Ants!

[partyof5]

What is with the ants this year? Anyone else noticing they're awful? All my old tricks aren't working!
They just laugh and move to another part of the yard. I'm a bit OCD about my landscaping, so it's not like it's neglected or anything. Anyone have a sure fire method to get rid of them?

[FreeRights]

:skyisfalling: What is with the ants this year? Anyone else noticing they're awful? All my old tricks aren't working!
They just laugh and move to another part of the yard. I'm a bit OCD about my landscaping, so it's not like it's neglected or anything. Anyone have a sure fire method to get rid of them?

Fire works.

[Bsuds]

Nothing works 100%, they just move and start a new colony. Just learn to live with them cause they are here to stay!

[grammafreddy]

You have to get rid of the queen before you will be rid of the ants. The queen never leaves the colony. Ant colonies are very sophisticated things and when the queen sees she is getting short of workers, she makes more. The workers feed the queen and the young, so you need to get "poison" down to the queen via the workers.

I have always had great success with a mixture of half and half icing sugar and baking soda. The icing sugar is the attractant (and food) and the baking soda makes them explode because ants can't pass gas. Put the mix in some low jar lids and place them along their trails, under your plants and beside the holes to their colonies. It won't harm birds, kids or pets so is quite safe to use.

[MrR]

Homemade Ant Killers: Recipes & Tips
When trying to get rid of ants, it’s helpful to first have a basic understanding how they live and thrive:
They live in colonies and one class of ant within the colony is the worker/gatherer/forager. Workers make up approximately 10% of the colony and it’s their job to go out, find and collect food then bring it back to feed the rest of the colony.
Ants are mainly looking for two things: food and water. If it’s getting cold outside, they also like to settle in to find shelter. Below I’ve listed various home remedies and solutions for control (along with some tidbits of information on ant behavior and habits).
List Of Spray Cleaner Recipes:
Clean countertops and surfaces well with one of the cleaners below, these can also be used to spray ants directly.
 Vinegar
 Vinegar & Water (50/50 mix)
 Cider Vinegar & Water (50/50 mix)
 One of these essential oils: Peppermint, Lavender, Eucalyptus, Tea Tree Oil, Witch Hazel Extract (1 tablespoon) plus water–per spray bottle
 Liquid Dish Detergent & Water (about 1 tablespoon detergent, fill spray bottle with water).
Did You Know: Ants leave a scented trail for each other so they can easily find their way back to the jackpot (the food source in your home). Trails can be both visible and invisible to human eyes, but they can follow the trails with ease. Washing away these trails will confuse them and make it more difficult to find their favorite places. Making your own cleaners with the above ingredients also adds a repellent that they will avoid.
Baiting
When you provide a tempting treat that is actually poison (known as ant bait), you want to make sure it’s not too strong that it will kill the ant before it gets back to the colony (sometimes they are gone for days), and that it’s not too weak that it’s ineffective. You want poisoned food brought back to the nest for the rest of the colony to ingest.
The type of food they look for is either sugar or protein, it depends on what the needs of the colony are at the time. This is why a “tried and true” ant killer recipe that came highly recommended doesn’t work for you, the bait holds no interest for the particular critters in your home.
Tip: First determine if the ants in your house are after sugar or protein. Leave a sample of each bait out and see which ones they go for. Once you’ve determined what they’re hungry for, set out a few baits with their choice.
Homemade Ant Bait Recipes
Sugar
2 TBS Boric Acid (Borax)
Jam (or Jelly, Honey, Maple Syrup)
 Mix the boric acid with the jam or jelly to make a paste. Slather it on a piece of paper, a plate or in a covered container with holes. You may have to adjust amount of Boric Acid if the ants seem to eat up the bait like crazy, but are getting fatter from it instead of dying.
Sugar
2 cups Sugar
1 cup Water
2 TBS Boric Acid (Borax)
 Mix and place in small saucers around the home.
Protein
2 TBS Boric Acid (Borax)
Peanut Butter or Bacon Grease
 Mix and set out in mounds on pieces of paper or plates.
Sugar
1 cup Confectioners Sugar
2 TBS Boric Acid (Borax)
 Leave this in little mounds or in covered containers with holes.
Sugar Bait
2 TBS Molasses
1 TBS Yeast
1 TBS Sugar
 Mix and place mounds on paper, plates or in covered containers with holes.
Important: When baiting the ants to bring poison back to the nest, resist the temptation to kill them when you see them. You want them to live and take big juicy pieces of poisoned bait back to the nest for the rest of the colony to feast on.
Baiting Tips:
 Boric Acid can be harmful if swallowed. If you have kids or pets in the home, set the bait in covered plastic containers with a few holes poked in the sides. You could also use glass jars sealed with lids–just poke holes in the top lid. For strong attraction, smear a bit of non-poisoned bait on top of the lid so the ants find it easily.
 For best results lay out a fresh batch daily.
 Lay the bait in areas where you see regular ant activity and near their points of entry if you know them.
 Don’t be diligent washing away the ant trails, you want them to find the bait spots easily again and again. All the worker ants in the colony can follow each others trails, so even if you killed off the first foragers, their partners will follow the trail they left.
 You may find that a sugar bait will be popular for a few days, then a protein one is needed as the ants switch to protein foods. Change your method as needed.
 If you’ve set out both types (sugar and protein) yet the ants are attracted to neither, reduce the amount of boric acid used until they starting feasting on the bait.
Did You Know: If a colony senses something is up when its members start dying and begins to feel stressed, the Queen Ant will likely give orders for the colony to split up into a few smaller colonies, trying to preserve as many members as she can. This is why it may take several days of laying out fresh bait regularly–you’re trying to get enough poison into all the colonies to wipe out the whole lot.

[Graphite]

I tried everything then I got this "Chemfree Ant Killer Dust" its says it is non toxic "amorphous diatomaceous earth" and it seemed to do a great job. Give it a try.

*I tried vinegar but it did not work at all. It did kill my grass, but I knew that would happen anyways since I use it to kill weeds

[MrR]

I have had good results with bleach, but doesn't last too long.

[grammafreddy]

I tried everything then I got this "Chemfree Ant Killer Dust" its says it is non toxic "amorphous diatomaceous earth" and it seemed to do a great job. Give it a try.

*I tried vinegar but it did not work at all. It did kill my grass, but I knew that would happen anyways since I use it to kill weeds

Diatomaceous Earth is great stuff for anything that crawls and slithers. It is sharp crushed sea shells and cuts the insects so they bleed to death. It won't get down to the queen ant and into the colony. It kills workers and the queen just makes more.

[normaM]

and here I was hoping you were looking to GET ants, of which I have several.

[Lady tehMa]

I usually have issues with ants in my food garden, attacking me everytime I walk through it. This year I planted pennyroyal (in pots, member of the mint family) and I've hardly seen any near where I've planted. I'm thinking I'll transplant some as ground cover in other areas too.