ants

ANTS
rule number one
if they aint bothering you dont worry about them
ants do have a reason for being on this earth
yes that even includes fire ants

my philosophy on fire ants
if they arent in my garden or where i step on them
and get bitten i dont worry about them

here at the country n the three ants that are a problem
are


the fire ant
when i start watering my garden well or if we get a bit
of rain they will pop up in various places in the garden
i usually step in them
or
put my hand on top of the mound when im tending the garden
only realize they are all over me when the leader says
ok are we all in place
in my shoes up my pants under my gloves under my collar
when i say go the leader says
lets all bite at the same time
one two three go
thats when it hits me hard that im covered with those little
varmints
and i usually shout &^%$)#@


then for some reason the sugar ants take a liking to our kitchen
they will go for months and months then
bam theres that long line of ants like a african safari
going up a hill or across a plain

the fire ants i control with old fashion grits sprinkled around
the mound and or
spinosid sprinkled around the mound
then
a solution of orange oil poured all over the area
that usually gets rid of them
granted they pop up somewhere else but thats ok
some folks sprinkled molasses over the area

then the sugar ants are controlled with
boric acid or roach pruff is one brand and jelly or jam or
honey
i take a lid from a jar
add a sprinkling of boric acid
add a tsp of home made jelly or preserves
mix it all up and leave it sitting around
they attack that lid so thickly that it looks black
after several days sometimes a week
the numbers seem to just go away

be patient on this treatment as they ants have to take it
back to the mound and feed it to the other ants there
eventually wiping out the colony

if i get tired of waiting i will spray a solution of orange oil
along their path or on top of them
they do not like orange oil and will try to avoid crossing
the orange oil line


then there are the red ants or harvester ants
they will take a portion of your yard and in a big circle
take over it
they are really harmful unless you stand on their mound area
too long
like they say ok if you arent going to move we will send an
army over and bite you
when they bite it hurts then it hurts worse then it hurts worse
almost like a bad arthritis spot on your joints

you dont need to get rid of them unless they are hurting you
or unless they have deformed a big circle of your yard

i scattered a large amount of seeds on my garden bed to establish
some buckwheat for a green manure crop
looking closely at these little guys they had moved a large
quantity of these seeds to their mound 15 yards away

so i dont treat the harvester ants since they aint bothering me
although if i had a dumb dog or had small kids i would
treat them

one treatment for these red ants is to sprinkle aspartame or
equal or nutra sweet around and on the mound
it seems to make them go away killing a lot of them
kinda scary huh since we some of us use this in our drinks

but the best reference for controlling all kinds of ants
is this link to the dirt doctor
its all organic and yes it works

click here

the organicgreen doctor

tattoo fire ants yard care

TATTOO FIRE ANTS YARD CARE
tattoo
no i dont have a tattoo or plan to have one
this is in response to my recent blog
people wanted to me to show a picture of my tattoo
others asked me not to get a tattoo

only in my aricept dreams would i get a tattoo or
if i was in a drunken state or drug induced state
would i get one
neither of those activities i would do

maybe my wife she when i get more advanced in
my alzheimers could get me a tattoo
if she did or if i did it would look like this

maybe a wash off one would be better and less painful

fire ants
im always being asked how to get rid of fireants
this is what i do and it works well for me
its organic non toxic and cheap
i prefer not to use the baits or poisons thats sold at the
grocery stores or big box stores

i use instant grits
yes grits like you eat for breakfast especially in the south
although we never ate grits when we were growing up

i sprinkle uncooked grits on the mound and surrounding it
the theory is they feed them to the queen and she swells up
and dies
the fire ants seem to disappear from the area
sometimes i have to treat it 2 or 3 times
but
im able to keep them out of my garden
which they love to invade

then another treatment i heard of this week from someone
at habitat
he was talking to a lady at a lake park
she said you know how to control fire ants
no how


get some old red man chewing tobacco and sprinkle around
the mound
the worker ants take it down to the queen
she chews it
then when she has had enough she climbs to the top
onto the surface and spits
then you can step on her
works every time she said

yard care
i have weeds in my yard and my yard doesnt look good
i hear this all the time

those weeds were seeded in the fall
that was the time to treat them
bad news is there are spring seeds in your yard now
the only way to remove the weeds is to manually dig them
or just fertilize and mow your yard and let the grass out
compete the weeds

remember weed and feed and that bad stuff like that is not
good for the environment and doesnt really work here

the answer

apply corn gluten on your yard in october
this will stop the germination of the fall seeds
and you wont see the spring weeds growing
unless they are perennials which do not grow from seeds each year

apply it again now in february to inhibit the spring seeds
then manually dig what weeds grow

remember if you plan to plant any grass seeds dont use
corn gluten as the seed wont germinate

in the fall and spring-october and march/april-apply a 1/2 inch
of compost to your yard and water it in
then after youve mowed your yard twice in the spring
apply a organic fertilizer like
the ladybug 8-2-4 fertilizer

 or
medinas growing green fertilizer

dont use the commercial non organic fertilizer as they are a
source of pollution for our water systems

this is good as you can do for a yard

here is a link to the natuarl gardeners organic yard guide

or do like i did and landscape away all of your grass and
you dont have to deal with any of this

the organicgreen doctor