Most of the time they're just enjoying some loose soil to dig around in and cause no harm, though.

Also, smoothing mounds just make the ants not visit that hole and create a new one. It disturbs the colony, but rarely causes it to leave.

I put it on paperboard (that stuff junkmail flyers are printed on) near mounds. It kills off or makes many colonies move in a matter of days.

The boron it adds to the soil profile is pretty insignificant, it's mostly harmless to any animals that might eat it (aside from an upset stomach), and it's really cheap to make.

I put it out when the ants are active and remove them if rain is coming (not required, but if it's not hardened into a rock you can place them back out after rains).

Fascinating insects, if only they weren't undoing my hard work with theirs!

Just throw orangic mulch on top of the soil surrounding your plants. 1-3" of it. Grass clippings, leaves, straw, seaweed, coffee grounds, etc.

The idea is to foster an environment beneficial to your plants not by dousing it with chemicals but by boosting the multifaceted systems within it by working with it, not against it, to enhance biological, chemical, and physiological systems.

Also, a box of Borax + a box of powdered sugar will cost you around $4 and it should last you long enough to pass the boxes down to another generation.

This seems to be a boom year for the ants, with noticably many more than the past two summers, so this is the year I need to do something. Last year less than 10% of the plants had ant hills, this year 80-85%, which I consider to be well beyond the acceptable loss limit. Anyhow, of all the methods out there, the borax and sugar was the most gentle, environmentally friendly method I could find, with little impact on the plants, soil, or beneficial insects. Sadly, not all problems can be mulched away.

To the OP, sorry if this is hijacking your thread, but if you decide you need to do something about your ants, you are getting lots of input on what methods to try!

I'm a bit shocked fungal diseases haven't been totally out of control this year. The bugs I'm used to seeing seasonally "moved in" many weeks earlier this year in NC.

Cool, I have a computer, so I may as well dump oil on the beach, because hey, I have a computer.

Anyways, red herrings aside, there is no need to waste time or money with Borax. If you are mulching and have ant problems, you aren't mulching intensively enough, and your soil is too dry.

Aside from that, if you have ants, and you're mulching sufficiently, and damage (most likely make believe) to your plants is offset by the beneficial factors of mulch regarding water retention and increased biological activity in your soil.

If you have aphid problems that attract your ants, buying borax is useless, because the root cause is your APHID problems. Easily solved in the short term by spraying off with water, or trimming your affected plant to easily remove huge numbers of aphids, or squishing them with your hands, or having a beneficial environment that encourages predator insects (eh ehm - organic MULCH).

Buying borax is yet another lazy bandaid solution that ignores the many biological, chemical, horticultural, and physiological aspects at play involved in gardening. Two or more birds can be killed with one stone by mulching. Nothing is achieved by buying borax aside from yet another bandaid solution that ignores the root cause of an issue while ignoring many other issues that come into play here while gardening.

It's a naturally occurring, mined mineral that's minimally processed down to powder form and put in a box.

If you got issues with Borax there's about 10,000 other things out there that's REALLY gonna upset you.

By the way, we don't have overly dry or sandy garden soil. In fact, our native soil is quite heavy and clay-ey, so I imagine the amended garden soil seems nice and light to our ants, who generally have to put up with much worse!

Thanks everyone for your advice, and for the interesting different perspectives. Ants are always good for a conversation-starter; I use them all the time at parties.

So, careful because your ignorance is not winning you any points for believability... Maybe you should take your trolling attempts to get a rise out of people elsewhere.

Silly, you just pull the plants, wash the roots off and then replant them and thoroughly mulch with some good organic mulch... They'll be just fine lol.

:)

"You might want to make sure you actually know what Borax is...or take your meds.It's a naturally occurring, mined mineral that's minimally processed down to powder form and put in a box.If you got issues with Borax there's about 10,000 other things out there that's REALLY gonna upset you."

-Yeah - I'll say it again - how much fossil fuel does it take to make Borax (mine it out of the earth, send it to a factory, package it, ship it to be sold)

It's a complete waste of everything.

But I guess since other things are bad in the world, it's ok to ignore that - right? Hey go pour oil on your garden because, well, there's car exhaust in the air, and we'll all get cancer one way or the other - right? Nice red herrings!

This is the last I will post to this discussion. Do a web search for "root aphids" find information, educate yourself. If you want to stretch yourself, then do a search for information about "cornfield ants" and you can read the same information I already told you, just from an agricultural extention or IPM website.

As for the rant, well, if you really feel that way, I suggest looking into eastern religions and philosophies. They deal more directly with the ambiguity (some say dualism) of life and may help ease your angst about being alive in this world. Because unless you sit absolutely still and starve yourself to death in the dark, every single thing you do has some negative impact.

Aili, I don't know what munched your zucchini, but aphids are off the hook for that since they suck plant juice rather than eat foliage. Maybe start a new thread yourself? Post a pictue of the damage? Cheers!

Poor jayco had no idea what he/she was starting with this thread llmao.

I think I going to go make some borax/baking soda dish detergent and do a load of dishes since I'm out of dish soap and don't feel like wasting gas on a trip to the store to get more ;)

Anyway...

In reality-land, Borax used like this is some pretty safe stuff for your soil unless you're dangerously close to having high boron levels in your soil (most people aren't). The amounts used for ant control are extremely minimal and localized.

Just saying...

They make mounds, they're industrious, their entire biomass weighs more than our entire biomass. Plus they rhyme with "pants." How much better can it get?