I'm in central Alabama. Ive been using spent coffee grains on the ant hills. In last few years number of hill reduced by at least 90%. Usually it takes just one application, sometimes a few.

I used to use the borax mix but was concerned about animals with a sweet tooth getting into the ‘soap’ part and making the animal sick. I am now using cinnamon and/or diatomaceous earth which is working great. Thank you Brian for another informative video!

I’m in zone 8A in Alabama. We have fire ants EVERYWHERE. I had a raised bed of corn (block corn) and this was my 2nd planting. The first crop was great! The second crop was nothing. I’d amended the bed between plantings. When I finally pulled it out, I realized the entire bed was completely infested with ants. Never saw any sign above the soil. And, the ants are everywhere in my yard. I treat the bed with Amdro or another granular treatment. But I don’t want to use it in my food beds. Long story short, I have a terrible problem with ants. (The more rain, the more ants.)

I have used the borax/sugar traps for years and it really works but don't get the Borax on your soil. Plants don't like it much and it takes quite a while to break it down

Olive oil. I use olive oil on the poles that hold my hummingbird feeders for 15 years. I dab a paper towel in a little olive oil (enough to saturate a portion of the paper towel and to create a shiny glean on a small section of the post near the bottom. It works for about 2 weeks during mild spring and summer days, 1 week during hot summer days. With respect to rain, it does need to be re-applied after heavy rain. I put it around the stem of my tomato, cucumber, melon, squash plants and certain flowers. It has to be reapplied more frequently when used like this on plants. You can easily prove to yourself that this works by the way ants literally run away from it. Hope this helps someone with ants getting into their hummingbird feeders and spoiling the hummingbird food by dying insider the feeders or with certain of their garden plants.

Thank you so much for this! Great tips, especially the homemade ant traps and cinnamon. We don't have K-cups, but I can now see a use for all those little take-out sauce containers that seem to pile up endlessly in our kitchen.

Good tips, thank you. Here is what has been successful for me: I’ve used the Borax mix, more liquid consistency on cotton balls inside my house (squeezed some of liquid out so they are not runny, and poured corn starch on/where the ants seem to be gathering .

Another great thumbnail. I love the humour. I've been studying thumbnails this morning and your strawberry shoots, this one, cougar in the... and the "love at first sight" ones are def my favourite of all the ones I am considering as muses.

I did the borax method some years ago, we had an inside infestation. In the end I had to pay to have a pest control fix it. That worked 100%, no more flying ants. Expensive but effective.

One plead to ALL my fellow gardeners. 🙏 Please do not use Ceylon Cinnamon for the garden, the tree is going through over harvesting which it'll make prices go up and scarce it in the future (leave it for consumption). Use sugar rather than honey for your ant traps, it works better. This way we help the bees also🐝 Thank you for your help and bountiful harvest for all😊❤

Living in SC, I have fire ants in my raised beds and containers. I have use both of what use mentioned. I have also used organic orange oil.

There is a massive colony in my back yard and another in the front. I've tried dawn dish soap but it only lasts a short time. This borax idea is certainly worth a try. Thank you.

I have a serious ant problem in my garden and yard. They seem 't to be attracted to sunflowers and plants that have grown for awhile but I haven't seen any aphids on my garden plants. I have tried the bait traps but the ants return once the bait is gone. I will try the borax solution. I do get birds but they don't bother my vegetables, cherries, blueberries or strawberries. Thanks for sharing your videos.

I'm in 6 B(?) & had a problem with the larger Red Ants in the back of my veggie garden; they seemed to be going across to the opposite side to gather something from where the pumpkins were- they were VERY aggressive, coming "after/towards" me even when I would spray them with the hose ! I never saw them in the garden bed with the other veggies, but even if I walked in the back of the garden (gravel "walkway"), they would come up & after me in DROVES !! Don't know where they came from (never had the larger red ones in the yard before), but they seemed to have disappeared as fast as they showed up. I contacted an exterminator, but because they were so close to the veggies, we decided NOT to do anything. Thanks for the info, will try one of them next year !

I like the K cup method. I've been using Borax mix for quite some time, (But I do even parts Borax and sugar to make a paste. Guess I should try to cut back a little on the borax), but never thought of that. I'll have to get some from my son. (I don't use a Keurig).

I've had great success with the borax & sugar (powdered sugar) method especially with the large black ants. I also use DE around in my bed for the smaller ants.

Ants are a real problem here in N. Florida. Thanks for the ideas that are natural.

Good information. We’ll try it today.

Awesome information! Thanks

Thanks! I had tons of ants crawling all over my flowers. Someone suggested to look for aphids in the FB group. And sure enough, I had an infestation. Once I sprayed off the aphids, the best could, the ant problem decreased. I also pruned invested leaves and put them in a sealable plastic bag and threw it away. Lesson learned!

Yes, I’ve had an issue with ants in my garden and in the lawn. However, I have used baby powder to combat them. That seems to do the trick. I know some people are concerned because of the cancer issue out there. But I’m not worried about it because I’m outside and I’m putting it on their ant hill. I’ve also use cornstarch in the past, but I don’t find that is effective as the baby powder.

I'm in GA, just a few miles south of ATL. We have TONS upon TONS of fire ants and another kind similar to them. For common ants in the garden, I have used corn meal with great success. But it's not working well on fire ants at all. However, liquid Terro is! (It's basically sugar and borax.) Gonna try the little homemade Kcup traps! Thanks so much!

Dried laurel 🍃. Like it's used in storing and preserving good. It prevents insects, & rotants away.

Thank you for the great advice! I like the k cup idea. My question is what if a bird or something eats the ants with the borax injested. I have big ref headed woodpeckers that usually gind them snd eat them

good info with the borax and sugar Thanks

Thank you Brian. 🍁🍂🍁💚🙃

I've got a big ant colony on one side of my house. I've tried the DE but it didn't help much. Maybe I just need to dump the whole bag out there LOL. Or reapply after rain..... thanks for all the tips!

Hi, I sure could use some advice to control rolly Polly bugs!

I like the tip about "confusers". By citrus, are you saying a few drops of lemon or lime juice?

The greens in your BG are very pretty ^_^

Food grade diametric earth is what I used to kill ants.They were coming from under the fence next to my fence neighbors yard. First, I attacked the trail of ants by spraying them with a mixture of rubbing alcohol and water (more alcohol and less water). They died immediately. When the ground dried, I sprinkled diametric earth along the fence line. The following day, I sprinkled another layer of DE along the fence line. It’s been over a month now and no more ants. I think it also helped that I caught the ants early.

For ant hills, I squirt dish soap into a bucket and fill with water. I pour this directly into the mound and all around where I see ants trying to escape. Works every time.

I had 8 beautiful cacti which I regularly pruned for nopales. The mealy bugs got in with the ants establishing a symbiotic relationship with them. I tried to take them down with soap but couldn't keep up. I lost all the plants.

These are some good tips! I had trouble with my mammoth sunflower. The ants would eat and lay eggs on the leaves, causing the leaves to die. Then, as an effort to remove them, sprayed soapy water on the leaves. It didn't work unfortunately, it only made them stronger. It got to the point to where I would spray the leaves with the soapy water, they would fall off, and then 2 seconds later start coming right back up the stem. I also forgot to mention how the ants bite, so any time one fell off onto me, they would bite me. It wasn't just a small pinch either, it felt like somebody accidentally stabing me with jagged nails, just not quite enough to draw blood.

I literally watched this and stepped outside my door to a trail of fire ants trying to make their way inside.

Ants! They live in colonies all over my back yard, hillside, raised beds, planting pots, and they invade my gardens regularly. Ive done all of these things you suggested and the commercial bait enclosed in metal stakes works best. This season my citrus trees are covered in scale! I had a pest service come in and learned that the pest service people have NO IDEA how to apply all their chemical nonsense in a food garden. The guy sprayed his “absolutely safe, completely natural” stuff on/near my garden beds (after I told him specifically not to) and it heavily damaged the plants. So I use commercial ant bait stakes from the garden center. They seem to have some effectiveness, its the best Ive found so far, but its not a sure fire solution. Id love to have a refillable bait for those stakes, as they have such a tiny amount of viable product. But with two very curious schnauzer mix dogs, I have to be very careful about what is out in my yard and what they have access to.

We've had a lot of ants over the last few summers as it is has been hot and dry. The ants don't seem to do much damage to the plants but the blackbirds and pigeons dig up the plants to get to the ants so I would love to get rid of them

hi there i do have ants in my garden but im not sure what i can do that is safe for the veggies and gets rid of the ants

I've been using dish soap spray on my sea lavender which has scale and ants. Definitely not a one and done job, but it seems to be decreasing the problem.

I'd love to try some of these methods, but my main ant problem is them crawling all over my ripe raspberries, and I'm not sure how well it would work for a hundred square foot bed. Most of the time, I wind up picking the fruit, putting them in a vented container like an re-used strawberry snap-shut quart, and letting the ants crawl out.

I’m in Texas zone 9a and it rains a lot here and we have what’s called leaf cutter ants (in addition to the famous fire ants). Those leaf cutters do exactly what it sounds like: cut leaves. They have completely defoliated an entire bed of my plants in the summer overnight! I woke up one morning and all my beautiful pepper plants were sticks. I about died. 😢 It took months for them to recover AND some didn’t recover at all and just died. I was certain it was deer or bunnies. The ants moved their way through my garden beds each night until one night I was outside with a flashlight and happened to see them in a long trail carrying off my leaves back to their hill. I sprinkled ant killer granules all along their trail all the way to the hill and sprinkled it inside too. Within an hour they were all dead and never came back. Now that far from solved my problem because there are new hills that pop up every week or two and I play defense constantly. I have to be very vigilant in order to have my peace and quiet and keep my garden alive! We have Yaupon holly bushes here that get quite large and I saw one of the ant hills right next to the bush get completely defoliated in a week or so and it looked like a bare deciduous tree in the winter. Those bushes are evergreen and don’t lose their leaves so wow. I’ve never seen something like this until I moved out to the forest! It’s wild. Literally. ☺️My solution isn’t exactly organic but it’s effective considering my extreme situation. I didn’t feel I had a choice. Luckily the granules active ingredient dissipates in a short period of time and though that’s not the best option it was the most effective one and saved my garden. I may try the k cup borax method though because it seems much more natural. I hope it works! Great video!

We will be trying all of these. Fire ants are so tough to get rid of. Texas hill country 8b. Already tried boiling water, diatomaceous earth, and orange oil. None worked.

Will diatamaceous earth (sp?) harm/kill beneficial insects like lady bugs? Does it work on Japanese beetles?

The aphids we get are the invasive, non native kind. They love my milkweed. If I do the soap/water method, will it harm my caterpillars that eat the milkweed? Also if Demetrius earth is scattered around the base of my plants, will it also harm my caterpillars that come down fron the plant to find a spot for metamorpphosis or the soft skinned lizards that frequent the garden? Thanx in advance!

Does Borax trick works on fireants ?

Does this borax solution work on sugar ants that get into the house and can it be used with pets around?

We are dealing with little black ants, in a wet climate, you can stop the ants for a while with a barrier of DE, but they make nest between the leaves in a tree, you never get them out. None of this methods work. Any better ideas?

I've noticed ants on my okra. The one's all over the ground in the garden always seem to find me. I'm going to try some of these.

From the San Antonio Water System, use 1 gallon water, 6 T BLUE Dawn, 3 T Orange Oil. Mix and pour on the Fire Ant mound. This works well to get rid of ants in areas that produce food. I HATE these ants! You have no idea the harm they can do to you before you're aware you're in their territory...which by the way, is MY garden.

How do I make my garden less attractive to my aunt's?

We have an issue with ants getting into our continuous flow worm bins. We have tried just about everything we can think of to naturally get rid of them without harming our worms but nothing is working. We have taken precautions and made some design alterations to prevent future ant infestations but we are still fighting the ones in the bins. The main mound has been removed and we are hoping we got the queen at least.

I live in B.C. Canada. I find the ants help my aphid problem. I plant plants to attract ants. I have lots of praying mantis too. I love wasps also. Mice suck.

New subscriber here 😊

This was amazing info. We’ve been buying Terro, but borax, sugar and honey is, I’m sure, much cheaper and FINALLY a way to use all those empty Kcups! Do you have any suggestions for getting rid of moles and ground squirrels?

Our local (passed) radio gardening host SanFran KSFO Sunday morning Bob Tannem in the Garden show - made his own rats/mice/gophers/moles bait. Peanut butter, oatmeal, and plaster of paris. Roll into little pea- or bean-sized bait balls. Place in the holes or tunnels of the critters. Critters eat the peanut butter, while the oatmeal sucks of the stomach juices and waters, and the wet oatmeal cures the plaster of paris, finishing the job - and the critter expires in their hole. No poisons, no chemicals - and the critter not in the hole is consumed by other critters, that won't cause them to die off from the intestine plaster cast. The same could be applied for ants (and borax) that they will take back to the ant nest - and everybody including the queen - get a final meal. Drop some little balls "0" at each ant hole and nest.

I'm in NW Georgia and ants are my main problem in the garden even without aphids. I've tried boric acid and sugar with good success except with fire ants. I've tried that and cinnamon on fire ants and it just doesn't seem to work. The fire ants either aren't attracted to the sugar or know not to eat it. I've seen a couple of videos say that orange oil and blue dawn dish soap work. I'm going to give that a try.

I had a bell pepper this season with ~60 ants inside of it. They had made a hole and were tunneling inside the walls of the pepper.

I just moved my starts into my garden and the ants are everywhere, I'm a beginner and this is my first time, I've found holes in the dirt. I don't know what to do, that's why I am watching this.

I noticed a few years ago that if I left a cup of my coffee made with my homemade hazelnut syrup in my car cup holder for very long, the ants would invade it. So, I tried mixing the syrup with Borax in a cup in my car and after a massive invasion, the ants were gone. The syrup is made with raw turbinado sugar and flavored extracts.

I'll try the borax method for the ants that have built their home in one of my raised beds. On a more humorus note perhaps... I have 2 fairly large spiders that have for whatever reason, each made a home for themselves on 2 of my cucumber vines... Those cucumber vines are the 2 vines in my whole garden, that are largest and producing most cucumbers... I decided to leave those 2 spiders be, just to see what they would do, since I don't think they eat either the vine or, cucumbers. They do seem to eat everything else that dares land on "their" vines though... 😳😁

Thy have built in 2 of my buckets

I have fire ants, which are very hard to get rid of. I tried several organic methods but still fighting them. They are tough little insects & seem to just move their colony. I will try k-cups. I live in Arkansas, which is humid & hot. These ants are aggressive, and their bites hurt. They eat everything, including okra.

I’ve tried ant baits but they keep coming back. I’ll try the soapy water. And cinnamon

Ant trails - are ants making poop and hormone spots as a trail. Using Tanglefoot and finding the ant hole - spray this in a "O" around the hole - and the ants will be stuck - as Tanglefoot is the same flypaper goo sticking flies. Spraying or painting Tanglefoot on the first foot height of your fruit/nut trees trunk will stop all kinds of critters crawling up into the trees.

Dawn detergent in a spray bottle

Borax didn't work for me. Rats is a problem dovyou have them there? Traps don't work anymore...help

Good morning. I hope you had a great day for your birthday yesterdays.

Can I put DE in my raised bed? My ants are in the ground.

Yes please, I have several different types of ants. They are all over the yard!!

I have BIG black ants!!! I have tried EVERYTHING to get rid of them. Including commercial grade poison ( nowhere near my garden area). The Borax and sugar works great on the fire ants though. What makes it worse is that I’m quite allergic to ant bites 😞

I’m in Oklahoma and have a terrible problem with ants and have tried everything natural and nothing has worked

It was good thorough video but I don't understand why the ants are problem. What kind of damage do they do?

I’m in Texas and the ants are horrible and have been the worst this year. DE works but it seems they just move to another spot.

❤ If you have fire ants, they eat meat, not sugar. I had a huge fire ant mound and got rid of it with 1/4 tsp boric acid to 1 can of potted meat. It took 4 cans for my huge mound. It's slow acting, so you won't see results for maybe a couple weeks. If you put too much boric acid, they won't take it. I just sort of flung spoonfuls near the mound. I put more out as they took the previous amounts down. Keep the items on hand for future invasions. ❤

You forgot to include a link to your referenced video

Oh yeah, ants are a major player in my garden beds; almost totally destroyed the wood boxes and getting rid of them has proven fruitless. (LOL) Yesterday I dug up my potato bed and found zero earthworms and way too many ants. So sad. I wouldn’t want an anteater for a backyard pet, but temporarily would be fantastic! New business idea? Have anteater, will travel?

Sorry but I can understand the name of the 'netting'?

You said to keep an eye out for ant mounds, or unusual concentrations of ants, but you didn’t explain what to do if that is your problem.

Central Texas here, and I’ve had red ants but they haven’t actually done any harm so I leave them alone. On the other hand the fire ants have been awful! It’s the first time I’ve seen ants cause damage to my garden plants and it’s produce! Specifically the okra, if all things! 🤦🏼‍♀️ I can’t use just anything to get rid of fire ants so it’s fire ant killer products or nothing. I sprinkle the powder around the base of the okra plant and the mound if I can find it. It’s very difficult to get rid of fire ants tho. 🙁 I don’t want them in the yard or the garden!

I have ants all over my property but I’ve never had them destroy anything in my garden.

i love watching people pour molten hot Aluminum metal down inside ant mounds

My ants like wood... wood chips, trees, lumber... etc.

With diatomaceous earth you're also gettjng rid of beneficial insects like lady bugs.....every creature that has an outer chitin shell........😕

For the first time this morning I went out and in my green stalk was huge grass hopppers. WHat?????????????? Munching away

I use cinnamon to chase off fire ants.

Borax works on cock roaches, too. Have had good luck with cinnamon also

Ants ants ants! Nothing really works

Cream of wheat, Terro’s and spraying them with water not really effective

Technically you are the invader in their garden.

Eucalyptus results were ehhhh

Same my ant starts harvesting freaking aphids everybody got to go and GTFO out of here

I wish diatomaceous earth killed fire ants, sadly it only kills the few that come in contact with it, not the queen of the colony. So she just keeps laying eggs for more ants.

I use sugar.....feed them sugar, one to two weeks. They all die including their colonies. Cheaper and easier than all those other so-called remedies. this is old-fashioned, country solution to ants. Quit wasting time, don't "get rid "of them. love 'em to death.