frustrating!!
I'm in the UK and have found over the years that borax and sugar is the best ant killer. I used it about 7 years ago and have recommended it to others since, they all agree so far.
Hi Nana. I misspoke when creating this video 5-6 years ago. I used Borax not Boric Acid. CAUTION: Many chemical combinations could become highly dangerous and toxic and not something we would recommend trying. Plus, items such as bleach, boiling water, or fire torching could very well have a long-lasting unattractive effect on one's lawn, and even harshly effect important garden plants. Unless one is a professional exterminator, be very careful and avoid playing with chemical combinations. Fire ants require another more serious approach, often professional.
This video focused on small, newly found, common Ant Hills and not Fire Ants. Many other viewers have kindly shared helpful home-remedy methods they have tried eliminating ants, many of which we haven't yet tested or could successfully report. They've included; dish and bar soaps, boiling water, hot coffee, coffee grounds, Terro, Tobasco sauce, cooking oil, essential oils, cinnamon, jalapeno pepper, rice, grits, oatmeal, cornmeal, baking soda, Diatomaceous Earth, baby powder, borax, vinegar, club soda, dry or wet molasses, fruit jelly, white and powdered sugar, sugar based syrups , bleach, gasoline, torching, plus other natural minerals and chemical combinations and products. Then there is the health and cost-effective factor to consider when using chemicals.
Since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
While boiling water, is an interesting concept for walkways and driveways, it would extremely difficult to boil enough to penetrate deeply enough flooding the complex underground chambers, especially the Queens. Superficial flooding will just move the ant colony a little farther away.
Yet, of all these great suggestions from thousands of viewer responses, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. After 15-20 minutes deep into the Queen's chamber, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding. But again, this is for newly forming ant hills. Established mounds will be more difficult to eliminate. But again, we caught it early before it became a bigger problem.
You may be interested in seeing our growing 21-page Directory eBook listing as we near our 950th garden video listing them all by Topic of interest A-Z with additional ideas, projects and hopefully a lot of positive inspiration. No Spam - No Hype - No Selling - just Family-Friendly garden videos of us working in our eclectic experimental gardens. If you'd like a free copy, email us at lynn@WisconsinGarden.com. Please add the letters A-Z in your message to us and we will email your copy ASAP.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. We wish you, your family and friends a wonderful, healthy and a prolific year gardening and look forward to your future comments. Your garden friends, Lynn & Richard from www.WisconsinGarden.com.
What about pets? Dangerous to me for them
I pour lemon scented ammonia on the mound. I get it at Target, dollar store or big lots. Doesn't hurt lawn... or me... or environment. I also use lawn sprayer with lemon ammonia on perimeter of house to keep them from coming into house
Because of all the visitors, children and pet who visit our gardens, along with our own family and pets, we must caution our viewers when using chemicals in and around their gardens. Of all the methods we've safely tested, using the garden hose and deep flooding for 10-15 minutes often resolves ant hills, especially when caught early.
As for scented or plain Ammonia, it's 'not' a friendly environmental chemical. It can negatively affect biodiversity and be very harmful to many species through soil acidification, cause direct toxic damage to leaves by altering the susceptibility of plants to frost, drought and pathogens. It can be extremely damaging especially to sensitive habitats. While it may appear cheap, it's extremely dangerous to breath, absorbed through the skin, possibly causing serious long-term health damage.
Please reconsider the potential risks of using of these kinds of chemicals when easier, quicker and safer methods are available. Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. Enjoy the summer, stay safe, cool, healthy and happy. #KeepTheLoveGrowing - WisconsinGarden.com :) Lynn & Richard
I was out in the garden combining all my container dirt and I had ants crawling up my arms. I'm heading in to get borax. I have been humming a tune all fall and winter now I know where I have heard it. It's from your channel. I keep humming it.
Good morning Barb. Those ants do find their way into many things. Remind me of the movie "THEM". It is a unique and catchy tune my husband purchased the user rights for our garden video entrance, and another for the exit that's become our theme song. We're glad you been enjoy humming along. Thanks again for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard
That Richard sure is a wisenheimer.
He can't help himself, even after 50 years of knowing him. Wouldn't trade him even for a new garden knife. He's the love of my life. Thanks for watching and sharing. Lynn & Richard
Bryan Ziefle , I bet he shook up those soda bottles!!
I use baking soda and vinegar. I had several large ant hills and after using this they haven't returned. It's been several years.
Hi Meli. Yes, there are many effective ways to eliminate ant hills, some using chemical ingredients and others without. The most effective method we use is the simple garden hose. It takes at least 10-15 minutes to completely flood a small to medium size ant hill. You have to thoroughly flood deeply enough to flood the inner chambers and kill the queen. Simple surface watering doesn't work. Every time we use this technique, it has never failed to work. Thanks for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard
Thank u for your advice!
Tarynn M. You're welcome. Thanks again for watching. Lynn & Richard
You were Very Pleasant and helpful,. 👍😘 Thank You
Glad it was helpful, Marvin. Thanks for watching sharing and caring. Have a great week playing in your garden. Lynn & Richard from WisconsinGarden.com - #KeepTheLoveGrowing
You two made me laugh HAHAHA I'm going to try the boiling water one. thanks so much =)
Hi Debs. Unfortunately, we can't boil enough water to really get to the queen. The garden hose has proven to be the winner. Thanks for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard
Great tips...the ones that worked.
I had not considered that boiling water also kills weeds, so this is an added bonus!
Texan In The UK This works very effectively. If you want to really get creative, melt a huge pot of aluminum (ha ha) and pour it down the main ant hole. Wait a couple of day and dig up an amazing work of ant. At lease it will pay for all the damage they cause. Just kidding although some people along the coast look for lightning strikes in the sand for really interesting works of nature's art. Thanks for watching and sharing. Lynn & Richard
WisconsinGarden I've seen videos on the aluminum art work and it is very clever!I've not thought of lightning strikes in sand.Cheers!
Texan In The UK watch the movie "Sweet Home Alabama" for the lightning art he mines on the beach. Pretty interesting use of lightning rods. Not sure I'd want to be out there in the rain. TKS Lynn & Richard
WisconsinGarden
I'll be sure to look for it.
Thanks!
Across The Pond , I did a test of my own with weeds, I used my dirty dishwater (yes, that's right, I do not have a dishwasher), poured it on the weeds, and the weeds were dying within 2 days. And these weeds were 2 feet tall. so I don't know how long it would have taken 2 kill them completely. But there is one way of killing weeds without wasting extra money. You just have to wash the dishes 😁
Hi Lynn and Richard, I usually get one or two ant hills. I use the second method. Hope you both are enjoying Gardening. Talk to you soon.
Thank you for your tip, pulikutty. Happy Spring Thanks again for watching, caring and sharing. Keep The Love Growing. Lynn & Richard www.WisconsinGarden.com
Having small black ants in the kitchen, I mixed Borax, sugar and small amount of water. It did not draw the ants. I then added a small amount of honey to the mix and that brought them out. No more ants.
Hello Dick. Ants in the house is another matter and a much different approach. We can understand why honey worked well. We thank all of our viewers for their suggestions. Since we only have 1/2+ acre, mostly gardens and lessening lawn areas, it much easier for us to keep an eye out for pending problems. We tried having a rational discussion with these ants, but they continue to ignore our requests and we feel badly every time we have to address resolving newly formed ant hills. As much as we appreciate all lifeforms we do our best to encourage them to move away from our house which is our main lawn area.
Since this video was produced about 6 years ago, we hope you have a chance to see our latest video #951 Update Eliminating Ant Hills: czcams.com/video/14NzdCxdVKM/video.html.
We needed to clarify and update that we are only dealing with little brown, red and black ants, not fire ants, hopefully moving newly formed ant hills away from destroying our lawn by simply using water rather than chemicals and home-made recipes. Doubt if we could ever boil enough hot water anyway. This works best for us, and more importantly, protects all of the families with young children and pets who visit and walk through our gardens. So, we cannot leave any chemicals lying around.
If you enjoyed this video and would like to see more like it, we'd like to share our free, useful and helpful index guide to all of our first 950 garden videos listed by topic of interest, from A-Z as a quick reference guide. Currently, it's a free 21-page eBook Directory with direct hotlinks to our garden videos for easy access, day or night.
If you'd like a free copy, email me at: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and add 'A-Z' in your message. NOTE: We respect your privacy and do not SPAM or share information provided to us with anyone!
Thank you again for watching, caring and sharing. Your garden friends from Wisconsin. Lynn & Richard - See all of our latest garden videos on our website: www.WisconsinGarden.com.
Great test. I found putting used coffee grounds around the outside of my house keeps them from coming in. I tried an experiment once of encircling some ants with coffee ground and they would not walk over them. The grounds cut their little feet and they avoid them. Also I put them around a Sunflower once and only when the circle was broken did the ants come in. I just noticed a red ant out front. Those are nasty creatures.
Thanks for the coffee tip. This week I noticed ants in the cat food bowls inside of my house. I traced them to six feet away where there is a small gap between the baseboard and the floor. I drink a lot of decaf, so this is perfect for me! Thanks!
Coffee grounds worn't work if the ants wear crocs. They are smart.
Also is a fertilizer for plants!
use white vinegar under 3 dollars a gallon works fast , windex works too
Hi David. The Dollar Store sells 1 quart vinegar for $1. The garden hose is still cheaper and instantly effective. Still our #1 option. Thanks for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard
Beautiful! Thanks for sharing.
Hi Phoebe. It was our pleasure. Again, we truly thank you for taking time to watch our Wisconsin Garden video blogs. You’ll never know how much you help our garden mission by watching and sharing with family and friends. May you and your family and friends continue to enjoy healthy gardening seasons for many years to come. #KeepTheLoveGrowing - Lynn & Richard - www.WisconsinGarden.com
WisconsinGarden your welcome! I learned much from your vid.
Thank you, very useful.
Hi Jane. Just a quick update. I also misspoke when creating this video 5-6 years ago. I used Borax not Boric Acid. CAUTION: Many chemical combinations could become highly dangerous and toxic and not something we would recommend trying. Plus, items such as bleach, boiling water, or fire torching could very well have a long-lasting unattractive effect on one's lawn, and even harshly effect important garden plants. Unless one is a professional exterminator, be very careful and avoid playing with chemical combinations. Fire ants require another more serious approach, often professional.
This video focused on small, newly found, common Ant Hills and not Fire Ants. Many other viewers have kindly shared helpful home-remedy methods they have tried eliminating ants, many of which we haven't yet tested or could successfully report. They've included; dish and bar soaps, boiling water, hot coffee, coffee grounds, Terro, Tobasco sauce, cooking oil, essential oils, cinnamon, jalapeno pepper, rice, grits, oatmeal, cornmeal, baking soda, Diatomaceous Earth, baby powder, borax, vinegar, club soda, dry or wet molasses, fruit jelly, white and powdered sugar, sugar based syrups , bleach, gasoline, torching, plus other natural minerals and chemical combinations and products. Then there is the health and cost-effective factor to consider when using chemicals.
Since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
While boiling water, is an interesting concept for walkways and driveways, it would extremely difficult to boil enough to penetrate deeply enough flooding the complex underground chambers, especially the Queens. Superficial flooding will just move the ant colony a little farther away.
Yet, of all these great suggestions from thousands of viewer responses, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. After 15-20 minutes deep into the Queen's chamber, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding. But again, this is for newly forming ant hills. Established mounds will be more difficult to eliminate. But again, we caught it early before it became a bigger problem.
Please consider accepting our 'free 21-page Directory' listing all of our 900+ garden videos by Topic A-Z.' No Spam - No Hype - No Selling just Family Friendly garden videos of us working in our eclectic experimental gardens. Send us an email at lynn@WisconsinGarden.com. Please add the letters A-Z in your message to us and we will email your copy ASAP.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. We wish you, your family and friends a wonderful, healthy and a prolific year gardening and look forward to your future comments. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
We live in Wauwatosa, WI-close to you, I would think. The ant hills have been doing a number on the grass and commercial ant killers do not work. I'm trying to drown them, although I do feel guilty because they are so very industrious and interesting.
Hi Cassis. We're just south of Capitol Drive and 1 block east of Lily road, so Wauwatosa is very close.
It has been amazing in how many viewers have kindly shared helpful ways they approach eliminating ants. Prior suggestions have included; dish and bar soaps, boiling water, Terro, essential oils, grits, cornmeal, baking soda, Diatomaceous Earth, borax, vinegar, cane, molasses, white and powdered sugars, hot coffee, coffee grounds. bleach, and many other natural minerals and chemical products to the list.
However, Since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
Yet, of all these great suggestions thousands of responses from our viewers, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. After 15-20 minutes deep into the Queen's chamber, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding. But again, this is for newly forming ant hills. Established mounds will be more difficult to eliminate.
Much depends on identifying the type of ant causing problems. Thank goodness, we're only dealing with black carpenter, brown and red ants in our lawn and garden areas. Like most gardeners, we need ants for many helpful reasons, just not in our house. That's when other approaches are required.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. We wish you, your family and friends a wonderful, healthy and a prolific year gardening and look forward to your future comments. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
P.S. You might enjoy access to our free 21-page Word Directory with active hyperlinks to all of our eclectic experimental garden adventures and video blogs you may have missed. Currently 946 and counting. We even listed by 'Topic of Interest A-Z' to make your searches easier. No Hype, No selling, just us playing in our gardens over the years.Visit our website or simply send us an email. Add the letters A-Z in your message to us. Email: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and we''ll send your copy ASAP.
@@WisconsinGarden - I am NW of Oklahoma Ave and S. 60th Street. I tried white vinegar, but it did not do the trick. Am going to get the borax from the laundry cabinet and mix with brown sugar(we do not use refined white sugar). I have established mounds in my front yard in about 3 places. I will just sprinkle it all on top of the mounds and let the ants do the rest.
We're in Stevens Point and my grass is thinning and the lawn looks like Swiss cheese. I've tried some of her methods above without success. I agree the commercial killers are a complete waste of money, but I keep trying out of desperation. It is like walking on hockey pucks.
Blue Dawn dish detergent and water...
Kills them instantly...
Good morning Kia. We thank you for your suggestion. Just a quick update. I misspoke when creating this video 5-6 years ago. I used Borax not Boric Acid. CAUTION: Many chemical combinations could become highly dangerous and toxic and not something we would recommend trying. Plus, items such as bleach, boiling water, or fire torching could very well have a long-lasting unattractive effect on one's lawn, and even harshly effect important garden plants. Unless one is a professional exterminator, be very careful and avoid playing with chemical combinations. Fire ants require another more serious approach, often professional.
This video focused on small, newly found, common Ant Hills and not Fire Ants. Many other viewers have kindly shared helpful home-remedy methods they have tried eliminating ants, many of which we haven't yet tested or could successfully report. They've included; dish and bar soaps, boiling water, hot coffee, coffee grounds, Terro, Tobasco sauce, cooking oil, essential oils, cinnamon, jalapeno pepper, rice, grits, oatmeal, cornmeal, baking soda, Diatomaceous Earth, baby powder, borax, vinegar, club soda, dry or wet molasses, fruit jelly, white and powdered sugar, sugar based syrups , bleach, gasoline, torching, plus other natural minerals and chemical combinations and products. Then there is the health and cost-effective factor to consider when using chemicals.
Since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
While boiling water, is an interesting concept for walkways and driveways, it would extremely difficult to boil enough to penetrate deeply enough flooding the complex underground chambers, especially the Queens. Superficial flooding will just move the ant colony a little farther away.
Yet, of all these great suggestions from thousands of viewer responses, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. After 15-20 minutes deep into the Queen's chamber, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding. But again, this is for newly forming ant hills. Established mounds will be more difficult to eliminate. But again, we caught it early before it became a bigger problem.
You may be interested in seeing our growing 21-page Directory eBook listing all of our 900+ garden videos by Topic A-Z for future reference. It may give you some additional ideas. No Spam - No Hype - No Selling just Family-Friendly garden videos of us working in our eclectic experimental gardens. If you'd like a free copy, email us at lynn@WisconsinGarden.com. Please add the letters A-Z in your message to us and we will email your copy ASAP.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. We wish you, your family and friends a wonderful, healthy and a prolific year gardening and look forward to your future comments. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
Will it kill or pollute plants also? Peppers and Tomatoes we will eat?
What is the ratio of dawn to water, can you tell me your process please? Thanks
@@WisconsinGarden I have used bleach to good effect. It kills the ants (fire ants) and then becomes neutral so is no longer dangerous to anything. However initially it will kill plants in the local application area. If its lawn grass then keep watered and it will grow back soon enough.
Great video guys.! Very fun!
Hi CC. Thank you for your kind comments. We deeply appreciate hearing from you. Many other viewers have kindly shared helpful home-remedy methods they have tried eliminating ants, many of which we haven't yet tested or could successfully report. They've included; dish and bar soaps, boiling water, hot coffee, coffee grounds, Terro, essential oils, cinnamon, rice, grits, oatmeal, cornmeal, baking soda, Diatomaceous Earth, borax, vinegar, club soda, dry or wet molasses, white and powdered sugar, sugar based syrups , bleach, fire torching and many other natural minerals and chemical combinations and products. Then there is the cost-effective factor to consider.
CAUTION: Many chemical combinations could become highly dangerous and toxic and not something we would recommend trying. Plus, items such as bleach, boiling water, or fire torching could very well have a long-lasting unattractive effect on one's lawn, and even harshly effect important garden plants. Unless one is a professional exterminator, be very careful. Fire ants require another more serious approach, often professional.
Since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
While boiling water, is an interesting concept for walkways and driveways, it would extremely difficult to boil enough to penetrate deeply enough flooding the complex underground chambers, especially the Queens. Superficial flooding will just move the ant colony a little farther away.
Yet, of all these great suggestions from thousands of viewer responses, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. After 15-20 minutes deep into the Queen's chamber, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding. But again, this is for newly forming ant hills. Established mounds will be more difficult to eliminate.
Much depends on identifying the type of ant causing problems. Thank goodness, we're only dealing with black carpenter, brown and red ants in our lawn and garden areas. Like most gardeners, we need ants for many helpful reasons, just not in our house. That's when other approaches are required. Fire ants are another matter that also needs more serious and sometimes professional services. We hope this was helpful.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. We wish you, your family and friends a wonderful, healthy and a prolific year gardening and look forward to your future comments. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
You might enjoy access to our free 21-page Directory with active hyperlinks to all of our eclectic experimental garden adventures and video blogs you may have missed, currently 946 and counting.
We even listed by 'Topic of Interest A-Z' to make your searches easier. No Hype, No selling, just us playing in our eclectic experimental gardens .Visit our website or simply send us an email. Add the letters A-Z in your message to us.
Email: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and we''ll send your copy ASAP.
thanks a lot
Hey, I found you again! I lost you when my PC's Fan died. I got a new PC, but then I also started an actual channel with content so was no longer using my older account of treyshroud. But I still found you.. (I have very little content up, I haven't been well for the last half of a year either, so it kind of has been abandoned for that time period.)
Crap, I meant to say for me the boiling water method has always been successful. But I use much larger 4 quart pans. lol, I believe in being serious!
Hi Ana. Happy to hear from you again. We can relate when it comes to computer's dying. So frustrating getting everything up and running and finding old bookmarks. Since 1988, we no longer keep any files on any internal harddrive other than software programs. We had to learn this the hard way to back everything up externally, and not just on one external drive either. Hope you get to see one of our latest videos on eliminating ant hills with the garden hose. Our Early June Garden Tour part 1 shows how effective it was. Hop over to www.WisconsinGarden.com to see our latest garden videos. Thanks again for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard
Thanks for the tips! I've used corn flour against ants with good results. Not sure if it works for all types of ants.
Hi Danielle. It helps to identify the kind of ant one is trying to encourage to move elsewhere or fact the consequences. Most of our ants are small red and brown ants along with large black carpenter ants.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: I misspoke when creating this video 5-6 years ago. I used Borax not Boric Acid powder. CAUTION: Many chemical combinations could become highly dangerous and toxic and not something we would recommend trying unless you really know your chemistry. Even then, be very careful.
The only method we now use is our garden hose. It may or may not flood the Queen's chamber, but at best, flooding encourages the colony to move from our lawn into other garden areas where there is plenty of food for their colony.
As mentioned, this video focused on small, newly found, common Ant Hills and not Fire Ants. No matter what method used, it can help eliminate where a colony lives.
Many other viewers have kindly shared helpful home-remedy methods they have tried eliminating ants, many of which we haven't yet tested or could successfully report. They've included; dish and bar soaps, boiling water, hot coffee, coffee grounds, Terro, Tobasco sauce, cooking oil, essential oils, cinnamon, jalapeno pepper, rice, grits, oatmeal, cornmeal, baking soda, Diatomaceous Earth, baby powder, borax, vinegar, club soda, dry or wet molasses, fruit jelly, white and powdered sugar, sugar based syrups , bleach, gasoline, motor oil, fire and torching, plus other chemical combinations and products. Then there is both the health and cost-effective factor to consider when using chemicals.
Plus, since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
As mentioned, of all these suggestions from thousands of viewer responses, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. But depending upon where one lives, it may or may not work for them. Yet, after just 15-20 minutes deep into the Queen's chamber, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding. But again, this is for newly forming ant hills. Established mounds will be more difficult to eliminate. But again, we caught it early before it became a bigger problem. Don't know if our ideas will help, but keep trying until you find something that works for you.
As we post our 950th garden video, we’d like to offer you our free 21-page Directory Index eBook, listing all of our garden videos by Topic of interest A-Z, filled with lots of ideas and positive inspiration. No Spam - No Hype - No Selling - just Family-Friendly informative garden videos with us working in our eclectic experimental gardens. If you'd like your free copy, email me at lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and add the letters A-Z in your message. We will email your copy ASAP.
We hope to hear from you soon. Thanks again for watching, caring and sharing you gardening adventures. We continue to wish you, your family great health and a prolific garden. We look forward to your future comments and suggestions. Your garden friends from Wisconsin, Lynn & Richard - www.WisconsinGarden.com.
New subscriber from Mobile, Alabama. Great subject today. I really needed this info. Thanks.
Welcome Victoria to our garden family. Go Crimson Tide. We pleased to hear you enjoyed this video on eliminating ant hills.
We're pleased to hear you enjoyed this video on Ant Hills. It has been amazing in how many viewers have kindly shared helpful home-remedy methods they have tried eliminating ants, many of which we haven't tested. Prior suggestions have included; dish and bar soaps, boiling water, hot coffee, coffer grounds, Terro, essential oils, grits, cornmeal, baking soda, Diatomaceous Earth, borax, vinegar, club soda, dry or welt molasses, white and powdered sugar syrups , bleach, and many other natural minerals and chemical products to the list. Many would destroy our lawn, and perhaps garden plants. Fire ants require another more serious approach, often professional.
However, Since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
While boiling water, is an interesting concept for walkways and driveways, it would extremely difficult to boil enough to penetrate deeply enough flooding the complex underground chambers, especially the Queens. Plus pouring boiling water on one's lawn could very well have a long-lasting unattractive effect.
Yet, of all these great suggestions from thousands of viewer responses, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. After 15-20 minutes deep into the Queen's chamber, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding. But again, this is for newly forming ant hills. Established mounds will be more difficult to eliminate.
Much depends on identifying the type of ant causing problems. Thank goodness, we're only dealing with black carpenter, brown and red ants in our lawn and garden areas. Like most gardeners, we need ants for many helpful reasons, just not in our house. That's when other approaches are required.
You might enjoy access to our free 21-page Word Directory with active hyperlinks to all of our eclectic experimental garden adventures and video blogs you may have missed. Currently 946 and counting. We even listed by 'Topic of Interest A-Z' to make your searches easier. No Hype, No selling, just us playing in our gardens over the years.Visit our website or simply send us an email. Add the letters A-Z in your message to us. Email: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and we''ll send your copy ASAP.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. We wish you, your family and friends a wonderful, healthy and a prolific year gardening and look forward to your future comments. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
I hope to soon catch up on your videos. I have lots of friends and family members who ARE Tide fans and actually wish them a perfect season... except when they play Auburn. I am the middle alum in three generations, of Auburn Tigers. Wahoo...
I fully understand when it come to supporting team spirit while keeping the peace. Have a great weekend. Garden safely. TKS Lynn & Richard
Thank you so much for this. I have 3 large ant condos in my back yard. I've had at least 3 or 4 people give me their expertise on killing ants, and of course, none of those methods worked. As much as the boiling water seems to work as well as the soaking method.......the hose reel, seems to be the way to go. I'm on it!
Hello Ken. Yes, of all the methods we've tried to eliminate ant hills, deep flooding has proven to work the best. Rarely do we even need a 2nd flooding. Boiling water is also very effective. It's a question of making enough. Obviously, this may not be the method of choice near a questionable leaky house foundation or inside one's living room and definitely not for fire ants. We've been blessed to have so many viewers share their favorite techniques with us as well for those places as well. Have a great weekend. As always, thank you for watching, caring and sharing. Stay safe, healthy and happy. #KeepTheLoveGrowing - WisconsinGarden.com :) Lynn & Richard
I have a way that kills a whole colony that you haven't tried. Corn Meal, the small kernels will do great. I put little piles where I see a hill, they come out, crawl all over the corn meal and take each piece back to the colony. In two days, they are gone. Some ants were there but they were from another colony. What happens to them is that they eat it and they can't digest the corn so they blow up and die of dehydration. Boiling water doesn't get way down to the end of the colony, some will survive. I have tried that. I am impatient so when I'm gardening and I come across a colony with the ones with wings, I get my son's blow torch out and burn them all, lol... They don't come back after I have burned their whole colony. But I would try the corn meal and tell me how it works. You will see hundreds come out but they all take a piece back and they all die. Hope this helps.
Hi Gloria. Thanks for the corn meal advice. Richard has found that the garden hose also works very quickly and penetrates deeply into the channels and drowns the entire colony. But when we find the next colony we will try corn meal. Thanks for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard
I have used instant grits. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it just makes them move a few feet away. I will try the grits mixed with the borax.
Hi Kelly. With over 12,000 know ant species in the world and nearly 1000 in the USA, sometimes it seems like a scene out of The Walking Dead.
Ants live most everywhere and identifying them wherever you live is common and a good place to start one's research. There are many things and plant materials living and decaying under our soils that invite ant colonies to exist. Once the Queen moves a new colony is born. Once you know what kind of ants you're dealing with is very important. We are not addressing fire ants, that requires a more serious approach. In this video, we were merely sharing ideas of what we have tried for the black carpenter, red and brown ants. So, please forgive the expanded reply we've been sharing with our viewers from this video.
Since ants live and develop into large colonies, they mostly nest underground, inside trees and places where there is a enough living plant material and decaying food sources,
they choose to live in areas close that can easily support their mission to survive and thrive.
We truly value ants and recognize their contributions to our ecosystem and try our best to train them to stay away from certain areas, such as inside our house. We will always co-exist, However, for those ants who continue to misbehave in our specific areas, well, we will have to properly address the problem, often with very severe consequences for those rouge colonies.
Many viewers have kindly shared the ways they approach eliminating ants including; soaps, Terro, essential oils, grits, cornmeal, Baking Soda, Diatomaceous Earth, Borax, Sugars and many other natural minerals and chemical products. It’s great to receive so many great solutions. The more suggestions the better for everyone who has to deal with ant problems.
To date, the most effective method we have found is water, but also realize that many of our viewers live with various water restrictions and sometime have to rely upon chemical treatment. Plus, we often have families with children, and of course our own pets, so we cannot leave any chemicals lying around on our lawn or in our garden areas.
That is why our favorite, all-time method in eliminating ant hills, is the garden hose since we couldn't boil enough hot water to do the job thoroughly. One thorough flooding deeply into the Queen's chamber does the trick. Rarely, do we ever have to have a second flooding or see any ant activity. Since we are in our gardens almost daily, we keep an eye open for new ant hills in the making and address it as soon as possible before it becomes a major problem. Thank goodness they aren't fire ants.
We continue to wish your family, friends and neighbors to stay healthy and garden smartly. We look forward to all of our future chats as well. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
P.S. If you enjoy watching more of our eclectic experimental garden adventures, we'd love to send you a complete list with direct hyperlinks to all of our 900+ garden video blogs listed by Topic of Interest A-Z. If you'd like a free copy visit our website or simply send me an email at: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com. and add the letters A-Z in the subject bar.lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and add the letters A-Z in the subject bar.
Grits is a myth. unfortunately.
Have you tested dried Molasses? My sister suggested it but I haven’t applied it yet. Love your videos! Thanks for sharing. Gorgeous garden and love your doo.
Hi Raschal. It has been amazing in how many viewers have kindly shared helpful home-remedy methods they have tried eliminating ants, many of which we haven't tested. Prior suggestions have included; dish and bar soaps, boiling water, Terro, essential oils, grits, cornmeal, baking soda, Diatomaceous Earth, borax, vinegar, cane, molasses, white and powdered sugars, hot coffee, coffee grounds. bleach, and many other natural minerals and chemical products to the list. Many would destroy our lawn, and perhaps garden plants.
However, Since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
Yet, of all these great suggestions thousands of responses from our viewers, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. After 15-20 minutes deep into the Queen's chamber, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding. But again, this is for newly forming ant hills. Established mounds will be more difficult to eliminate.
Much depends on identifying the type of ant causing problems. Thank goodness, we're only dealing with black carpenter, brown and red ants in our lawn and garden areas. Like most gardeners, we need ants for many helpful reasons, just not in our house. That's when other approaches are required.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. We wish you, your family and friends a wonderful, healthy and a prolific year gardening and look forward to your future comments. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
P.S. You might enjoy access to our free 21-page Word Directory with active hyperlinks to all of our eclectic experimental garden adventures and video blogs you may have missed. Currently 946 and counting. We even listed by 'Topic of Interest A-Z' to make your searches easier. No Hype, No selling, just us playing in our gardens over the years.Visit our website or simply send us an email. Add the letters A-Z in your message to us. Email: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and we''ll send your copy ASAP.
Try2 Oz molasses mixed equal parts 2 Oz of pure orange oil and add 1/2 gallon of water shake well.......poison but natural don’t let your pets near it.
i am SO pleased with this video! and you guys are so sweet and awesome, i subscribed 😊
ETA: I love your hair
Well welcome to our garden channel Jody. We're so happy you found us. We're only a couple of videos away from producing our 1,000th garden blog video, so you have a lot of catching up to do. If you'd like a Free copy of our Wisconsin Garden Video Blog Directory simply email me at lynn@WisconsinGarden.com. We've listed all or our first 990+ garden video blogs by Topic of interest from A-Z. This way you can call up a specific video of interest at your convenience, day or night. In the meantime, thank you for watching, caring and sharing. Stay safe, healthy and happy. #KeepTheLoveGrowing - WisconsinGarden.com :) Lynn & Richard
Did you do an update on is yet? Or discuss the results in another video? Thanks :)
Athena Myzelle We did mention that hot boiling water worked best. But for the lawn area, either hose water drowning or professional product ant granules worked best. Thanks for watching and sharing. Lynn & Richard
Ok your right. I enjoyed your praaying mantis video too. Thanks for sharing :)
You might try broadcasting degerminated cornmeal near the ant pile. I used this method and now there are no ants. The lawn needs to be dry and no rain forecast.
Thanks for the idea. We will give that one a try. Thanks for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard
@WhatEver. So glad it worked for you.
What would you suggest for voles? I want to avoid poison. They destroy our lawn every winter and it's a lot of work to fix. I was told to try stomping around the yard on the snow or get a cat lol. I have a cat but the voles are very good at hiding.
I had a big bald spot on the lawn where the ants had taken over. I tried hot water first and that didn't work. Then I tried about 4 application of water with a bit of dish washing liquid and olive oil mixed in it. That worked by using a squeeze bottle to force it into the holes and pouring the rest of the liter or so over the spot. It took about four applications in total -- one every other day.
Hi Sam. Many other viewers have kindly shared helpful home-remedy methods they have tried eliminating ants, many of which we haven't yet tested or could successfully report. They've included; dish and bar soaps, boiling water, hot coffee, coffee grounds, Terro, essential oils, cinnamon, rice, grits, oatmeal, cornmeal, baking soda, Diatomaceous Earth, borax, vinegar, club soda, dry or wet molasses, white and powdered sugar, sugar based syrups , bleach, fire torching and many other natural minerals and chemical combinations and products. Then there is the cost-effective factor to consider.
CAUTION: Many chemical combinations could become highly dangerous and toxic and not something we would recommend trying. Plus, items such as bleach, boiling water, or fire torching could very well have a long-lasting unattractive effect on one's lawn, and even harshly effect important garden plants. Unless one is a professional exterminator, be very careful. Fire ants require another more serious approach, often professional.
Since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
While boiling water, is an interesting concept for walkways and driveways, it would extremely difficult to boil enough to penetrate deeply enough flooding the complex underground chambers, especially the Queens. Superficial flooding will just move the ant colony a little farther away.
Yet, of all these great suggestions from thousands of viewer responses, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. After 15-20 minutes deep into the Queen's chamber, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding. But again, this is for newly forming ant hills. Established mounds will be more difficult to eliminate.
Much depends on identifying the type of ant causing problems. Thank goodness, we're only dealing with black carpenter, brown and red ants in our lawn and garden areas. Like most gardeners, we need ants for many helpful reasons, just not in our house. That's when other approaches are required. Fire ants are another matter that also needs more serious and sometimes professional services. We hope this was helpful.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. We wish you, your family and friends a wonderful, healthy and a prolific year gardening and look forward to your future comments. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
You might enjoy access to our free 21-page Directory with active hyperlinks to all of our eclectic experimental garden adventures and video blogs you may have missed, currently 946 and counting.
We even listed by 'Topic of Interest A-Z' to make your searches easier. No Hype, No selling, just us playing in our eclectic experimental gardens .Visit our website or simply send us an email. Add the letters A-Z in your message to us.
Email: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and we''ll send your copy ASAP.
I loved your experiment and the corny commentary! Did you do a follow up days later?
I firmly believe in boric acid&sugar killer for ants. Flip the ratio by using more borax and less sugar in a dry mix, 75-80% boric acid 25-20% sugar. I wear a dust mask and goggles so I won't inhale the powder. I pulse the mix to a coarse powder in a highspeed blender. I sprinkle 3 or 4 Tablespoons on and around very large anthills when I know it will be dry for next 48 hours. 2 or 3 days later, I rake the hill open, no swarming and no activity. I also apply this in the pantry whenever we get an ant invasion. They do not come back...ever.
A little goes a loooooong way! This powder always sticks it to them. The the borax is carried deep into colony. The powder also helps scramble the pheromone trail that they leave.
I love it so much. I carry a tin on picnics and camp outs.
Good morning Lisa. We truly appreciate the thousands of suggestions this video has received. However, since we only have 1/2+ acre, mostly gardens and smaller lawn areas, it much easier for us to keep an eye out for pending problems. We tried having a rational discussion with our ants, but they continue to ignore our requests and feel badly every time we have to address eliminating newly formed ant hills. As much as we appreciate all lifeforms, we do our best to encourage them to move away from our house which is nearest our main lawn areas.
I also misspoke when this video was produced about 6 years ago. I used Borax not powdered Boric Acid. To address the changes we’ve made, we felt we needed to produce an updated version and hope you have a chance to see a later video #951 Update Eliminating Ant Hills: czcams.com/video/14NzdCxdVKM/video.html.
We needed to clarify and update that we are only dealing with little brown, red and black ants, and not fire ants, hopefully moving newly formed ant hills away from destroying our lawn by simply using our garden hose flooding rather than using any home-made recipes or chemicals that could create long-lasting damage to our lawn. This works best for us, and more importantly, protects all of the families with young children and pets who visit and walk through our gardens. So, we cannot leave any chemicals lying around. It’s doubtful that we could ever boil enough hot water anyway.
Hope this was helpful. Since you enjoyed this video, would you like to see more? We'd like to share our free, useful and helpful index guide to all of our garden videos listed by topic of interest, from A-Z. Currently, it's a 21-page Word-doc Directory with direct hotlinks to our first 950 garden videos for easy access, day or night.
Want a free copy? Email me at: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and add 'A-Z' in your message. NOTE: We respect your privacy and do not SPAM or share information provided to us with anyone!
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. Your garden friends from Wisconsin. Lynn & Richard - See all of our latest garden videos on our website: www.WisconsinGarden.com.
Poor pets,since that's dangerous for them
Thanks for the show!
It depends on the kind of ant infestation.
I had an Ant Hill that was more than a foot tall and a foot wide. The ants may have abandoned the ant hill having worked it for too long. But whatever the reason they all left and I recently tried to plant a potato in what used to be the ant hill. It will be a few months before the experiment is done.
I suppose some try to set fire to the ant hill.
Some say to mix powdered sugar with baking soda and spread that around for them. Perhaps the borax works better in this regard.
I tried coffee grounds and this had poor results.
I tried peat moss mixed with turmeric & red pepper which I spread around the Blueberry Bush. For whatever the reason the ants stopped attacking the Blueberry Bush. It had taken them a few months, but presumably the ants were sucking the life out of the Blueberry.
I tried diatomaceous earth and this seems to get a lot of them if there is sunny weather for almost a week.
The chemical poison may work with risks as you have mentioned.
Another gardener claims that he took a shovel load off of one ant pile and put it on another. He may have had to get a shovel load from more than one ant pile to do this. But he showed a video of the results and almost the entire ant nest had disappeared after a few weeks. Apparently the ants from one ant pile fight with the ants from the other ant pile. Perhaps they are defending the queen.
There are gardeners who are shy about hurting ants due to certain beliefs. To avoid hurting the ants they try to spread herbs around to deter the ants. I think they try cinnamon and mint. Coffee grounds may help with this.
The large farms have odd ideas about this.
Thank you for sharing helpful and informative videos!
Hello. Yes, there are several views on this topic. Ants have free range on our property except inside our home and destroying our lawn. As mentioned, we have families with children and pets who often visit our gardens and we do not want any chemical treatments that could cause them harm. The most environmentally friendly method we still prefer is thorough watering. Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. Happy spring. Lynn & Richard. www.WisconsinGarden.com
Great info, thanks!
Good morning FTE. It has been amazing in how many viewers have kindly shared helpful home-remedy methods they have tried eliminating ants, many of which we haven't tested. Prior suggestions have included; dish and bar soaps, boiling water, Terro, essential oils, grits, cornmeal, baking soda, Diatomaceous Earth, borax, vinegar, cane, molasses, white and powdered sugars, hot coffee, coffee grounds. bleach, and many other natural minerals and chemical products to the list. Many would destroy our lawn, and perhaps garden plants.
However, Since we have pets and have many visitors and families with children exploring our gardens, we cannot afford to leave any chemical treatments lying around that may do harm, no matter how effective they may prove to be.
Yet, of all these great suggestions thousands of responses from our viewers, deeply flooding newly formed ant hills works extremely well for us. After 15-20 minutes deep into the Queen's chamber, we monitor that area for any ant movement on an hourly basis and rarely does it need a second flooding. But again, this is for newly forming ant hills. Established mounds will be more difficult to eliminate.
Much depends on identifying the type of ant causing problems. Thank goodness, we're only dealing with black carpenter, brown and red ants in our lawn and garden areas. Like most gardeners, we need ants for many helpful reasons, just not in our house. That's when other approaches are required.
Thank you for watching, caring and sharing. We wish you, your family and friends a wonderful, healthy and a prolific year gardening and look forward to your future comments. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
P.S. You might enjoy access to our free 21-page Word Directory with active hyperlinks to all of our eclectic experimental garden adventures and video blogs you may have missed. Currently 946 and counting. We even listed by 'Topic of Interest A-Z' to make your searches easier. No Hype, No selling, just us playing in our gardens over the years.Visit our website or simply send us an email. Add the letters A-Z in your message to us. Email: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and we''ll send your copy ASAP.
Funny thing about borax, my neighbor came over and dumped it on my huge anthills 2 years ago, no grass growing to date but the ants are back in the same spot! I HIGHLY recommend the way this fine lady did in this video.... NOT just dump it on the hill!
Hi Joan. Yes, one must always be mindful when it comes to chemical treatments of any kind. Of all the ways we chose to eliminate ant hills, other than inside the house, using the garden hose and flooding the ant hill nest deep down into the Queen's chamber has proven to be very reliable. Rarely does an ant hill need a second flooding, especially when you catch the ant hill in it's early formation. Secondly, because of all the families, children and pets that visit our gardens, we have to be extremely careful leaving any chemicals out in the open.
As you probably heard, our website had nearly crashed several times because of bandwidth overload since the Stay-at-Home order began. So, please forgive us if you've already requested our free 21-page list of hyperlinks to our 900+ garden videos listed by Topic of Interest A-Z. So many have already responded, it's getting harder to remember. We probably should have started a list.
If by chance you haven't yet requested your free copy, simply send me an email at: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and we will get it to you as soon as possible.
We continue to wish your family, friends and neighbors to stay healthy and garden smartly. We look forward to all of our future chats as well. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
My red ants like coffee, baking soda, salt, colas, and even D E ! They vacate in the snow season and return in spring. I poured commercial ant killer in the hole and they still returned!
It's time to consider flooding with a garden hose unless it's too close to your house foundation. Even then good burst of flooding can slowly eliminate the colony until you drown the queen. Try it and let us know. Thanks for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard
I would use the shovel of one hill into the other hill. WAR. It works well for aggressive aunt species
You two are just so cute
Thank you Sassy Pants 66. We do have fun together, even when we try to be serious. Thanks for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard
You are so sweet. I have ants and witching the next hour I ‘m headed to boil lots of water. Thank you so much!
Hi Patty Jo Jo. Thank you, you're very kind. With over 12,000 know ant species in the world and nearly 1000 in the USA, sometimes it seems like a scene out of The Walking Dead.
Ants live most everywhere and identifying them wherever you live is common and a good place to start one's research. There are many things and plant materials living and decaying under our soils that invite ant colonies to exist. Once the Queen moves a new colony is born. Once you know what kind of ants you're dealing with is very important. We are not addressing fire ants, that requires a more serious approach. In this video, we were merely sharing ideas of what we have tried for the black carpenter, red and brown ants. So, please forgive the expanded reply we've been sharing with our viewers from this video.
Since ants live and develop into large colonies, they mostly nest underground, inside trees and places where there is a enough living plant material and decaying food sources,
they choose to live in areas close that can easily support their mission to survive and thrive.
We truly value ants and recognize their contributions to our ecosystem and try our best to train them to stay away from certain areas, such as inside our house. We will always co-exist, However, for those ants who continue to misbehave in our specific areas, well, we will have to properly address the problem, often with very severe consequences for those rouge colonies.
Many viewers have kindly shared the ways they approach eliminating ants including; soaps, Terro, essential oils, grits, cornmeal, Baking Soda, Diatomaceous Earth, Borax, Sugars and many other natural minerals and chemical products. It’s great to receive so many great solutions. The more suggestions the better for everyone who has to deal with ant problems.
To date, the most effective method we have found is water, but also realize that many of our viewers live with various water restrictions and sometime have to rely upon chemical treatment. Plus, we often have families with children, and of course our own pets, so we cannot leave any chemicals lying around on our lawn or in our garden areas.
That is why our favorite, all-time method in eliminating ant hills, is the garden hose since we couldn't boil enough hot water to do the job thoroughly. One thorough flooding deeply into the Queen's chamber does the trick. Rarely, do we ever have to have a second flooding or see any ant activity. Since we are in our gardens almost daily, we keep an eye open for new ant hills in the making and address it as soon as possible before it becomes a major problem. Thank goodness they aren't fire ants.
We continue to wish your family, friends and neighbors to stay healthy and garden smartly. We look forward to all of our future chats as well. Your garden friends from www.WisconsinGarden.com - Lynn & Richard
P.S. If you enjoy watching more of our eclectic experimental garden adventures, we'd love to send you a complete list with direct hyperlinks to all of our 900+ garden video blogs listed by Topic of Interest A-Z. If you'd like a free copy visit our website or simply send me an email at: lynn@WisconsinGarden.com. and add the letters A-Z in the subject bar.lynn@WisconsinGarden.com and add the letters A-Z in the subject bar.
good tips I'm from new Orleans and now live in Memphis I now how lots & lots of ants need to try some thing.
Hi John. Richard's favorite method is hose watering as it quickly penetrates deep into the nest channels, floods everything almost instantly and waters the soil deeply. Thanks for watching, caring and sharing. Lynn & Richard