Fighting ants in a garden plot with folk remedies

Ants in the country and in the garden bring not only benefit, but also harm, eating berries and fruits, planting aphids on plants. Therefore, the solution to the question of how to get rid of ants in a summer cottage is very relevant for all owners who care about their garden and garden.

Where do ants come from?

Ants everywhere you can meet both in the city and in summer cottages. The most common in gardens and orchards:

• black garden ants, or earthen, about 5 mm in size brown or black, build nests in the soil, in the root system of plants, like to plant aphids;
• red pharaohs, or myrmika, - 4-6 mm in size of brown-red color, can settle both in the house, and on the seasonal dacha;
• red forest ants have a size of 7-15 mm, build large colonies of branches and grass, their females with wings reach a length of 1 cm;
• red chested woodworms - up to 2 cm in size, nest in tree trunks, dry stumps, less often in wooden structures, making moves, can even turn logs into dust.

Ants breed fast enough and able to live in a variety of climatic conditions. Up to 10 thousand people can live in one anthill, among which there is a single uterus that lays offspring. Unlike working individuals that do not live long, about 1 month, females can exist and breed for more than a year.

If there are several female lionfish in the colony, then after fertilization they move to other places and lay ant larvae in the soil, on the stalks of grass or under the bark of trees. As a result, new nests are formed - in this way ants get to summer cottages and garden plots.

The benefits and harms of ants

The anthill and ants on the site are one of the links in the ecosystem, without which the balance in nature is disturbed, they are capable of be of great benefit for plants, including:

• food for them is pests of garden crops: slugs, spider mites, larvae, etc .;
• in nature, ant colonies are used by many birds to clean their plumage from fleas and other parasites - they climb into it and bathe in a nest with red ants;
• making moves in the ground during the construction of the nest, they well loosen and fertilize the top layer of the soil, which positively affects the saturation of the roots of plants with oxygen.

Interesting!

One anthill able to consume 2 thousand different insects and their larvae per day, bringing deliverance to many plants in nature from pests.

Harm done by ants at the cottage:

• very often nests are located in very inappropriate places: in berry bushes, in the middle of garden beds, which inhibits the normal growth of surrounding crops;
• black ants regale and damage the buds of roses and other flowers, berries, fruits, etc .;
• farm aphids, breeding it on cultivated plants, including on ornamental and fertile bushes: in raspberries, currant, on jasmine, because of which they die;
• plant seeds are transferred throughout the summer cottage area, includingand weeds, spreading them throughout the territory.

Based on the listed beneficial and harmful habits of these insects, each owner must independently decide whether to destroy the ants in his country, using a pesticide. Or simply drive them away from the places where they harm the plantations, folk methods that are more popular in gardening.

Ant Control Strategies

There are 2 main methods of how to deal with ants in the garden:

• Scaring them off and not letting them in the garden and suburban area. Such humane methods include: transferring small nests; the use of plants and substances that have a pungent odor that can scare away ants.
• The destruction of ants on the site using folk methods and chemical poisons, pesticides.

Folk ways of struggle

Fighting folk remedies with garden ants is carried out in many ways, many of which have been known for more than one century:

• To get rid of the anthill, you need to dig deep enough all the land on the site, adding ash, lime.
• One of the proven recommendations on how to remove an ant hill is to fall asleep in its moves. millet or semolina. According to gardeners, ants in large numbers move to another place.
• Sprinkle a mixture of wood ash and lime along the ant paths and their areas of residence.
• Prepare a decoction of tomato tops, parsley and smoked fish - with all this and water the ant settlement.
• You can remove ants from the site by watering with a solution ammonia the whole garden in the proportion of 1 tablespoon per 8 liters of water: cultivated plants will receive additional fertilizer, and the smell of alcohol will drive away the ants.
• To get rid of insects, you need to know what garden ants do not like: pungent smells of sunflower oil, brine from herring, tomato tops, garlic, red pepper, cinnamon - all this will be applied to the processing of anthills or laid out along paths on the ground and their places of residence.
• It is recommended to use some plants against ants that repel them with a pungent smell: tansy, valerian, mint, wormwood, parsley are planted between the beds in the garden.
• You can get rid of the anthill in a fairly simple way, using boiling water, which is flooded with all the moves, and it is better to do this in the evening, after the entire population returns home.
• An effective folk remedy for garden ants is the treatment of a summer cottage with a mixture containing soap, carboxylic acid and kerosene, which are poured with warm water. It is necessary to spray the mixture over all summer cottages and in the garden, as well as poison the nests.
• A mixture is made of laundry soap, shampoo, vegetable oil and 2 tsp. vinegar, which needs to be sprayed with all the places of accumulation and stay of ants. However, such a solution can not be sprayed on seedlings, so that it does not slow down its development.
• A similar mixture is made with the addition of odorous herbs (wormwood, celandine, St. John's wort, tansy, etc.), vinegar and detergent, after stirring it is insisted for a day in a cold room, filtered and diluted with warm water. The mixture is sprayed with all fruit and berry crops in the country and anthills.

There are a variety of methods to destroy ants colonies. Using Velcro, hunting beltsthat are worn on young shoots of fruit crops: apple treespears drain and etc.

The use of various luresthat attract insects will allow them to catch, and then destroy. For such purposes, the following recipes apply:

• honey is divorced from water and applied to dish-sponges, which are laid out along the ant paths: after they encircle the “sweet sponge”, they throw it in boiling water;
• arrange jars with honey or sugar diluted in water in places often visited by working individuals in the summer cottage: when they get into it, sweet tooth drowning in syrup, not having the opportunity to get out;
• cans of sweet or meat canned foods with leftovers, meat bones are also effectively used as baits - all this attracts them in large numbers.

In order to exterminate ants in the infield, you can use toxic substances: borax, brewer's yeast, boric acid and others, eating which pests die after a certain time.

The most popular recipes where poison is used:

• A mixture of 1 tbsp. sugar, 2 tbsp. hot water, a third of tsp borax, after cooling, add 1 tsp. honey - the bait needs to be changed every week.
• A mixture of sugar, honey, borax and water in a ratio of 4: 1: 0.5: 4.5 is poured into cans, which are placed in an inclined position in the areas visited by ants, at the rate of 1 can for 3-4 m².
• Balls of boiled potatoes with an egg (3 pcs each) with the addition of 1 tbsp. vegetable oil, sugar and 10 g of boric acid - laid out in the habitat.
• Add in 2 tbsp. Minced meat ½ tsp. Boers and lay out on ant paths.
• Dilute 1 tbsp. yeast in cold water to a creamy state, add 1 tsp for taste jams: put the mixture on pieces of cardboard, then - in the places where the ant population is.

Chemical methods of control

If folk methods do not help, then a fight is carried out with ants in the garden using pesticides. The negative result of the use of chemistry will be the destruction of not only harmful, but also all beneficial insects.

The most popular chemicals: Muratsid, Muravyin, Grom-2, etc. containing diazinon insecticide, which refers to organophosphorus compounds that cause paralysis in pests after 2-4 days. They come in several forms: granules, tablets, powders, gels or liquids;

The most effective way to destroy not only working ants, but also ant uterus - the use of poisonous baits, having eaten and taking its small particles to its nest, the entire population of the anthill is poisoned.

All chemicals have a long-term effect: the extermination of ants occurs within 3-4 weeks.

Important!

Any chemistry and poisonous drugs are highly toxic substances, so they are dangerous for humans and pets, which can accidentally eat them. When working with such substances, care should be taken and consider the possibility of their entry into local water bodies.

Let's take a closer look at popular insecticides:

• The drug Muratsid represents a toxic liquid in an ampoule that needs to be diluted in 10 liters of water, the resulting solution should be enough to process up to 20 anthills, i.e. it is practically possible to destroy all pests in the area. Muratsid has an important advantage: it is harmless to plants and the natural flora of the soil.
• Ant-eater - the product is available in the form of a powder or liquid, from which it is necessary to prepare a solution at the rate of 5 l per 5 m² site, after using it by the ants inside, they begin to cramp, paralysis of the limbs and asphyxiation occurs.
• Absolute - a drug sold in the form of a syringe with a gel having an odor attractive to ants. The syringe contains 20 mg of substance, which is enough for 50 m² land area: using a thin nose, the gel is dotted on the tracks and next to the anthill.
• Phenaxin - a powder that is sprinkled directly from a package with holes near the anthill's holes, also destroys aphids, and ants can poison if not forever, then for 1-2 years for sure.
• Gels a great warrior or Clean housewhich are applied to cartons and laid out next to the nests.

On a note!

To combat ants in the suburban area, chemical preparations are used in various forms of release.The only form that will be difficult to use outdoors is a spray or aerosol, as it acts only in direct contact with an insect.

Prevention of the appearance of ants in the suburban area

The best remedy for pests in a summer cottage or garden is the prevention of their appearance, which must be carried out regularly by digging the ground with the addition of ash, planting odorous plants that repel insects from delicious berries, fruit bushes and trees.