Ants don't like the smell of fresh mint, so planting it in vegetable patches and flower beds deters ants and other insects while giving your garden a lovely aroma. Minty essential oils from peppermint, wintergreen, geranium, thyme, clove and rosemary work, too! Cornmeal, Boric Acid and coffee
UPDATE: HOLY COW! 2 days ago, I mixed up the Borax - about 1 cup to 1 cup of sugar, added water, then went out there and just plopped big spoonfuls all over the truckload of manure compost that had been colonized. I went and dug around in there with a shovel this morning, and we are down from MILLIONS of ants to several DOZEN ants that don’t look so good!!! THANK YOU for the video Luke - IT WORKED!!!!
I have learned so much from your channel. Im still fairly young, but a bad accident caused me to have to step away from a job I loved. Gardening has helped me cope with my health issues.
There really is no such thing called "accident"=look at it as a higher calling. When I was a teenager I was anorexic and almost died ( I actually had a few of those incidents happen )= I was sent to my mother's cousin on the farm=it saved my life. We need nature and we need to be in nature= but we have just forgotten that=and what is it that we have been told throughout this whole pandemic=spend time in nature. You just turned to the "thing" which actually heals you. Wishing you well.
Praying for you to be healed and for comfort for your heart ❤️ May our GLORIOUS CREATOR ALMIGHTY YAHWEH ❤️ and MESSIAH KING YAHSHUA ❤️ Jesus's real Hebrew NAME that means YAHWEH SAVES ❤️ please bless and keep you ❤️ Asking our Glorious CREATOR ALMIGHTY YAHWEH ❤️ to please bless you ❤️
Our Glorious CREATOR ALMIGHTY YAHWEH ❤️ and MESSIAH KING YAHSHUA ❤️ told us in Psalm 91:14 that HE will rescue all those who love HIM and know HIS NAME ❤️ please watch Jim and Penny Caldwell the real Mt Sinai on RUclips the Caldwells found ALL the Biblical archeological evidence that proves the Bible is the history of the world and that ALMIGHTY YAHWEH ❤️ is our one true CREATOR who loved us his creation very much . ALMIGHTY YAHWEH ❤️ loves you Brother just turn to HIM and ask for your needs , HE hears the thoughts of your heart and HE loves you.
Things happen for a reason. Trust me when I say I had an injury that drove me to my breaking point. And, well I'm glad it did now. Blessings g in all your endeavors. Hope your feeling better.
Are you kidding? I opened my browser to search for how to deal with ants in my raised beds, and a notification for your brand new video popped up! Thank you; your timing is perfect!
I finally had a truckload of manure delivered and dumped in a big pile next to the garden; 2 weeks later (yesterday) when I went to use it in the garden. I discovered it was now a HUGE ant pile. I mean a pickup truck bed sized ant hill!!! Getting out the Borax now...wish me luck.
I also tried the cinnamon and it also worked. They went away once I sprinkled it all around my flower. I created a barrier with it and the next day there was no ants on my cantaloupe plants. I was so happy and amazed! Thank you again!
I really like that Luke finds ways to make your garden inexpensive (a big part of why I grow is the that it does not have to cost alot if you do not want it to).
This definitely works great! Had a pretty severe any problem when we first moved into our home. Spent a bunch of money on chemicals that knocked the problem down but didn't completely get rid of them. Found out about the borax and worked perfectly!
I had a horrible ant problem in my kitchen as soon as the weather warmed this year. They were so desperate for a food source they were in my cabinets, around my fridge - everywhere - and I keep a clean kitchen. No matter how much I cleaned or what methods used, they kept coming. Even my absolute last resort ant spray didn't work! I finally tried the borax and sugar paste. I placed some on a piece of cardboard outside on my windowsill right next to their trail (as I could not locate their colony). I also placed globs of it right next to their trail in several locations. It was amazing to watch them stop in their tracks, turn around, and grab some of it. Some of them were greedy little buggers, lol. I am proud to say I have not seen a single ant in days. It's like they disappeared overnight. TRY THIS!
Great tip Luke. We use the borax and sugar method as well. Since we have a garden cat now we use the container with a lid and a few holes in the side to allow the ants to go in and out of the container. This prevents our cat from getting into it. Thanks for sharing
Actual ant control methods start at 8:46 and include flooding the ant hill with water, covering the ant hill with cinnamon including the opening at the top and a 1:1 thick mix of borax and sugar placed on the ant bed. Too thin and the ants will die before they deliver the mix to the colony.
@@lpmoron6258100%. It’s like everyone wants a 2 minute video with all the info in it without knowing why to do anything. People just want to be robotic and follow in line rather than become educated on the why
I was going to pst the same thing. He took forever to get to the point. Everything was good but I wasn’t looking for a class on gardening. I saw others say borax on other places too. Going to try it
What you want to say is “ 1-part borax + 1-part sugar, mix into a paste so that the borax and the sugar is all together mixed”, then the ants will take “the mixture” back to the hive and feed the queen and the borax mixed with the sugar will kill the queen , just like wasps or bees, you have to kill the queen to kill the hive. I’m 49, not in my 20’s or 30’s, this is how you do it kids. The sugar “attracts” and the Borax “kills”. If you take a piece of sausage, 1 cm, soak it over night in Borax, put on floor near where you see ants, they love fat of any kind too, you will see the mauling the sausage and after a few hours, you will see them gradually disappear because they are either dying or gone home to feed the queen and dying there. Borax is the key ingredient to killing ants and other insects too. If they like sugar, give them sugar with Borax, if they like meat/fat give them borax mixed with it. If they appear in your home, they are most likely to be hungry for sugar or fats/meat. Thank you
I had 2 tomatoes go through vivipary at the same time. I planted them with the outer tomato still there... then forgot about them. No water or nutrients added for a month. Then one day I noticed 2 healthy plants coming from the pot. I decided to move and water it. When I did, a whole colony of ants evacuated the pot, babies, queen and all. It was quite fascinating to see that they had somehow kept those plants alive. Both plants thrived for 2 years and produced many more tomatoes. I'm in a micro climate zone of the SF bay area in CA.
I appreciate that you include in your videos both the cause of a problem, and the solution to the problem in one video. Thanks for all the great information.
This house stood empty for 6 years. They were in all the kitchen cabinets - floor level all the way up to the ceiling cabinets. $1,200.00 pest control treatment before I could move in last July. I reacted to the chemicals, went through about 3 months of itching & breathing issues. Almost overnight 7 or 8 red ant beds appeared along the sidewalk in the yard. Help!!!
I found a suggestion for cornmeal and used it yesterday. (I'm in UK and used polenta). 24 hours later and it's ant Armageddon! Total wipeout! Very pleased. Also cheap and organic.
This is awesome! Thank you Luke for sharing all of your knowledge! I am a new gardener who is learning slowly with a small raised bed. All of your tips for high fruit yield in a small space is great! Thank you for being out there and sharing your love for sustainable gardening.❤
I tried the borax and sugar with water last year. The video I saw said to soak cotton balls and put them in closed containers (Tupperware) with some holes in the bottom so they can go inside and drink the solution. It wasn’t working at all and I thought, well, how the heck are the ants going to carry a drop of the mix back to their queen, so I went to the kitchen, grabbed some panko (or bread crumbs) soaked them in a new prepared mix of sugar, water and borax and then put those in the containers, it worked. I have 4 raised beds, I had the ants in all 4 of them after mulching them, so I wonder if the mulch had ants as I never had issues with them in my garden before? We will see if they come back this season. Some people are saying they are good for your garden, no they are not when they bring their friends aphids with them!
Some want sugar/sweet some want fat (peanut butter or protein (egg yolk?) i mashed egg yolk with 10x and boric acid powder. Made putty balls. It’s got to taste good, they know it when there’s too much borax or boric powder. Less is more. ANY amt of boric is fatal to insects. But it must be in a good they want/smells good to them.
@@minazsunderji1099 I put them in some small cheap Tupperware containers, I made a opening on the bottom side making sure no water will get in but the ants go in. It has worked! I do have to change the panko mixture every 2 days because it dries out and the ants lose interest on it, but after a few days, they are gone. You can pick up the containers and move them while you water and then put them back. I have drip irrigation on my raise beds. Good luck!
That squash looks lovely behind you. I know you’re busy but I’d like a video of you running around the garden just showing off the stuff you’re growing and how beautiful it all is!
Luke, you can also put dry grits on the hill. The ants will take their bounty back to the colony and the queen. They will all eat it, drink water and die from exploding. I use it iny garden to fight off fire ants. They are gone now, but I am sure they will visit again, next spring.
That is not at all how ants eat. Ants take the grits back to their colony intact and will grow fungus and bacteria on the grits. Then the ants eat the fungi and bacteria. Now it could be that the fungi and bacteria which grow on the grits is disruptive to whatever else they were farming, but there is definitely no ant exploding going on.
@@JaniceCrowell yes, I do it every spring. You can sprinkle them on the mound and watch them come out and get it right away. If you go back to that mound in a week, it will be dead.
@@franklandry5864 hello, I'm curious... Do you live in a dry climate area? I'm glad it worked for you but maybe it would help us all to gain more understanding. Thanks 😊
Your cinnamon ant-secticide worked beautifully! I had a gazillion ants in my porch steps. I tried the borax-sugar bait first, but that didn’t seem to work. So I just poured cinnamon over the area on a dry day when there was no rain predicted for a few days. I haven’t seen any ants now in more than a week. Thanks for the great advice. I’ve learned a lot from your channel these past few isolating months and am hoping for a great harvest this year, G-d willing.
@@jessee7334 He said the cinnamon only works if the ants were going after a fungus foodsource, I guess yours weren't.. So in that case if I understood him aright, Borax ought to do the trick for you.
I mixed powdered sugar with borax (50/50). I didn't add any water and watched the ants carry big chunks of the borax granules down into their colony. Next day, ants where gone.
Having a hard time trying to get them to get the borax into the nest. I tried dissolving with sugar, I tried making a dough, both with wheat and rice flour. When you said powdered sugar, you meant confectioner's sugar right?
@@nunyabiznes33 Powdered Borax is large granules. The powdered or confectioner's sugar sticks to the outside of the borax granules, making them sweet. You don't need to put any in the hole, just sprinkle it around, dry. The worker/gatherer ants take the sweetened poison into the nest eventually killing most of the colony and the queen ant. Once the queen ant is dead, the rest abandon the nest and look for another queen to set up a new home. P.S. If it rains on the sugar coated Borax, you'll have to re-apply.
Reason #5 painful bites. I have heard these methods before, but you explain the why and how better than anyone else I have read or heard/seen. Thank you for adding the details.
Came across this video!! Thanks so much! I tried the cinnamon for around my strawberries (along with an outdoor ant trap) and they disappeared! Also used the cinnamon in some shaded flower beds that got a nasty mold on top (as per a fellow gardeners suggestion) I would've never thought something that usually sits in the pantry could be soooo beneficial to our garden! Thanks Luke!!
Thank you for this super informative video! I've been battling a colony for 2 years now in my front flower bed. I've tried so many things (and bought a few things) I tried borax and sugar in the container with holes but that didn't work last summer. So frustrating. Tonight I poured boiling water on them then came inside and found your video. I immediately made the paste and went out to drizzle it and realized that the hot water agitated them and they were all coming out of the entrances! Good timing I hope!
I can't believe how fast cinnamon did the trick! This was in a potted herb plant, mind you, so I'm keeping an eye on it, but within five minutes of sprinkling it on my soil the ants dispersed. Thanks bro!
Thank you for the great tips. Something else I use on ants is diatomaceous earth and it works on other pests as well. I mix it with sugar for ant control in the house and garden with 100 percent success.
I've used borax and sugar to effectively get rid of ants for years. BUT what you forgot to mention in this video is that, while borax is natural, borax is also poisonous to animals and humans if ingested. I don't recommend sprinkling it around, or pouring it in your garden as a liquid. What I do to ensure everyone is safe is I spread the borax and sugar paste inside toilet paper rolls and put them in the pathway of the ants. If you have small critters then I recommend putting a mesh cage around this so they won't get hold of the rolls. The ants can still get through the cage, but everyone else is kept safe. The ants will swarm the rolls because they are attracted to the sugar. Let them do that. You WANT them to swarm the rolls and then take the sugar/borax mix back to their queen. Once the queen dies, the nest moves on to a new location. Borax works in a second way. It is a desiccant, so it dries out the ants after they have walked all over the paste.
Any idea is a good idea if it gets rid of the ants. If I may add to this, I've just planted a Fushia I bought, in a freshly cleaned ceramic pot. (When emptying it I discovered a mass of ants & flying ants all in the bottom, hence coming on here for thoughts on how to get rid of them next time around). The pot is large & heavy once the soil is in, so prior to that I prepared my ant preparation & put it in a small glass dish I had (bought as a dessert when shopping!) but any small dish will do. I always stand my plant pots on 'feet' from the garden centre to lift it off the ground so the gap underneath was big enough to slide the glass dish under, as well as for drainage. I should add I put a piece of mesh over the drainage hole to try & put the ants off but not so excess water can't get out.... Who knows if this will work but we'll see!
@@annedwards358 there are different forms of the substance that are processed different or have certain additional/ chemical make ups. Just because the name is the same, does not mean it is the same where it can be used in the same manner. Boron and borax are not the same thing and not safe for human consumption. They have the same basic chemical structure, but borax is processed different and has different salts etc. Which can and will do some damage if consumed.
The way to stop mildew is, for your plant to have enough calcium, which means it will produce calcium pectate in its interstitial layers instead of water in its interstitial layers so that, if your plant is producing enough pectin then your mildew will dry up. Now deficiencies can be due to the roots of the plants being incapable of taking up whatever substance they are lacking due to root damag hte problem might be with your plants roots,, maybe a young plant. Also, the uptake of calcium is greatly increases if you have amino acids in the soil which open up the channels in the plant that calcium can use to move around your plant. So, the answer is not so much to add calcium as to add amino acids or I suppose, to have plenty of worms and microbes in your soil whose bodies fill the soil with amino acids. Another factor that determines a good uptake of calcium is an adequate air supply which will encourage respiration of the plant, the movement of water through the plant being a pump for taking calcium into the plant. Also. too much nitrogen creats weak growth, big cells with thin cell walls whihc facilitate the apearance of molds. I owe this information to Harley Smith's videos, which give a lot of very interesting information on plants.
I use borax, sugar and a small drizzle of honey. It combines into a paste in awhile. Then I put it into used water bottles, cap the top and cut a little hole in the side so ants can get in but rain stays (mostly) out. This prevents the borax paste from seeping into the soil and keeps the mix useful longer. Borax in large enough quantity can hurt your plants so you want to be careful with it.
I always watch these tips on plants or life or whatever in 1.5x to 2x speed!😅 However I actually had to switch it to normal for your channel and could only make it faster to 1.25x speed!😅 I really loved it. I even watch the whole video, and learnt a lot. Didn't just jump into your solution and try applying them! Loved it. So interesting. It's just me though, no disrespect for anyone, everyone has their own rhythm and that's wonderful. Thanks for the tips. I'll actually try them both. Cinnamon to treat the plants with fungal problems and borax for get rid of the ants from the house! 😊
Thank you for giving detailed instructions on how to use the cinnamon and borax. Incredibly helpful! I’ve been trying to flood an ant colony out of my 5 gallon planter and after the 5th time they haven’t taken the hint.
The aphids thing blew my mind !!!!!!! I knew almost everything else but that was both mind blowing and funny ! Waw ! Super informative video ! Thank you !
Boric acid instead of Borax (not the same thing). Also, some ant colonies are attracted to protein, some to sugar. Unless you know which one the colony prefers, make two pastes. One with boric acid and sugar and one with boric acid and peanut butter.
That McCormick jar of cinnamon probably costs about $6. You're sprinkling it on ants, you do not need high-quality cinnamon, that same thing is maybe $1 at Walmart.
I’ve got some ants farming aphids this year. They’ve really taken a liking to my volunteer borage plants. At first it was kind of a neat to watch, but then they start getting a little out hand and need to be delt with. Essentially, it’s farming as we know it, just on a smaller level. I’m still trying to find there where they’ve taken up residence, so I’ve only been able to take the out a branch at a time. Lol! 🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜
Perfect! I never had any success in wiping out an ant hive with the sugar and borax. Now I know that mine was too liquid. I will definitely try the paste next time! Thanks for the tip 😁
Try powdered sugar with borax, 50/50. Don't add water. The powdered sugar sticks to the borax granules and the ants haul it into their colony. Works great.
Thanks for the tips . I have heard about sugar and Borax but that little detail of adding water was missing. I have been doing this wrong for years. Now I know why it wasn’t effective. I’m so thankful for your help today and knowledge!
What about concrete ants? They have a ton of ant holes along concrete seams, cracks etc? Can you just put a dollop beside each hole? Not sure how to find the main source/hill.
I'd run it right in the crack if it were me. Cut a tiny piece off the corner of a ziplock bag, then fill the bag and squeeze it like a pastry tube. Get it right in the crack or seam.
@@daringfawn6958 Not completely true! Usually, a worker ant is sterile. Only in certain exotic species will a worker ant morph. (That's why his colony is so cool!)
Doesn't work for subterranean termites. Termite queens emit a pheromone that temporarily sterilizes the workers. When a group of workers (male and female) get separated, or the colony expands far enough outward, new kings and queens are promoted.
I found a video saying something about aphids liking plants that were given too much nitrogen. Have you heard anything? Its from a permaculture guy, runs an orchard up in Canada.
AnimeShinigami13 it’s not true. The ants put them on everything. Has nothing to do with nitrogen. Two plants they love in my garden is my lettuce and my beans. I spray my beans with the jet on my hose and wash the aphids off killing a lot of them but this year the borax war will be on. I use molasses with mine in the house, gonna try that outside!
agreed: Ants are actually beneficial and an indicator of garden-destroying bugs around your plants. They're wrongfully considered pests. Yes, they eat some of the root fungus, but so do other insects like several beetle families, the Erotylidae, Endomychidae, certain Tenebrionidae, fungus gnats and scuttle flies. Ants prey on these fungus eating bugs, so ants cause more good than harm by maintaining a low number of these real pests. If your plants are depleted of nutrients, it is likely that other bugs are munching on their roots - not just ants.
@@AlexGallegos I've actually heard by adding ant colonies to your garden, you can reduce risk of root rot. Due to the fact you mentioned earlier regarding their taste for fungi.
Great video! I knew some one who had huge lumps of concrete for their drive way, I mean enough for 4 cars. Part of that drive way had drain inspection holes and heavily fortified with chalky, immensely dry clay soil around it to a huge degree. The ants had colonies way way underneath the concrete, creating hundreds of colonies front and rear of their property. No ant powder, water, ant gel, or any other ant killer was not going to keep them away. After many years, constantly hammering away at the ants trails, crevices, trying to kill hem off they actually increased and if a window was left open they went in. The ants was small black ants, which was around all the neighbouring gardens, some worse than others. It was a perfect area to nest, and nothing was going to defeat them, and nothing did work to get the population down even after regular daily ant poisons.
THANK YOU!!!! Never thought of applying directly to or near the hill. At this time I wish the ants were in my garden and not my kitchen. I tested your borax recipe (the watery one) last night and was AMAZED at the amount I found in the trap I made (at least 4 times what I was catching with dawn and sugar and water). Gonna mix that paste later today and put in little cups all over where I see the little buggers.
keep the mixture away from your plants - borax is also used as a foliage killer. Use a clear soda bottle with hold large enough only for ants. Leave plenty of room for rain or watering so the bottle doesn't overflow. Replace every few weeks.
Thanks for explaining how these methods work. I've tried and it worked effectively in the house, but am now trying it on the nest outside. I need to put more. Your channel is so helpful! Just bought a home and taking care of the lawn myself is a learning experience. 🙂
Learned so much and just in time. Found ants in garden yesterday, and day before had a premonition as I was shopping to buy a box of Borax. Am battle ready now with your info.
Shirley wow! You must have a brain! I can’t believe the dumb comments on here from people. I’ve been using that for years too and food grade is great! The borax works too and I mix mine with molasses. Nice and thick and they can’t resist it!
@@daleval2182 Thanks Dale for the info....I will consider that and research for next time...I bought two 50# bags when I bought this time for food grade and won't need any for a while....LOL...TY for taking the time to write.
Hi there! I am wanting to use the borax method on my garden. Unfortunately, its a 2800 sq ft no-till garden we covered with wood chips so I have no way of finding the source or anthills. Could you please suggest how I use the borax in such a large area with no solid idea of where they are?
Yikes that sounds dificult :/ if you're still able to plant in it, I would say, companion planting might be an option to deter, but don't know how much it would do in destroying a colony. I have read some commenters having success with feeding ants cornmeal. Apparently they can't digest it. Maybe sprinkle some non-gmo cornmeal or instant grits liberally all over the garden and hope it kills them?
You can put the containers of borax solution anywhere in their path and they will come to it. I had one on my kitchen counter. It was fun to watch. More and more ant came over several days and then there were no more in less than a week and I haven’t seen them in five years!
L J : I just sprayed the whole terrace and cleaned it thoroughly with dish soap.. it needed a good clean anyway. The were running up the wall but got them too. Hopefully it’s working they were running from one side to another in front of my door
Thanks so much - I found a huge ant colony cleaning out a couple of beds. I went to my local garden store and asked for a chem free solution to the problem and he couldn’t tell me a thing! Found this video and 3 out of four grocery stores didn’t have any borax… lol!! They were sold out of borax! But made the paste and and applied to two spots and found a third … I don’t like to kill anything but not having to use harsh chemicals made it a little less challenging. The activity seemed to stop within an hour. Though I am concerned about other bugs and worms. So will be removing excess paste on the ground. But thanks for this video!
Great info Luke. We've always used Terror brand liquid bait, but I'm going to give your recipe a try after hearing about using a paste vs liquid bait. We just constructed beautiful garden boxes and having ants move in would be a nightmare for us. I've had them colonize plant pots in my can yard and kill plants before. I call them aphid ranchers around here, moving their herd of aphids from spot to spot.
I found coffee grounds work well too. Like I had ants invading my pepper plant, but then I put the coffee grounds and the ants haven’t come back yet! 😊 like the Black worker ants
Hello, I have a 2 or 3 year old fig tree in the ground, (zone 8b Texas Hill country) that had been looking sick until recently. I've noticed that I also now have an ant colony near the bass of the tree, looks like fire ants, surely they're tunneling around the root system. I was thinking I need to somehow get rid of them right away however the tree is also looking fabulous all of a sudden. do you suppose that the ant colony may have done anything beneficial? perhaps helping to beat back some root rot or disease going on down there? the tree was pretty well rootbound when I bought it from the nursery.
Well I found a way to nearly wipe out fire ants. It only works in places you don't want anything to grow. But if they're in the middle of the yard, boiling pots of water right down their holes. First get them riled up and they send a lot of ants to protect the colony. Once they are all riled, start slowly pouring the boiling water into their hill. I did this in the same area for 3 days and then they were no where to be found from there. But your grass will turn yellow for a few days and then new grass grown back in nice and green.
Have tried the cinnamon before with no success (ants invading my planters), but will possibly try again due to them tunneling under my new hydrangea :( The borax solution also looks like a good option, so thank you for the tips!
Amazed to find this today! Only yesterday, I found ants in my sugar peas! That's what has been making those tiny holes in the leaves. I have borax on my laundry shelf and sugar in the kitchen. Tomorrow those ants move out!
More than likely those tiny holes are made by aphids who are kept by ants like people keep dairy cows. Ants will carry aphids to a food source and the aphids will then eat the plant material and then sweat nectar that the ants then gather and eat. You will be able to get rid of the ants but the aphids will keep eating your peas. I suggest you go on line and search for ladybugs. You can usually buy a few thousand at a time for perhaps $25-$40 depending on who you deal with and how much you buy. I got 5000 for $25 last year from a dealer on eBay. They didn't hang around after they ate all the aphids but without the ants (which I killed) there was nobody to bring aphids into my garden. They can manage to find their way back eventually but that might take an entire year for them. Lady bugs will crawl and fly in an outward spiraling search pattern hunting and eating aphids as they go. One lady bug can eat hundreds of them every day so five thousand can clear a few acres of aphids in a matter of days or weeks.
Pour boiling water on the ant hill (won't kill all of the ants), then pour comet cleanser on the ant hill and like magic they're all gone. If you do this on all of your ant hills you won't have any more problems with fire ants.
I plan to make raised beds using hugulkulture. I recently found a carpenter ant colony that is close to where I will be putting my raised beds. Is there some way I can solve this potential problem while I am building the hugulkulture bed? I live in a very dry region at 8400 ft.
@6:48 - Find their colony (locate the source)
@8:36 - Flooding
@9:08 - Cinnamon
@11:01 - Borax & Sugar
THANK YOU! Shee! I appreciate the advice, but MAN... cut to the chase buddy!
I use to like him but golly I am tired of the hour long lessons.
@@sharonabner3156 the longer the video the more advertising money
@@kathysahagian7478 BINGO
Ants don't like the smell of fresh mint, so planting it in vegetable patches and flower beds deters ants and other insects while giving your garden a lovely aroma. Minty essential oils from peppermint, wintergreen, geranium, thyme, clove and rosemary work, too! Cornmeal, Boric Acid and coffee
UPDATE: HOLY COW! 2 days ago, I mixed up the Borax - about 1 cup to 1 cup of sugar, added water, then went out there and just plopped big spoonfuls all over the truckload of manure compost that had been colonized. I went and dug around in there with a shovel this morning, and we are down from MILLIONS of ants to several DOZEN ants that don’t look so good!!! THANK YOU for the video Luke - IT WORKED!!!!
×we ww we××
I have learned so much from your channel. Im still fairly young, but a bad accident caused me to have to step away from a job I loved. Gardening has helped me cope with my health issues.
There really is no such thing called "accident"=look at it as a higher calling. When I was a teenager I was anorexic and almost died ( I actually had a few of those incidents happen )= I was sent to my mother's cousin on the farm=it saved my life. We need nature and we need to be in nature= but we have just forgotten that=and what is it that we have been told throughout this whole pandemic=spend time in nature. You just turned to the "thing" which actually heals you. Wishing you well.
Praying for you to be healed and for comfort for your heart ❤️ May our GLORIOUS CREATOR ALMIGHTY YAHWEH ❤️ and MESSIAH KING YAHSHUA ❤️ Jesus's real Hebrew NAME that means YAHWEH SAVES ❤️ please bless and keep you ❤️ Asking our Glorious CREATOR ALMIGHTY YAHWEH ❤️ to please bless you ❤️
Our Glorious CREATOR ALMIGHTY YAHWEH ❤️ and MESSIAH KING YAHSHUA ❤️ told us in Psalm 91:14 that HE will rescue all those who love HIM and know HIS NAME ❤️ please watch Jim and Penny Caldwell the real Mt Sinai on RUclips the Caldwells found ALL the Biblical archeological evidence that proves the Bible is the history of the world and that ALMIGHTY YAHWEH ❤️ is our one true CREATOR who loved us his creation very much . ALMIGHTY YAHWEH ❤️ loves you Brother just turn to HIM and ask for your needs , HE hears the thoughts of your heart and HE loves you.
But you still need to love yourself 💗
Things happen for a reason. Trust me when I say I had an injury that drove me to my breaking point. And, well I'm glad it did now. Blessings g in all your endeavors. Hope your feeling better.
Are you kidding? I opened my browser to search for how to deal with ants in my raised beds, and a notification for your brand new video popped up! Thank you; your timing is perfect!
SherylLovesTravel That’s because google is eavesdropping all the time
God’s timing is perfect, even in regards to small things :)
Google is reading our minds 😳😳
@@dylbrody9666 And listening to everything we say. Big brother is watching our every move.
8:33 He states the methods
1. Flood them out
2. Cinnamon
3. Borax
Thank you!
Geeze. 8 minutes in before he gets to it.
Thanks
He totally does, but I sort enjoy it in between being annoyed. He gives us such amazing information by the I leave feeling it was worth it
I find that diatomaceous earth around the house foundation is very effective....as is boric acid powder inside the home.
I finally had a truckload of manure delivered and dumped in a big pile next to the garden; 2 weeks later (yesterday) when I went to use it in the garden. I discovered it was now a HUGE ant pile. I mean a pickup truck bed sized ant hill!!! Getting out the Borax now...wish me luck.
Yikes! Good luck!
I do wish you luck :-). Maybe cover the heap with Diatomaceous Earth.
I also tried the cinnamon and it also worked. They went away once I sprinkled it all around my flower. I created a barrier with it and the next day there was no ants on my cantaloupe plants. I was so happy and amazed! Thank you again!
Hahahaha!
How did you do it
I really like that Luke finds ways to make your garden inexpensive (a big part of why I grow is the that it does not have to cost alot if you do not want it to).
This definitely works great! Had a pretty severe any problem when we first moved into our home. Spent a bunch of money on chemicals that knocked the problem down but didn't completely get rid of them. Found out about the borax and worked perfectly!
I had a horrible ant problem in my kitchen as soon as the weather warmed this year. They were so desperate for a food source they were in my cabinets, around my fridge - everywhere - and I keep a clean kitchen. No matter how much I cleaned or what methods used, they kept coming. Even my absolute last resort ant spray didn't work! I finally tried the borax and sugar paste. I placed some on a piece of cardboard outside on my windowsill right next to their trail (as I could not locate their colony). I also placed globs of it right next to their trail in several locations. It was amazing to watch them stop in their tracks, turn around, and grab some of it. Some of them were greedy little buggers, lol. I am proud to say I have not seen a single ant in days. It's like they disappeared overnight.
TRY THIS!
Great tip Luke. We use the borax and sugar method as well. Since we have a garden cat now we use the container with a lid and a few holes in the side to allow the ants to go in and out of the container. This prevents our cat from getting into it.
Thanks for sharing
W
@@maryday310 R
I appreciate the background info. If you just get the synopsis, you may miss important details. And he is such a cutie!
Actual ant control methods start at 8:46 and include flooding the ant hill with water, covering the ant hill with cinnamon including the opening at the top and a 1:1 thick mix of borax and sugar placed on the ant bed. Too thin and the ants will die before they deliver the mix to the colony.
He definitely rambles 🤣
@@88Donyes, but it helps to know the why's and how's.
@@lpmoron6258100%. It’s like everyone wants a 2 minute video with all the info in it without knowing why to do anything. People just want to be robotic and follow in line rather than become educated on the why
I was going to pst the same thing.
He took forever to get to the point. Everything was good but I wasn’t looking for a class on gardening.
I saw others say borax on other places too. Going to try it
What you want to say is “ 1-part borax + 1-part sugar, mix into a paste so that the borax and the sugar is all together mixed”, then the ants will take “the mixture” back to the hive and feed the queen and the borax mixed with the sugar will kill the queen , just like wasps or bees, you have to kill the queen to kill the hive. I’m 49, not in my 20’s or 30’s, this is how you do it kids. The sugar “attracts” and the Borax “kills”. If you take a piece of sausage, 1 cm, soak it over night in Borax, put on floor near where you see ants, they love fat of any kind too, you will see the mauling the sausage and after a few hours, you will see them gradually disappear because they are either dying or gone home to feed the queen and dying there. Borax is the key ingredient to killing ants and other insects too. If they like sugar, give them sugar with Borax, if they like meat/fat give them borax mixed with it. If they appear in your home, they are most likely to be hungry for sugar or fats/meat. Thank you
I like this. Thank you. Why can't we copy/paste this but we can screenshot to save at least.
Great info. Thanks.
I wonder what you're like in bed.
abnoxious .YOU SOUND VERY VERY !!!!!!
L Lk
This guys is gonna survive the apocalypse
Currently lol
We'll know for sure after the election this November.
Lol not with them weak gates
...and another (may God forbid) pandemic).
And what do you think now?
I had 2 tomatoes go through vivipary at the same time. I planted them with the outer tomato still there... then forgot about them. No water or nutrients added for a month. Then one day I noticed 2 healthy plants coming from the pot. I decided to move and water it. When I did, a whole colony of ants evacuated the pot, babies, queen and all. It was quite fascinating to see that they had somehow kept those plants alive. Both plants thrived for 2 years and produced many more tomatoes. I'm in a micro climate zone of the SF bay area in CA.
Been watching your channel for years and years! You never let me down when I have questions
Ooo
I appreciate that you include in your videos both the cause of a problem, and the solution to the problem in one video. Thanks for all the great information.
I also appreciate his discussions.
This house stood empty for 6 years. They were in all the kitchen cabinets - floor level all the way up to the ceiling cabinets. $1,200.00 pest control treatment before I could move in last July. I reacted to the chemicals, went through about 3 months of itching & breathing issues.
Almost overnight 7 or 8 red ant beds appeared along the sidewalk in the yard. Help!!!
I found a suggestion for cornmeal and used it yesterday. (I'm in UK and used polenta). 24 hours later and it's ant Armageddon! Total wipeout! Very pleased. Also cheap and organic.
Did you mix it with borax or anything else? Or just cornmeal?
@@FloridaGirl-I used the corn flour. I believe it's called massa in the Mexican food section. It's pretty fine. .
This is awesome! Thank you Luke for sharing all of your knowledge! I am a new gardener who is learning slowly with a small raised bed. All of your tips for high fruit yield in a small space is great! Thank you for being out there and sharing your love for sustainable gardening.❤
You know this is the first youtube video that truly tells you how to get rid of ants that I seen.
I tried the borax and sugar with water last year. The video I saw said to soak cotton balls and put them in closed containers (Tupperware) with some holes in the bottom so they can go inside and drink the solution. It wasn’t working at all and I thought, well, how the heck are the ants going to carry a drop of the mix back to their queen, so I went to the kitchen, grabbed some panko (or bread crumbs) soaked them in a new prepared mix of sugar, water and borax and then put those in the containers, it worked. I have 4 raised beds, I had the ants in all 4 of them after mulching them, so I wonder if the mulch had ants as I never had issues with them in my garden before? We will see if they come back this season. Some people are saying they are good for your garden, no they are not when they bring their friends aphids with them!
AWESOME IDEA!!! Then as the panko goes down you have confirmation that the bait is being taken to the Queen!!
Great idea. This is now on my to try list. Thank you.
Some want sugar/sweet some want fat (peanut butter or protein (egg yolk?) i mashed egg yolk with 10x and boric acid powder. Made putty balls. It’s got to taste good, they know it when there’s too much borax or boric powder. Less is more. ANY amt of boric is fatal to insects. But it must be in a good they want/smells good to them.
A quick question how do you water your raised beds after putting the mixture on the soil. Do we have to wait few days to water our plants?
@@minazsunderji1099 I put them in some small cheap Tupperware containers, I made a opening on the bottom side making sure no water will get in but the ants go in. It has worked! I do have to change the panko mixture every 2 days because it dries out and the ants lose interest on it, but after a few days, they are gone. You can pick up the containers and move them while you water and then put them back. I have drip irrigation on my raise beds. Good luck!
62 ants disliked this video
That squash looks lovely behind you. I know you’re busy but I’d like a video of you running around the garden just showing off the stuff you’re growing and how beautiful it all is!
Luke, you can also put dry grits on the hill. The ants will take their bounty back to the colony and the queen. They will all eat it, drink water and die from exploding. I use it iny garden to fight off fire ants. They are gone now, but I am sure they will visit again, next spring.
That is not at all how ants eat. Ants take the grits back to their colony intact and will grow fungus and bacteria on the grits. Then the ants eat the fungi and bacteria. Now it could be that the fungi and bacteria which grow on the grits is disruptive to whatever else they were farming, but there is definitely no ant exploding going on.
interesting.
I heard this one was a myth. Have you done it?
@@JaniceCrowell yes, I do it every spring. You can sprinkle them on the mound and watch them come out and get it right away. If you go back to that mound in a week, it will be dead.
@@franklandry5864 hello, I'm curious... Do you live in a dry climate area? I'm glad it worked for you but maybe it would help us all to gain more understanding. Thanks 😊
Your cinnamon ant-secticide worked beautifully! I had a gazillion ants in my porch steps. I tried the borax-sugar bait first, but that didn’t seem to work. So I just poured cinnamon over the area on a dry day when there was no rain predicted for a few days. I haven’t seen any ants now in more than a week. Thanks for the great advice. I’ve learned a lot from your channel these past few isolating months and am hoping for a great harvest this year, G-d willing.
Did absolutely nothing for me. I dumped cinnamon all over the ants themselves. They didn't mind a bit.
@@jessee7334 He said the cinnamon only works if the ants were going after a fungus foodsource, I guess yours weren't..
So in that case if I understood him aright, Borax ought to do the trick for you.
@@jessee7334 he said no ‘Willy nilly’
Aww so :
I didn’t worry much about ants 🐜 in the garden until I saw them attacking my worms. Then it was war. 😡
I mixed powdered sugar with borax (50/50). I didn't add any water and watched the ants carry big chunks of the borax granules down into their colony. Next day, ants where gone.
Thanks :-)!!! I actually see why that works, got to use *powdered sugar*!
That is what I use. Much easier than making a paste but this year is a bad ant year, I might use both in different areas.
Having a hard time trying to get them to get the borax into the nest. I tried dissolving with sugar, I tried making a dough, both with wheat and rice flour. When you said powdered sugar, you meant confectioner's sugar right?
Do you mean boric acid of borax because boric acid and borax are different products.
@@nunyabiznes33 Powdered Borax is large granules. The powdered or confectioner's sugar sticks to the outside of the borax granules, making them sweet. You don't need to put any in the hole, just sprinkle it around, dry. The worker/gatherer ants take the sweetened poison into the nest eventually killing most of the colony and the queen ant. Once the queen ant is dead, the rest abandon the nest and look for another queen to set up a new home.
P.S. If it rains on the sugar coated Borax, you'll have to re-apply.
Reason #5 painful bites.
I have heard these methods before, but you explain the why and how better than anyone else I have read or heard/seen.
Thank you for adding the details.
I imported a couple anteaters from south america. It did set me back 22,000 at the end of everything but the ants are outgunned and kept in check now.
hahahaha!!!!
That escalated quickly😂😂😂
Came across this video!! Thanks so much! I tried the cinnamon for around my strawberries (along with an outdoor ant trap) and they disappeared! Also used the cinnamon in some shaded flower beds that got a nasty mold on top (as per a fellow gardeners suggestion) I would've never thought something that usually sits in the pantry could be soooo beneficial to our garden! Thanks Luke!!
Thank you for this super informative video! I've been battling a colony for 2 years now in my front flower bed. I've tried so many things (and bought a few things) I tried borax and sugar in the container with holes but that didn't work last summer. So frustrating. Tonight I poured boiling water on them then came inside and found your video. I immediately made the paste and went out to drizzle it and realized that the hot water agitated them and they were all coming out of the entrances! Good timing I hope!
This dude friggin rocks 🎸 bout to send these ants a house warming gift
I wipe them out so effectively with diatomaceous earth. Also, powder my dogs at the first sign of fleas. Once does it. That stuff is my BFF.
Thanks for the info. How do you apply it? I have ants attacking the tomato stems in my raised bed.
Effective. Not affective. Thank you for all your videos...just love them and I learn so much.
1 Ant has disliked this video...
😂😂😂💀
Oh no! Now there are 22! This may become an infestation!
Time for natural pest control! 💞
@@smiller2114 lol
Maybe it didn’t have 7+ minutes to wait to hear how to take itself out
Now 75..Lol
Use Hot-HOT HOT WATER to mix the sugar and Borax. Causes them to combine better.
I can't believe how fast cinnamon did the trick! This was in a potted herb plant, mind you, so I'm keeping an eye on it, but within five minutes of sprinkling it on my soil the ants dispersed. Thanks bro!
Thank you for the great tips. Something else I use on ants is diatomaceous earth and it works on other pests as well. I mix it with sugar for ant control in the house and garden with 100 percent success.
Do you also add water to that mixture or just dust it across the top of the pile?
@@englishcoleman9145 I don't mix it with water. In fact if it rains, I will reapply.
Thank you
Fast forward to 8:20 if you want to hear the content. The comments before then is just to kill time.
Some of you say he talks too much... but I just want to say I truly appreciate all the information! 🤷♀️
I've used borax and sugar to effectively get rid of ants for years. BUT what you forgot to mention in this video is that, while borax is natural, borax is also poisonous to animals and humans if ingested. I don't recommend sprinkling it around, or pouring it in your garden as a liquid. What I do to ensure everyone is safe is I spread the borax and sugar paste inside toilet paper rolls and put them in the pathway of the ants. If you have small critters then I recommend putting a mesh cage around this so they won't get hold of the rolls. The ants can still get through the cage, but everyone else is kept safe. The ants will swarm the rolls because they are attracted to the sugar. Let them do that. You WANT them to swarm the rolls and then take the sugar/borax mix back to their queen. Once the queen dies, the nest moves on to a new location. Borax works in a second way. It is a desiccant, so it dries out the ants after they have walked all over the paste.
Any idea is a good idea if it gets rid of the ants. If I may add to this, I've just planted a Fushia I bought, in a freshly cleaned ceramic pot. (When emptying it I discovered a mass of ants & flying ants all in the bottom, hence coming on here for thoughts on how to get rid of them next time around). The pot is large & heavy once the soil is in, so prior to that I prepared my ant preparation & put it in a small glass dish I had (bought as a dessert when shopping!) but any small dish will do. I always stand my plant pots on 'feet' from the garden centre to lift it off the ground so the gap underneath was big enough to slide the glass dish under, as well as for drainage. I should add I put a piece of mesh over the drainage hole to try & put the ants off but not so excess water can't get out.... Who knows if this will work but we'll see!
Oops, just reread my piece....No! I do not buy 'glass' to eat....It was a Crème Brûlée & very nice it was too!!...sorry...
borax is branded form of boron. you can purchase a bottle of boron capsules from natural health stores. it is not toxic to humans
@@annedwards358 there are different forms of the substance that are processed different or have certain additional/ chemical make ups. Just because the name is the same, does not mean it is the same where it can be used in the same manner. Boron and borax are not the same thing and not safe for human consumption. They have the same basic chemical structure, but borax is processed different and has different salts etc. Which can and will do some damage if consumed.
@@kathryncastanares525 plus it only works for household purposes NOT garden. This guy's a tool
What if you can't find where they are coming from? I only see them in the soil when I pull up my radishes 🤷
The way to stop mildew is, for your plant to have enough calcium, which means it will produce calcium pectate in its interstitial layers instead of water in its interstitial layers so that, if your plant is producing enough pectin then your mildew will dry up.
Now deficiencies can be due to the roots of the plants being incapable of taking up whatever substance they are lacking due to root damag hte problem might be with your plants roots,, maybe a young plant.
Also, the uptake of calcium is greatly increases if you have amino acids in the soil which open up the channels in the plant that calcium can use to move around your plant. So, the answer is not so much to add calcium as to add amino acids or I suppose, to have plenty of worms and microbes in your soil whose bodies fill the soil with amino acids.
Another factor that determines a good uptake of calcium is an adequate air supply which will encourage respiration of the plant, the movement of water through the plant being a pump for taking calcium into the plant.
Also. too much nitrogen creats weak growth, big cells with thin cell walls whihc facilitate the apearance of molds.
I owe this information to Harley Smith's videos, which give a lot of very interesting information on plants.
Came to your channel today because I knew I'd find the answer to what I encountered in raised bed today!
To locate their home, look for ants with swollen bottoms. They are heading back to the colony. (Saw that on another video. Credit to them.)
Thanks.
I use borax, sugar and a small drizzle of honey. It combines into a paste in awhile. Then I put it into used water bottles, cap the top and cut a little hole in the side so ants can get in but rain stays (mostly) out. This prevents the borax paste from seeping into the soil and keeps the mix useful longer. Borax in large enough quantity can hurt your plants so you want to be careful with it.
Well said, Dave. I'm surprised that it wasn't mentioned in the video.
Great idea! I was thinking about how to keep it away from my small dog.
@@Mrs.LadeyBug it’s an idea I learned years ago from another RUclipsr. Seems to work for me!
@@davesterchele2679 thanks for passing it along!
6:47 he starts talking about the actual method
The Okayed Boomer ; It’s 8:34 actually
@@annab5961 Ok, boomer
Volkodav that’s their name
@@ailani000 Yes
The Okayed Boomer thank you
I always watch these tips on plants or life or whatever in 1.5x to 2x speed!😅 However I actually had to switch it to normal for your channel and could only make it faster to 1.25x speed!😅 I really loved it. I even watch the whole video, and learnt a lot. Didn't just jump into your solution and try applying them! Loved it. So interesting.
It's just me though, no disrespect for anyone, everyone has their own rhythm and that's wonderful.
Thanks for the tips. I'll actually try them both. Cinnamon to treat the plants with fungal problems and borax for get rid of the ants from the house! 😊
Thank you for giving detailed instructions on how to use the cinnamon and borax. Incredibly helpful! I’ve been trying to flood an ant colony out of my 5 gallon planter and after the 5th time they haven’t taken the hint.
The aphids thing blew my mind !!!!!!! I knew almost everything else but that was both mind blowing and funny ! Waw ! Super informative video ! Thank you !
The start of the actual information you are looking for is at 8:34
tnx
Thank you
Yea because who needs to know WHY the ants are a problem. We just likes to kills em.
I actually thought the first 8 mins was useful because he explains their habitat and why they do what they do to help me to understand them.
😂 🙏
Boric acid instead of Borax (not the same thing). Also, some ant colonies are attracted to protein, some to sugar. Unless you know which one the colony prefers, make two pastes. One with boric acid and sugar and one with boric acid and peanut butter.
How do you make it with the peanut butter?
@@Mr_Daddy1980 mix them together.
@@shouldibehere LOL...Who hurt you?
Great ideas, not boring at all.
Being smarter than a colony of ants. NICE. 🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜
Nice.
Nice.
I actually had a ant on my phone screen as I am watching you hahaha. Freakin ant…lol Kentucky love ya
That McCormick jar of cinnamon probably costs about $6. You're sprinkling it on ants, you do not need high-quality cinnamon, that same thing is maybe $1 at Walmart.
It’s about $5.50 at Walmart. Try dollar tree maybe?
Try one of the dollar stores. Dollar Tree, or .99 Cent Store.
Thanks so much, Luke! Your channel always has the answers I’m looking for.
I’ve got some ants farming aphids this year. They’ve really taken a liking to my volunteer borage plants. At first it was kind of a neat to watch, but then they start getting a little out hand and need to be delt with. Essentially, it’s farming as we know it, just on a smaller level. I’m still trying to find there where they’ve taken up residence, so I’ve only been able to take the out a branch at a time. Lol! 🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜
We get them in our brick walkway and stone patio. How do you get rid of them there?
Huge fan of borax. It's great in the laundry too. Great video. Look forward to more.
I've been using it in the laundry, too. But, I recently heard that it's bad for elastic. Something to research.
Do you have reapply the borax paste after is rains?
Perfect! I never had any success in wiping out an ant hive with the sugar and borax. Now I know that mine was too liquid. I will definitely try the paste next time! Thanks for the tip 😁
Try powdered sugar with borax, 50/50. Don't add water. The powdered sugar sticks to the borax granules and the ants haul it into their colony. Works great.
Thanks for the tips . I have heard about sugar and Borax but that little detail of adding water was missing. I have been doing this wrong for years. Now I know why it wasn’t effective. I’m so thankful for your help today and knowledge!
Hi, does the “Borax+sugar+water” work now?
What about concrete ants? They have a ton of ant holes along concrete seams, cracks etc? Can you just put a dollop beside each hole? Not sure how to find the main source/hill.
I'd run it right in the crack if it were me. Cut a tiny piece off the corner of a ziplock bag, then fill the bag and squeeze it like a pastry tube. Get it right in the crack or seam.
Very informative, super helpful.
Ants: For the queen and colony!
Humans: Kill the queen and win the war!
banh bao I thought any ant will become the new queen,? Watch channel Antcanada
No only specific ants are able to reproduce. 99% of the colony is sterile.
@@daringfawn6958 Not completely true! Usually, a worker ant is sterile. Only in certain exotic species will a worker ant morph.
(That's why his colony is so cool!)
Doesn't work for subterranean termites. Termite queens emit a pheromone that temporarily sterilizes the workers. When a group of workers (male and female) get separated, or the colony expands far enough outward, new kings and queens are promoted.
I found a video saying something about aphids liking plants that were given too much nitrogen. Have you heard anything? Its from a permaculture guy, runs an orchard up in Canada.
AnimeShinigami13 it’s not true. The ants put them on everything. Has nothing to do with nitrogen. Two plants they love in my garden is my lettuce and my beans. I spray my beans with the jet on my hose and wash the aphids off killing a lot of them but this year the borax war will be on. I use molasses with mine in the house, gonna try that outside!
Fun fact: Some orchards _use_ ants as pest control. They are provided sugar water for carbs and they get their protein from pests
Ants also play a role in cross-pollination.
agreed: Ants are actually beneficial and an indicator of garden-destroying bugs around your plants. They're wrongfully considered pests. Yes, they eat some of the root fungus, but so do other insects like several beetle families, the Erotylidae, Endomychidae, certain Tenebrionidae, fungus gnats and scuttle flies. Ants prey on these fungus eating bugs, so ants cause more good than harm by maintaining a low number of these real pests. If your plants are depleted of nutrients, it is likely that other bugs are munching on their roots - not just ants.
@@AlexGallegos I've actually heard by adding ant colonies to your garden, you can reduce risk of root rot. Due to the fact you mentioned earlier regarding their taste for fungi.
@@AlexGallegos ants will farm aphids onto your plants. They are so hard to get rid of.
@@AlexGallegos not when I grown cannabis and they bring aphids
Great video! I knew some one who had huge lumps of concrete for their drive way, I mean enough for 4 cars. Part of that drive way had drain inspection holes and heavily fortified with chalky, immensely dry clay soil around it to a huge degree. The ants had colonies way way underneath the concrete, creating hundreds of colonies front and rear of their property. No ant powder, water, ant gel, or any other ant killer was not going to keep them away. After many years, constantly hammering away at the ants trails, crevices, trying to kill hem off they actually increased and if a window was left open they went in. The ants was small black ants, which was around all the neighbouring gardens, some worse than others. It was a perfect area to nest, and nothing was going to defeat them, and nothing did work to get the population down even after regular daily ant poisons.
I heard that cornmeal kills them. They eat it but can’t digest it or something like that.
Dried meal or dried cream of wheat will expand inside them and basically blow them up. Lol
THANK YOU!!!! Never thought of applying directly to or near the hill.
At this time I wish the ants were in my garden and not my kitchen.
I tested your borax recipe (the watery one) last night and was AMAZED at the amount I found in the trap I made (at least 4 times what I was catching with dawn and sugar and water). Gonna mix that paste later today and put in little cups all over where I see the little buggers.
keep the mixture away from your plants - borax is also used as a foliage killer. Use a clear soda bottle with hold large enough only for ants. Leave plenty of room for rain or watering so the bottle doesn't overflow. Replace every few weeks.
Thanks for explaining how these methods work. I've tried and it worked effectively in the house, but am now trying it on the nest outside. I need to put more. Your channel is so helpful! Just bought a home and taking care of the lawn myself is a learning experience. 🙂
Learned so much and just in time. Found ants in garden yesterday, and day before had a premonition as I was shopping to buy a box of Borax. Am battle ready now with your info.
I use diatomaceous earth food grade....works great!
Shirley wow! You must have a brain! I can’t believe the dumb comments on here from people. I’ve been using that for years too and food grade is great! The borax works too and I mix mine with molasses. Nice and thick and they can’t resist it!
Get farm grade you can buy 50 lbs, for same price as 1 kilo, and has same effect FYO
@@daleval2182 Thanks Dale for the info....I will consider that and research for next time...I bought two 50# bags when I bought this time for food grade and won't need any for a while....LOL...TY for taking the time to write.
Hi there! I am wanting to use the borax method on my garden. Unfortunately, its a 2800 sq ft no-till garden we covered with wood chips so I have no way of finding the source or anthills. Could you please suggest how I use the borax in such a large area with no solid idea of where they are?
Yikes that sounds dificult :/ if you're still able to plant in it, I would say, companion planting might be an option to deter, but don't know how much it would do in destroying a colony. I have read some commenters having success with feeding ants cornmeal. Apparently they can't digest it. Maybe sprinkle some non-gmo cornmeal or instant grits liberally all over the garden and hope it kills them?
@@monicag.1527 Excellent idea, I will for sure try it. Thank you!
You can put the containers of borax solution anywhere in their path and they will come to it. I had one on my kitchen counter. It was fun to watch. More and more ant came over several days and then there were no more in less than a week and I haven’t seen them in five years!
Dish soap and water. Done!
Jason Therion
How much dish soap should I put in a 32 ounce bottle?
L J : I just sprayed the whole terrace and cleaned it thoroughly with dish soap.. it needed a good clean anyway. The were running up the wall but got them too. Hopefully it’s working they were running from one side to another in front of my door
I tried the sugar and borax but I didn't add the water so now I know why it didn't work! Thanks, I am going to make the paste asap!
Boric acid works and so does peppermint oil.
How do you use the Peppermint oil?
Peppermint oil dissuades ants, it doesn't kill them.
BRB Corp actually it kills them I’ve got their dead bodies in my kitchen but thanks for your opinion on the subject.
Whoa, angry... but how do you use it?
The Chicken Wire I’m not angry, I do find it interesting you know such much without info. In the comments to my comment above I said how I do.
EXCELLENT channel. Thank you, Luke, THE BEST!
How do I get rid of ants that have their colony in the "weep holes" of my brick house? Maybe the flooding technique?
Thanks so much - I found a huge ant colony cleaning out a couple of beds. I went to my local garden store and asked for a chem free solution to the problem and he couldn’t tell me a thing! Found this video and 3 out of four grocery stores didn’t have any borax… lol!! They were sold out of borax! But made the paste and and applied to two spots and found a third … I don’t like to kill anything but not having to use harsh chemicals made it a little less challenging. The activity seemed to stop within an hour. Though I am concerned about other bugs and worms. So will be removing excess paste on the ground. But thanks for this video!
Great info Luke. We've always used Terror brand liquid bait, but I'm going to give your recipe a try after hearing about using a paste vs liquid bait. We just constructed beautiful garden boxes and having ants move in would be a nightmare for us. I've had them colonize plant pots in my can yard and kill plants before.
I call them aphid ranchers around here, moving their herd of aphids from spot to spot.
Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge!
I found coffee grounds work well too. Like I had ants invading my pepper plant, but then I put the coffee grounds and the ants haven’t come back yet! 😊 like the Black worker ants
Another wonderful video I will be using the knowledge you have taught me.
Can diatomaceous earth be placed around raised beds to stop ants from getting in the bed?
Hello, I have a 2 or 3 year old fig tree in the ground, (zone 8b Texas Hill country) that had been looking sick until recently. I've noticed that I also now have an ant colony near the bass of the tree, looks like fire ants, surely they're tunneling around the root system. I was thinking I need to somehow get rid of them right away however the tree is also looking fabulous all of a sudden. do you suppose that the ant colony may have done anything beneficial? perhaps helping to beat back some root rot or disease going on down there? the tree was pretty well rootbound when I bought it from the nursery.
TYVM 🌟🌻🌟 Ants on my lawn going to try the cinnamon method first. Watched from Mass USA. Awesome tutorial 🦋
Good stuff as always Luke!
Well I found a way to nearly wipe out fire ants. It only works in places you don't want anything to grow. But if they're in the middle of the yard, boiling pots of water right down their holes. First get them riled up and they send a lot of ants to protect the colony. Once they are all riled, start slowly pouring the boiling water into their hill. I did this in the same area for 3 days and then they were no where to be found from there. But your grass will turn yellow for a few days and then new grass grown back in nice and green.
Hi there thanks for the video. Can I use a Borax substitute ? will it work just the same as pure borax?
Yeah you got them with the fine details this time! Luke thank you for this!!
I learned a lot I have ants in my garden also and I have a question can I use baking soda instead of borax
Have tried the cinnamon before with no success (ants invading my planters), but will possibly try again due to them tunneling under my new hydrangea :( The borax solution also looks like a good option, so thank you for the tips!
Borax has always worked very quickly for me. It NEVER fails.
Amazed to find this today! Only yesterday, I found ants in my sugar peas! That's what has been making those tiny holes in the leaves. I have borax on my laundry shelf and sugar in the kitchen. Tomorrow those ants move out!
More than likely those tiny holes are made by aphids who are kept by ants like people keep dairy cows. Ants will carry aphids to a food source and the aphids will then eat the plant material and then sweat nectar that the ants then gather and eat. You will be able to get rid of the ants but the aphids will keep eating your peas. I suggest you go on line and search for ladybugs. You can usually buy a few thousand at a time for perhaps $25-$40 depending on who you deal with and how much you buy. I got 5000 for $25 last year from a dealer on eBay. They didn't hang around after they ate all the aphids but without the ants (which I killed) there was nobody to bring aphids into my garden. They can manage to find their way back eventually but that might take an entire year for them. Lady bugs will crawl and fly in an outward spiraling search pattern hunting and eating aphids as they go. One lady bug can eat hundreds of them every day so five thousand can clear a few acres of aphids in a matter of days or weeks.
Some people mix jelly or honey with the borax, 1:1 and they claim it works as well as the sugar, and fixes the texture issue.
I found the ants attacking the maple syrup inside - mixed some borax with that too.
13Jerred molasses and borax. Perfect!
Place ant on Block A. Hit Block A with Block B.
Pour boiling water on the ant hill (won't kill all of the ants), then pour comet cleanser on the ant hill and like magic they're all gone. If you do this on all of your ant hills you won't have any more problems with fire ants.
I plan to make raised beds using hugulkulture. I recently found a carpenter ant colony that is close to where I will be putting my raised beds. Is there some way I can solve this potential problem while I am building the hugulkulture bed? I live in a very dry region at 8400 ft.