Natural Pest Control: Ants

Are ants taking over your garden? Troubled by myrmecophobia (the fear of ants)? Not ready to call an exterminator or use potentially harmful pesticides? There are a number of simple household ingredients you can use to thwart their colonization efforts. Here are a few:

Salt -- Instead of using pesticides, try locating the ant hills and sprinkling the area with salt.

Vaseline Petroleum Jelly -- If ants are raiding your birdhouse for munchies, try smearing Vaseline around the bottom of the pole to keep them from climbing.

Cream of Wheat/Minute Rice -- You can kill ants by spreading Cream of Wheat or Minute Rice on or around the ant hill (or wherever they're being problematic). The ants will eat the grains of wheat or rice, and it will expand, causing their stomachs to burst.

Flour -- Spread solid lines of flour on any paths ants travel across. Ants don't like flour, and they will not cross through it.

Baking Soda -- Dust your garden or trouble spots with baking soda to eliminate ants. Baking soda is poisonous to them.

Source: Gardening Magic

Natural Pest Control: Ants

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