How can I naturally get ants out if my garden and backyard?

Apply food grade diatomaceous earth

Used coffee grounds will do the trick and feed your worm population at the same time!

Starbucks gives grounds away for free! Just spread a layer around your plant. That will keep the ants from your plants.

To get rid of ants, put a cotton ball soaked in the following mixture next to the ant hill opening (unless your plants are for food)

Recipe for Ant bait

(DO NOT USE NEAR FOOD!)

(KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN AND PETS)

1 1/2 Cup Warm Water

1 1/2 TBSP BORAX

Mix until dissolved

Add 1/2 Cup sugar

Mix until dissolved

Keep in airtight container

Hope that helps

:)

Ants don't like the smell of bay leafs, I have a bay tree, I u don't buy same at fiesta, Kroger or H E B. Smash the leaves on top of the ant mount and

the Ants move away, watch for the new location and repet the treatment

Ants by themselves won't hurt your plants, but since the ant hills are close to plants, watch the plants for aphids. Ants will put them there and milk them for the "nectar" they produce - and they will hurt your plants. If that happens, soapy water or just strong hose spray should take care of the aphids. Washed off, they rarely return to the plant unless an ant carries them.

Ants that do this are sweet loving ants, so a saucer or tuna can with a mix of a small amount of boric acid dissolved in sugar water and a piece of cotton (like a bridge/wick) to attract and give them a way in should dispatch the whole ant hill in a couple of days if replenished as they eat (after eating, they'll carry it to the queen - too much and they'll die too quickly and won't carry to the queen). Kim's recipe above should work, only I usually get boric acid - the kind they sell for other bugs because it's less expensive here and, I think, more lethal. If they don't go to it, you may have too much boric acid, so add more sugar water. There various recipes on the internet. I'd keep the saucer covered with something that still leaves room for them to get in and out via the cotton (I use the strip from a vitamin bottle) , but keep other wildlife and pets from finding it. I usually cut a hole or two in the side of a small cardboard box for the ants and cotton and weigh down with a small rock. Works for me.

one more thought - if they just won't go for the bait and there are no aphids appearing on your plants, they may be "meat" eating. I don't think they will bother your plants, but they may bite you! There are recipes on the net for them, too - involving boric acid and perhaps come Crisco shortening.

packaged cornbread mix that says it is sweetened and put it where they are coming in if you can find it, or even on your counter in a small lid. They will take it to the mound, everyone will eat it and die, they can't digest the cornmeal, but will take it because it is sweetened. Little goes a long way.

You're welcome!