I tried it and it seemed to work - until it rained. Anyone know where I can get a quantity - like 25 or 50 pounds - for a reasonable price? E-bay had some but at a dollar a pound to ship all savings are lost....... I lilke it because it is safe for cats....
theory on this stuff is that it scrapes off the coating on the exoskeleton of the ant so it dries out. I have tiny (1/4 inch) red/brown biting ants that STING like crazy and even the pros won't tackle 'em. THey say they live so deep in the ground that there is no way for them to exterminate them all and so - with their guarantees - they would be coming back forever for free, so they won't even try.
If anyone can suggest anything else that worked for them I'll give it a go -- right up to radiation!
2006-08-25 04:17:45 · 7 answers · asked by been there done that 2 in Home & Garden ➔ Garden & Landscape
Are they getting inside your house, too?
Hmm.. Have you tried the boric acid approach? It will probably work for outdoor use, too, but you'll have to replace it after it rains.
Mix the following:
1 cup water, 2 cups sugar, 2 tablespoons boric acid
Boil the water and sugar until dissolved. Remove from heat, then stir in the boric acid until dissolved. (Boric acid can be obtained as Borax, a laundry additive, available at supermarkets)
(You can scale up the recipe to as much as you want, just be sure to keep the proportions the same).
Then, pour the mixture into shallow containers (like yogurt container tops) and place where you see the ants. The ants will SWARM over this stuff, but resist the urge to kill them. They'll carry it back to their nest and it will kill all the ants. The dead ants are scavenged and cannabalized by the living ones, so the poision gets spread around.
I hope this works for you. Good luck!!!!
2006-08-25 04:24:09 · answer #1 · answered by chrissyberry 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Pool supplies - used in filters. USE A DUST MASK while handling and applying. Sometimes available at nurseries for soil supplement. It supposedly lacerates the exoskeleton and causes the insect to dehydrate. Boric acid does work on ants and roaches in the house, but I've never tried it on a mound.
In a similar question a while back, some answers advocated pouring gas or other petroleum products and chemicals down there. One nitwit even suggested lighting the gas! That's dangerous and all these substances end up eventually in the ground water, then eventually in our waterways, our estuaries and the oceans. Please don't use them.
2006-08-25 04:24:42 · answer #2 · answered by Skeff 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
as a effective way to kill worms i would stick to using trusted anthilmintics (this is the active poison in horse wormers). as you are basically poisoning the worms you do not know what kind of reaction your horse will have to Diatomaceous earth or how well it will kill the 4 main types of internal parasites. for effective worming and to prevent the worms from building up an immunity you should change the anthilimintic used for one cycle each year. saying this, im bot actually sure what diatomaceous earth is so i hope you get someone who can advise you better.
2016-03-27 05:33:22 · answer #3 · answered by Heidi 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
These are FIRE ANTS and Yes they are very hard to kill! They can only be killed by ingestment. (they have to eat the poison)The best Fire Ant killer is ORTHENE by Ortho.This works wonders!! We can hardly keep it in stock.They track through this and since F.A .s are "social insect" (they clean each other) they end up licking the poison off and ingesting it.They also feed it to the queen,thus killing her.Killing the queen is what you need to do to get rid of the ants.. Lowes does sell Diatomaceous Earth but I have not had much feed-back from it.
2006-08-25 04:30:11 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
This worked for me: sugar mixed with 20 mule team borax, in little piles for the ants to take back home with them. Probably much the same action as the diatomaceous earth, but a lot cheaper.
2006-08-26 04:00:05 · answer #5 · answered by dderat 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If they are fire ants, bait is the best way to kill them if there is no mound present.Call a local pest control company that sells chemicals and try to but it from them.Maxforce Fire ant granules work best here in Texas.Ortho fire ant powder is good but you have to see mounds to treat them. Hope this helps
2006-08-25 05:11:30 · answer #6 · answered by aceincc 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Check the water treatment companies, some units use that.
2006-08-25 04:23:26 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋