Re: [GBlist] Non Toxic Ant Repellent

["Martin&Caruso" <itchpeople@islc.net>]

HI,

this is a subject that I have dealt with in great detail, since I live in
fire ant heaven (well, hell to us humans)....

We use Amdro, because it is less toxic than lots of the other things out
there...it is supposedly a biological control, it causes sterility which
means the hive dies in about 2 weeks.  I am not crazy about amdro and have
tried other methods....one of the most effective things I have done was to
use lemon juice and dishwashing liquid with lemon juice and wash away the
ant trails..it supposedly masks the pheromone trail that the ants follow
(this is for banishing them from inside your house)

Some of the other nontoxic methods I have heard about-pour boiling water on
the mound on a cool morning when all the ants have moved to the top of the
hive to get the warmth from the sun.  I don't know how effective this is.
The most effective nontoxic method is supposedly to dig the whole mound up
and cart it away.  The problem with that is that you have to pay attention
and make sure you get all the ants, which can be very difficult, and also,
if fire ants are the problem, you have to make sure they don't get on you
because the way they behave is to crawl all over you until you are covered
with them, and then one ant sends out a pheromone signal to bite, and you
can get hundreds of bites all at once, extremely unpleasant.

Hope this helps and if you have any success, let me know what works!

Elizabeth
----- Original Message -----
From: Will Harrison <will@carterburton.com>
To: Green Building <greenbuilding@crest.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2002 10:06 AM
Subject: [GBlist] Non Toxic Ant Repellent


> It is a little off the green building subject, but does anyone have any
> ideas of safe ant repellent.  I would use boric acid, but the suspect
> ants are near my cat's food bowls?  I have heard that one should keep
> boric acid away from pets.
> Any ideas?
> Thanks in advance
>
>
>
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______________________________________________________________________
This greenbuilding dialogue is sponsored by REPP/CREST, creator of
Solstice http://www.crest.org, and BuildingGreen, Inc., publisher of
Environmental Building News and GreenSpec http://www.BuildingGreen.com
______________________________________________________________________