Ants in Soil are Destroying My Plants In One Section! Any tips?

Liz C
by Liz C
Will spraying Ant Repellent into or on the soil destroy my neighboring plants and flowers?
  6 answers
  • A granulated ant bait product would be fine to use in the garden. Normally you would pour the product out where you see the ants at and the product would do the work for you. What I would suggest however is to make a little tent of sorts out of cardboard and place it over the bait after you spread it out. This will help protect the bait from you watering the garden. As once the garden is hosed down, it will ruin the bait that has been placed down. The big box home centers and most hardware stores carry this type of product.
  • Jeanette S Jeanette S on Jun 20, 2012
    Someone told me that sprinkling cornmeal on the area infested with ants will eliminate them. I do not have ants so have not tried this...but it is worth a shot not to use chemicals!
  • Douglas Hunt Douglas Hunt on Jun 20, 2012
    Are you sure it is ants that are causing the damage, Liz?
  • Audrey C Audrey C on Jun 21, 2012
    I use red pepper flakes
  • Liz C Liz C on Jun 22, 2012
    @Woodbridge...is there a certain ant bait that you find works the best? @Douglas.....I'm 99.% certain.....all the surronding plants....marigold leaves, sunflowers, butterfly bush, dahlia and when it went to replant a new perennical in that section, there were countless and I mean practically infestion of ants only a couple inches under the soil. @Audrey.....funny, bc the only thing I've found to help me with my ground hog trouble, is to sprinkle pepper flakes all over my flowers & night...& it seemed to do its job! Never thought about the ants......The only thing though, by two months of me doing so, i noticed it was burning the leaves as well as contamanting the soil. How often do you have to sprinkle the pepper flakes for the ants for? Do I sprinkle the flowers or the soil? THANK YOU ALL FOR GETTING BACK TO ME
  • No, any ant bait that comes in a plastic jug should be fine. Most of the stuff you purchase at the home stores are the same anyway. Just put different colors on the container with different names. The only thing you really need to understand about baits such as this. Water is its enemy. Once it gets wet, it will clump and no longer really attract any ants. So you need to follow the directions carefully. Keep pets and small children away. And in many cases less is more with this. As it really has a short life span chemical wise, and if you put to much out at one time, you will only end up wasting it as it looses its ability to kill the ants that come into contact with it. Find their trails where they come and go from. Then place the bait on or right next to it. This will get them on it much faster then if you placed it where they are not currently traveling so it will take more time to get rid of them.