Anthills
Ants can be beneficial in your yard. They scurry around and eat waste and debris, but when they start to take over your yard and flowerbeds, it is time to kill out the ant beds. Harsh chemicals are an effective way to achieve this, but they contaminate the soil and could find their way into the water system you drink from. There are many safe ways to kill the ants that are also environmentally friendly. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Sprinkle a couple cups of dry cornmeal or grits over the top of the ant hills. Stir it up with a stick. The ants will eat the dry cornmeal or grits in an effort to clean their ant hill. When the dry cornmeal gets into their stomach and mixes with moisture, it will kill the ants by causing them to swell.
2. Pour a 2-liter bottle of carbonated soda all over the top of the anthill. Pour slowly so that the soda soaks into the ant hill. The carbonation will rob the ant hill of vital oxygen, and the ants will suffocate.
3. Collect the ants in a jar: This process is more time-consuming but it works just as effectively and introduces no foreign material into the earth. Rub the inside top of a Mason jar with vegetable oil. Dig out a hole in the center of the ant beds and set the Mason jar in it.
The ants will naturally explore what has invaded their bed. They will fall into the jar and be unable to get out because of the oil on the sides. Check on the jar daily and dispose of the ants that are in the jar. The disposal method is up to you.
You may have to do this process several times, but within a week you should have collected all of the worker ants. Without them to care for her, the queen will die naturally.
4. Heat a large pot of water to the boiling point. Carefully carry it to the anthills. Use a dipper or cup to dip the hot water and pour it slowly over the hills so that it soaks into the anthills instead of running off. The heat will kill the ants.
5. Mix the ants up some food. Ants love sweet stuff, so give them some. Mix a cup of sugar with a few teaspoons of boric acid. Pour it over the ant hills and stir it with a stick. If you do not have boric acid, use a few spoons of cream of tartar from your spice collection.
Before you feed the anthill, sprinkle a circle around it, using the cream of tartar. The ants do not like it and will not cross the circle. The will be forced to stay in the hill and eat the food you have given them. The boric acid will kill them as they feed on the sweet food.
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