Love them or hate them. It is an undeniable fact that ants are amazing creatures. They have developed their colonies in such an intelligent way that they didn’t span a single place in the entire globe.
We can see their increased activity during the summer months. We have noticed convoys of ants going to and fro in the garden. Some get into your home searching for sugar or other food sources, leaving the trails for other ants to forage for food.
In most cases, if it creates a nuisance, it is time to take measures to keep your garden ant-free.
Ants in your garden:
Some of you might be having questions in your mind that are ants beneficial for your garden?
Ants are beneficial to your garden to a certain extent. They are predators hunting for other insects and aid pollination while foraging for food sources. However, they like to build nests around the root system of plants. It may stunt the growth of your plants and trees in your garden.
Ants protect the aphids from other predators to maintain reliable food sources. The increased activity of aphids in your garden can be disastrous for plant life.
How to keep your garden ant-free?
Do ask the following questions to yourself before killing the ants:
- Are the ants in the isolated area?
- Are the ants posing a threat to my family?
- Are the ants likely to build colonies inside the house?
There is no need to kill anyone just for the sake of killing.
Natural Methods:
Do try the below natural methods to remove ant infestation:
- Boiling water:
Locate as many entrances as possible in your garden or around the anthills and pour the boiling water. You have to do this repeatedly till all the ants are dead.
- Dish soap and oil:
Mix a half tsp of dish soap with half tsp of oil and spray the mixture on the ants. The solution will create suffocation to the ants, and the ants will die.
- Boric acid and sugar:
Mix boric acid with sugar and place the paste near the entrances of the ants’ nest. Ants are attracted to sugar and will take the paste back to the nest. After eating the paste, the Queen and other ants will die.
- Vinegar:
Pouring vinegar onto the nest will kill the ants on contact. It will not harm the ground surface.
Most of the natural methods don’t work immediately because the ingredients are not active and lethal.
Have a look at some of the professional pest control methods:
- Ant killer gel:
Most garden centers sell ant poison in gel form. This gel works similarly to the boric acide and sugar solution to remove ants naturally. However, it does not have a threat to the plants.
- Ant killer poison.
The powdered poison is effective indoors. However, it harms the plants inside your garden due to their toxicity. Spread it on a calm day where the winds do not blow them off to the neighboring areas.
- Professional extermination:
Appoint pest control experts to solve the ant infestation if the above methods didn’t work.
Wrapping up:
As you have seen various treatments to keep your garden ant-free, we would urge you to consider whether these ants are a nuisance or truly farming pests before killing them.
