How do you keep ants out of the garden?

Hello Denise, You can put corn meal in your garden. It may take several applications. Another method is to spray a solution of vinegar and water (equal parts) on the ants and in your garden. I have not tried either of these methods because I really don't have an ant problem. If I did, I would try the vinegar/water method first. Best of luck to you.

move your garden to a nice high place, like the moon. Why?

Take care of using vinegar in your garden. It will kill whatever it touches. It also sterilizes the soil due to its great antibacterial and antifungal properties and will stay in the soil for a while and nothing will grow. I was a nurse by profession for 25 years, the last almost 10 years was in home care. The last five was with kids on ventilators at home and insurance only covered so much supplies, so a lot of things had to be cleaned and reused. Vinegar and water soak was the recipe that was used, so even adding water to it does not lessen the potency of the vinegar.

Peppermint works great!

Another note, You will never be rid of ants in the garden. You can get rid of the ones you have now, but as soon as you turn your back, more will come. The are a nuisance, but they really don't harm anything, just haul dead stuff away and get into things that are already bad, like split tomatoes.

Ants are very important to aerating the soul, like earthworms are, but ant can eat the insides out of a cornstalk in days. And fire ants will keep you out of the garden. I would buy some commercial ant treatment. If I remember right, you pour grains into the center of an anthill or scatter the grains over the area where ants are spread out. Supposedly, the worker ants carry the grains back to the queen. She is either poisoned or made sterile. Maybe I dreamed it. But I know when we lived in Mississippi, we kept that stuff around and used it in different areas including in the garden. It usually took about three days, but the ants would move on to another place, leaving some good soil behind. Best wishes 😇

MY GRANDMOTHER ALWAYS TOLD ME TO LAY CUCUMBER PEELS AROUND THE KITCHEN AND BATH FLOORS TO KEEP ANTS OUT. THEY HAVE A NATURAL ANT REPELLANT! YOU COULD TRY THAT IN THE GARDEN.

I use vinegar, but you need to be careful as it will kill plants. Find the nest and drown it in vinegar. Cinnamon works well but needs to reapplied after you water or rain.

I've been struggling with ant problems as well. It turns out some of the ants that infested my plants had done so because the plants had aphids whose honeydew was attracting them. Once I got rid of the aphids, the ants cleared out of most of my potted and raised bed plants. I'd like to say that was the end of the ant drama but... it wasn't. Though, I kept them from coming into the house by spraying my house foundation and around the outside doors and windows with a commercial ant poison. I hated having to resort to chemical control but I tried the vinegar trick, and though it killed the ants I could see, it didn't do anything to keep them from coming back and getting into my house. Now I am using diatomaceous earth in my grass and in and around all my plants and at the entrances to any of the ant nests I find. If you get the food grade diatomaceous earth it is safe for pets that might get it on their paws and then lick it off. It really seems to slowly but surely reducing the population. Hope that helps. Good luck.

If you can find this, or another brand specifically for ants, it works really well. It is non toxic to plants, pets, humans, and beneficial insects.

Keep in mind because they are natural organisms, it takes time to work.

Or get In And Out

Back in the "old days" my grandmother would toss the dishwater out the back door onto her vegetable garden ... when I asked her why she always did that she would say ... "soapy water keeps bugs off my plants."

So ... I always keep a Qt. spray bottle filled with water, a good squirt of Dawn, plus a little white vinegar handy. I spray all my plants inside and outside with it and I never have ... bugs ... flies, spiders, fleas or ants. It works! And ... I have 2 dogs and a cat!

Thank you also very much I appreciate your input

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.