I went out today to do some work in my one main flower bed. Everywhere that I tried to work tons of little red ants would emerge, and, boy they do bite!!!!!!!

What can I do to be rid of them, but, not hurt the soil in my flower bed???????

Thanks,

Marsha in PA--wife to Loren--mother to twelve blessings!!

-- Marsha (Thankful4Jesus@excite.com), April 16, 2002

Answers

You might try scattering bits of citrus peel around -- it works for me as a deterrent. I've also read about using cucumber peels the same way. Look for the nest and pour boiling water on it (this may take several tries).

-- Marcia in MT (marciabundi@myexcel.com), April 16, 2002.

We have fireants in TX, don't know if that is what you have or not. DE is supposed to work, though I haven't got to try it yet. Coke does good. Pour boiling water on them about 10 in the morning. Pour it slow so it goes down into the hill. I use 7-dust sometimes. It just makes them move. Like I just told Amanda, rubbing the bites with peach tree leaves really releives the pain and the bites heal quicker. Robin

-- Robin Downing (Southpawrobin1@aol.com), April 16, 2002.

Go to www.dirtdoctor.com if you want an organic solution to get rid of fire ants.

-- Jodie in TX (stanchnmotion@yahoo.com), April 16, 2002.

If you plant the herb tansy around your flower bed that will keep them away. Plant them around peoneys ants love peoneys.

-- Andrea Wolfe Pennsylvania (lillyleek@yahoo.com), April 16, 2002.

I had some different ants making god awful hills in my yard yesterday so I sprayed them with malathion. There's no ants today. Maybe they'll show up somewhere else. We'll see.

-- Paul (rpm44@centurytel.net), April 16, 2002.

I have lots of fire ants. Take a shovel and go find another nest, some where away from the flower bed. And get a scoop of those ants and dump on the flower bed ants, they kill each other off, I do this several times. No poison to hurt garden.

-- Irene texas (tkorsborn@cs.com), April 16, 2002.

Marsha I don't think you are looking at this the right way. Instead of thinking of ants as a problem, you should be glad that they are there. Ants are the most efficient soil turners on the planet. They loosen and aerate hardpacked ground like nobody's business! Most of the ants you see don't eat your plants - in fact most ants eat other insects. Another bonus for your garden. In the long run, leaving the ants will do a lot more good for your garden than the chemical cocktails I've seen suggested here!

On a slightly different subject - how many of you know what a ladybug larva looks like? When you're pouring on your favorite pesticides, you are probaly destroying one of nature's most helpful garden predators. Adult ladybugs (which a lot of people foolishly spend money on from gardening suppy companies) aren't the ones who eat the pests - their offspring do! The adults usually fly off within days of being dumped into your garden (They go through a complicated mating and resting process where they congregate in masses on large trees - but I won't get into that). Anyway, their larvae, who look kind of like tiny, black, fuzzy caterpillars with a pointed tail and large pincher-like mouth, scurry around on leaves and stems eating every insect they can wrap their mouths around. They are particularly fond of aphids. Sooooo... when you dump pesticide on your garden, you're probably killing thousands of the best friends a garden could have. Think about it!

-- Deborah Stephenson (wonkaandgypsy@hotmail.com), April 17, 2002.

Ants are efficient soil turners.

Fire Ants. Introduce members from one hill to another one, and vice versa. Flora and fauna are fine where expanded territories are benign.

Fire ants are not native to Texas or for that matter anywhere on the north american continent. Napalm? Stll say introduce members from one hill to the other. They'll wipe each other out. IF not? Next hil to the next. War is war.

-- Dennis Enyart (cowboy405@yahoo.com), April 18, 2002.