HOW TO GET RID OFANTS ON THE LANDSCAPE

Red ants(sometimes called pharaohs) are very dangerous neighbors who like to settle in dachas or country houses. Such proximity must be suppressed in the most severe manner, since it threatens trouble for all inhabitants of the garden plot.

Fighting ants- a complex task that requires an integrated, competent approach. Incorrect treatment carried out to destroy ants leads to a rapid restoration of the number of ants and to the development of their addiction to the group of toxic substances with which the room was treated.

In addition to moving into your home and causing damage to your home, these hard-working insects can cause damage to your garden trees and garden plants. The fact is that most species of ants build their nests deep underground, in the root system of trees. If ants take a fancy to a tree and decide to live under it, most likely such a tree will live no more than 2-3 years. If the ants' nest is in the garden, plants will not grow either on it or near it.

Another “bad habit” of ants is their love for aphids. The ants catch these "ladies", pull them into nests and milk them there, thus infecting more trees and soil with aphids. Therefore, it is imperative and advisable to do this without the use of chemicals to fight ants in your garden plot, since chemicals can harm not only ants, but also all living things around, including plants.

How to get rid of ants in your garden?

Ants most often settle in areas where the soil is rarely cultivated because, like all living things, they do not like to be disturbed. Therefore, the more often the land is dug up and cultivated, the less chance of an anthill forming in it. To rid trees of ants, you need to treat the trunk with a strong solution of lime, so that the lime covers not only the trunk, but also the ground around it.

If the ants have already taken a fancy to your site and there is already an anthill in your garden, then it’s time to take decisive action. The anthill should be dug up and not just on the surface of the earth, but deep. To finally get rid of garden ants, you need to destroy their nests, then they will leave your area on their own. In order to destroy the nest for sure, add lime, ash or ash to the ground, or more of everything, and carefully dig up the area where they live.

THE MAIN THING IN FIGHTING ANTS...

Choose the right goal. First, you need to remove the root cause of the ant population explosion, namely aphids. Its disappearance will greatly simplify the task. At the same time, you should use agents directed against the ants themselves.
Pressing one by one is an absolutely futile task. Those tireless workers who drag loads somewhere near the terrace and in the beds, heavier than their own weight, are workers, or rather, wingless, sterile females. On the one hand, there are tens, even hundreds of thousands of them, on the other hand, the existence of the population does not depend on them. Having stirred up the anthill, one also fails to complete the task. It is imperative to destroy the “queen” and her offspring.
...properly use the “weapon”. Winged individuals of both sexes appear in nests once a year.
The “males” die soon after mating, and the “ladies” shed their wings and go in search of a new nest to take their place on the throne and lay eggs. After two to three weeks, larvae emerge from the eggs, which after four to five months turn into pupae and then into adult insects. The very next day after birth, the ant begins to work: first it feeds the queen, then, as it grows up, it takes the position of nanny, builder, scout, caterer, and security guard. At the slightest danger to the “queen” and the offspring, the entire anthill immediately mobilizes. Therefore, it is important to deliver the drug directly to its destination, without touching the “security alarm sensors”.
Usually poisonous powders are used: they are eaten by working individuals (or absorbed through their outer integument) and are carried “on their paws” to the nests.
...to stop in time. All living organisms are involved in complex chains, and if one of the links is removed, the ecological balance will be disrupted. The gardener is unlikely to find peace if he completely exterminates the ants: he will have to fight more “bloodthirsty” enemies.

PRODUCTS FOR COMBATING GARDEN ANTS

Various preparative forms of diazinon are widely used against numerous leaf-eating and sucking insects: aphids, ground beetles, mole crickets, grain flies, common beet weevils, gnawing cutworms, bedbugs, moths, etc. This substance belongs to the class of highly active organophosphorus chemical compounds, affects the nervous system of insects and causes paralysis.
Diazinon has a strong contact and intestinal effect (rapidly absorbed through the mouth and skin) and leads to the death of ants within the first two days after treatment. At the same time, the consumption is minimal: one bottle (10 ml) of “Anteater” is enough to water 50 sq.m., which is about 200 anthills. The product destroys both adults and larvae. In treated areas, ants do not “tread down” paths again and do not make new nests. Protective periodaction - at least three weeks.

FOLK METHODS OF FIGHTING ANTS

Ants are repelled by the smells of parsley, tansy, laurel, anise, mustard, and tomato tops. The leaves and stems of these plants are laid out on ant paths or tied around tree trunks like a rope. Mint and valerian are sown between the ridges and around the trees. The ants, sensing the “aroma,” will go to another place. Ant paths and mounds are sprinkled with baking soda or areas where insects accumulate are treated with ash, taken in equal proportions with crushed tree bark and lime.
Water the anthills with a saturated solution of boric acid with the addition of granulated sugar (4 tablespoons of sugar per glass of liquid).
Mix dried crushed oregano grass with sulfur (1:2), sprinkle it on the places where the nests are located, or dig the mixture into the ground.
Ant heaps are watered with water and kerosene (10 tablespoons per 10 liters of water). Ant trails and areas where ants accumulate are shed with water and vegetable oil.

In the evening, when all the “ants” are in the houses, the anthills are dug up and poured with boiling water. In this case, it is necessary to stir up the nest completely and only then shed it well. In this way, the queen of the family and the larvae are destroyed. Unfortunately, all these folk remedies only repel ants. Only insecticidal preparations completely get rid of them.

A few more ways to deal with ants

The following method of fighting ants deserves the attention of gardeners. Strips are cut from sheepskin and raspberry shoots are tied at a distance of 13-18 cm from the ground. The strips should be wool facing out, and the latter is lubricated with crude carbolic acid. The smell of this acid thoroughly drives out ants and saves berry bushes from the invasion of small color destroyers and bush berries.

This method can also be used. A shallow groove is made around the anthill, then carbon sulphide is poured over it and the anthill, the latter is immediately set on fire, as a result of which it lights up on all sides and in depth. Insects can no longer escape death; they don't even have time to run away.

To exterminate ants, anthills can also be filled with boiling water or kerosene.

You can rub the places where ants accumulate with garlic or onions, prepare bait: 3 tbsp. l. dissolve 1 tbsp water. l. sugar and 1/3 tsp. l. Boers. Heat everything, mix, cool and add 1 tsp. l. honey Place this bait in places where insects accumulate.

I get rid of annoying ants from my summer cottage very easily. I find an anthill and, starting from it, pour a thin stream of concentrated sweet water or honey 2-3 meters long, and at the end I pour out 1 tablespoon of the same sweet bait.
The ants run along this path as if hypnotized. You can even scoop them up with a scoop, sprinkle them with salt, or simply trample them. After 2-3 days, the procedure must be repeated, but the sweet path should be laid in a different direction. I noticed that for some reason the ants did not run along the “old” path.

The beds can be sprinkled with a mixture of ash, highly crushed tree bark and lime. Ants cannot tolerate strong odors. Place the head of a smoked herring on the anthill of black ants, lay out tomato tops or parsley leaves. The magazine "Progressive Gardening and Horticulture" for 1906 gives the following advice: sprinkle the layer of soot and ash that is sprinkled on the soil to get rid of ants with a strong solution of table salt. A decoction of tomato tops has a detrimental effect on ants. The more concentrated the solution, the better. Ants do not tolerate this plant to such an extent that they are not even found in the beds where tomatoes grow. For example, I twist something like belts from green tops of tomatoes and tie them around the trunks of apple trees and plum trees at a height of about 1.5 m. During the summer, not a single ant penetrates the crown of the tree.
If the anthill is located at some distance from cultivated plants, you can pour boiling water over it.
On the paths along which the ants move (and they move strictly along their own routes), place cloves of garlic, twigs of wormwood, and tomato leaves cut into several pieces.
You can arrange a sweet trap for ants: dilute half a teaspoon of boric acid and 1 tbsp in half a liter of water. spoon of sugar. Stir thoroughly, pour into a small bowl and place a straw or blade of grass on the edge, along which the ants will get to the bait.
Pour a tablespoon of yeast with cold boiled water to the consistency of thick sour cream, stir, add a teaspoon of jam and stir again. Then you need to apply this mixture to a piece of cardboard and place it in places where ants accumulate. They eat the mixture and die after a while. It is better to prepare the bait in smaller quantities, but more often, without allowing it to dry out. Cover the top from the sun and rain with film, leaving a gap at the bottom for the ants.

To destroy ants, poisoned baits are laid out.
Bait recipe: 40% sugar, 10% honey, 5% borax, 45% water. Baits are poured into test tubes and laid out in an inclined position in those places where the ants climb (at the rate of one test tube per 3-4 sq. m).
Sunflower oil repels ants well. It is used to lubricate the edges of vessels containing jam, honey, sugar, and candies on all sides.

Ants in a house or apartment

Fighting ants is difficult, but possible. The main thing here is to take into account some features of ant life. So, the heart of an ant colony is considered to be the nest, where the females, or ant queens, are located, producing more and more new workers. Females do not leave the nests and cannot obtain food for themselves; they are fed by sterile worker ants.

Finding an ant nest in an apartment is very difficult. Usually it is securely hidden in some small cavity in the wall or floor. Even if you are lucky and find an ant hole, do not rush to chip off the tiles or remove the parquet: the hidden corridor leading to the nest can be quite long, and you will have to ruin more than one tile or parquet. However, since the worker ants feed the entire colony, you can try to “treat” the females and larvae with some kind of poisonous potion through them. This is possible if the concentration of the poison (boric acid is most effective) is low (does not exceed 2 percent). The ant will not die immediately, but will carry it to the heart of the colony.

Here are some simple recipes:

1. Dilute about 1/4 teaspoon of boric acid, three teaspoons of sugar and one or two teaspoons of honey into a glass of water. The bait in small dishes should be placed not once or twice, but for a month, and in a place where ants can reach, but other domestic animals cannot. Make sure that ant poison does not become a dangerous toy for your children.

3. Ants are also repelled by the smell of sunflower oil, elderberry leaves, wild mint and wormwood.

4. Borax helps - a mixture of boric acid with sugar or honey. These creatures eat her and die.

5. Dichlorvos.

6. It is necessary to bring REAL FOREST ants from the street into the apartment where domestic ants live, and those, like decent revelers, should take the domestic ones into the forest. By the way, there is nothing funny, the method has already been TESTED - the disappearance of house ants is 100%.

7. Fill a jar with water, add more honey or sugar, they will crawl there themselves and voluntarily drown themselves.

8. Try smearing garlic on their driveways about a couple times a month.

9. Frontline spray helps radically - a fairly expensive spray against cockroaches, ants, fleas and ticks. Sold in veterinary pharmacies.

10. Radical remedy - "Regent". A small bag, dilute with water, apply with a small syringe with a needle into all holes and crevices.

11. Buy a special product in a tube at a hardware store (the names can be completely different) and smear this “toothpaste” near roads and ant passages. The point is that they begin to get sick and infect their colony, i.e. the effect increases significantly.

Recently, there have been more and more cases of bedbugs being introduced into the country house or apartment.

Some more tips for fighting ants in your apartment:

- Sunflower oil repels ants well. To prevent them from getting into food products, it is necessary to lubricate the edges of dishes and bags in which food is stored with sunflower oil.
- dissolve yeast in water, add jam or powdered sugar and put this mixture in the cupboard with food. The ants will attack the bait and die.
- Ants are repelled by the smell of lemon. Therefore, lemon can be used to lubricate the edges of dishes in which jam, honey or sugar are stored.
- place a piece of raw meat in an accessible place and within a few days remove the ants that have come from it. After some time, a hungry queen will crawl to the food; destroy her and the reproduction of ants will stop.
- the smell of parsley, garlic, bay leaf and mustard also repels red ants well.

To get rid of household ants in the kitchen, you must first, if possible, eliminate the holes and crevices from which these ants crawl out, then collect the ants all in one pile - for this you need to pour sugar in the place where they usually accumulate, then simply pickle them with a solution , which can be bought at any household chemical store.

To repel ants from food, the edges of the bags can be lubricated with sunflower oil.
- Lightly lubricate the lower parts of the table legs with mosquito repellent "Taiga" or "Komarex", after which the ants will not dare to rise to the surface of the table for 2-3 days.

Knowing the laws of life of an ant colony allows you not only to find a suitable way to fight, but also eliminates unnecessary fears. So, even if you return from visiting with a piece of grandma’s pie and bring several infertile worker ants, they still will not be able to establish a colony and begin to reproduce. Only females are in charge of dispersal. If this were not so, then the pharaoh ant would have taken much less time to spread throughout the world.

With the arrival of the spring-summer season, owners on their personal plots are fighting for the future harvest. And often their opponents are insects, which in the wild are tireless workers and bring a lot of benefits. Ants are the orderlies of the forest. At the dacha they also bring some benefit, but the harm from their activities turns out to be much greater. In this article we will tell you how to fight ants in your dacha using traditional and chemical methods, as well as methods for protecting trees from insects.

Ants in the country, on the one hand, are beneficial because they control the population of other harmful insects. The goosebumps eat themselves, larvae and eggs, but along the way they cause more damage to the crops planted on the site.

Problems that arise as a result of their activities include eating sweet fruits and berries. But at the same time, insects spoil a small amount of the crop. Pests also carry plant seeds, including weeds, into their burrows. Therefore, goosebumps contribute to their spread in the garden. At the same time, a large number of weeds are spread by both wind and humans.

The most significant harm, as a result of which the fight against ants in a summer cottage must be carried out, is the spread and protection by them of aphids, the milk of which they feed on. Insects are able to carry aphids from plant to plant, which helps them reproduce. Aphids, in turn, suck out the juice of young shoots, weakening them and reducing yield. It also spreads diseases of garden crops. In autumn, ants hide aphids in their shelters. So that with the arrival of spring it can be transferred to the plants again. There are known varieties of aphids that settle on the roots of vegetable crops.

Pests also break through complex communication systems underground, causing damage to lawns and beds. When asked how to get rid of ants in a summer cottage correctly, experts answer unequivocally. It is necessary to protect trees from their penetration, destroy anthills using folk remedies and carry out a merciless fight with radical chemicals.

Video “Harm and benefit from ants”

In this video, an experienced summer resident will tell you all about ants, their benefits and harms.

Methods for controlling ants in the country

Ants were found in home gardens long before chemicals were invented. Therefore, people are accustomed to fighting them with folk remedies. There are many methods in the arsenal of gardeners, some of which we will consider below.

Pouring boiling water over a discovered anthill can be considered inhumane. This is best done after sunset, when the entire ant family is assembled, or at dawn. Celandine, garlic or tobacco can serve as an addition to boiling water. Such infusions will allow you to destroy the queen with larvae and working individuals. Instead of boiling water, hydrochloric acid is often used. After filling the insects' home with it, you should pour slaked lime on top.

Sometimes the ground around the anthill is sprinkled with ground pepper, which is available in any kitchen. The fact is that goosebumps are intolerant of pungent odors, so they tend to leave the old place. Along with black pepper, red pepper is also used, which is sprinkled on ant paths and the anthill itself. It is also good to plant garlic in their habitat.

A remedy for ants in the countryside, such as vegetable oil, works great. If you treat pest locations with it, then after 2–3 procedures they will be defeated. Vegetable oil can be mixed with 2 glasses of inexpensive shampoo and dissolved in 10 liters of water. Instead of shampoo, use dishwashing detergent. The prepared mixture is poured into an anthill, into which a stick is stuck for greater effect.

Some people prefer to pour a mixture of 10 tablespoons of kerosene and 10 liters of water into the insects’ home. It is recommended to cover the top with polyethylene.

Plain table salt also performed well. To destroy a colony, you need to scatter a couple of kilograms along the paths and burrows.

You can use wood ash. Used in the same way as salt. At the same time, it is also an excellent fertilizer for the soil. Other repellents include lime, ash, tobacco dust, bone meal, and soot.

Gardeners often sprinkle minks and paths with ground cinnamon. Or they make a decoction of tomato tops, the smell of which is also unpleasant to ants. Practice shows that the greater its concentration, the more effective it is.

An acceptable method for everyone is the use of grain. They fill holes and numerous paths. It causes inconvenience to pests who want to move to a new place.

Poisonous baits are also popular among gardeners. They are made on the basis of boric acid (aka borax). You should take 1 teaspoon and add minced meat, egg yolk, honey or sugar for sweetness. Be sure to wear gloves when working with such a mixture for your own safety. Make sure that poisonous baits do not attract your pets brought to the dacha.

Folk remedies such as scents have become widespread. Garlic, onions, anise, valerian, marigolds, laurel, and cloves will help remove ants from the area. Pieces of onion, garlic, anise, and ground cloves are usually placed in places where the pest moves and near the anthill. You can soak orange or lemon peels in a bucket of water overnight.

An interesting method of removing garden ants is by delivering their relatives from the forest to the site. To do this, they bring an anthill with red goosebumps to the site, which drive away the gardeners and after a couple of weeks return to the forest.

In order for insect control to be effective, you need to clear the area of ​​rotten stumps, half-rotten boards, and weeds. Fallen fruits and berries should be removed promptly. All this attracts insects, don't give them a chance!

The modern market of pesticides offers gardeners a large selection of products. They are available in the form of powders, pastes, gels, and granules. Each has its own application features, advantages and disadvantages. Chemicals should be applied along ant trails or directly to the nest. Popular products include “Aardvark”, “Absolut-gel”, “Muracid”, “Great Warrior”. For example, Anteater contains diazonin. This is an insecticide that has a contact-intestinal effect on insects.

There are two ways of poisoning - the first occurs upon contact with a substance or an infected individual. In the second option, the poison is eaten, it enters the blood, and as a result, cholinesterase is inhibited and destroyed. The latter is responsible for transmitting nerve impulses from the brain to the muscles. The ant experiences paralysis and subsequent asphyxia. The drug is effective for 3 hours. According to the instructions, you need to dissolve 1 ml in 10 liters of water. But it is better to first pour this volume into one liter, mix and gradually introduce another 9 liters.

How to prevent ants from getting into trees?

In order not to wonder how to deal with ants, it is enough to simply protect the trees from their possible invasion. Mechanical methods have long been invented for this. Water barriers, catching belts, and barrier skirts will allow you to create a reliable barrier against ants for the crowns of trees and the roots of seedlings.

Water barriers are created using old car tires. They are cut into two parts and placed in the shape of a trench in a circle near the trunk. Water is poured there. And then the trees will be protected not only from ants, but also from caterpillars, aphids, and spiders. Sometimes insecticides are added to the water. But remember that beneficial insects, for example, bees that pollinate plants, will also be able to drink from such a drinking bowl. For large bushes, gutters are used, laying them in a square. It is permissible to create a barrier from polyethylene or polyvinyl chloride film.

An old and effective way of protection is belt-skirts. They are made from hard materials - thin tin, plastic or PET bottles, foil, thick film. A section of the trunk at a height of 20–40 cm from the ground is cleared of bark and smeared with plasticine or clay in combination with mullein. Next, a cone-shaped collar is wound onto the leveled area with the socket down. For fixation you will need twine or wire. A strip of rubber will help seal the structure. The insects will not be able to get over the edge of the skirt and will fall to the ground. It is best to install the belts before the first buds open. During this period, many overwintered pests rise to the crown from the ground and damage the buds. The result is a decrease in yield.

Getting rid of ants in the garden is not so easy. Almost all species of our ants cultivate aphids, i.e. adult worker ants feed on their sugary secretions - honeydew. Without aphids, ants spoil ripe and ripening fruits and berries for the sake of sugars; To develop an anthill, plant roots are gnawed. But for the reproduction of individuals, the fertile female - the queen - needs protein food. Therefore, ants also destroy small living creatures, incl. malicious. Unfortunately, the balance of benefits and harm from ants in private households and in the countryside in our area is always sharply shifted in the negative direction And It is necessary to fight ants on cultivated land areas.

Ants are a particular problem in greenhouses. On the one hand, there is plenty of freedom for ants here: greenhouse conditions are favorable for them in all respects. On the other hand, near building structures and communications, under ladders for people to walk, near partitions/fences, it is easy to hide the entrance to the anthill. Finally, the arsenal of ways to combat ants in a greenhouse is limited: the use of radical means can harm the plants and deprive the crop of health conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to exterminate greenhouse ants using complex or narrowly targeted effects, see below.

Ways to fight ants

The fight against ants in a summer cottage is traditionally carried out in the following ways:

• Destruction of an anthill directly– pouring boiling water, super-fried vegetable oil mixed with shampoo, kerosene emulsion (5-10 tablespoons per bucket of water) or pesticides; perhaps after excavation. It is not always effective, because... and a young anthill (see below) after such treatment is able to be reborn, and a mature one will almost certainly be reborn nearby.
• Shading anthills with foil on low supports. Ants maintain a fairly even temperature in their home, releasing some of the working individuals as heat carriers, whose task is to heat up in the sun and give off heat in the anthill. Deprived of this opportunity, the anthill does not develop, withers and dies. This is a troublesome, but absolutely environmentally friendly way to remove ants, but it is not applicable in hot summers or in a greenhouse.
• Laying out poisoned baits. The most common, but also the least effective method: often after 1-3 weeks the anthill is reborn. How this happens, see below.
• Pesticide injection or a substance that is toxic to ants, but harmless to people and plants, directly into a young anthill, also see below about the biology of ants. Having basic knowledge about the latter, you can get rid of ants forever in this way, because... the treated area becomes unsuitable for the foundation of an anthill for years.
• Fermentation of food reserves in an anthill. This is a fairly effective way to remove ants from your summer cottage without risking the health of the plants or the quality of the harvest. However, the treatment must be carried out when the anthill is young and in combination with poisoned baits.
• Repels ants with unbearable odors. These are remedies for ants in the country from species that are beneficial in nature and do not protect aphids on cultivated plants, but actively exterminate harmful insects. Forest ants can settle near the site (on cultivated land extremely rarely). Having sniffed the abominations (for them), they will soon switch to other feeding stations: raspberries and strawberries are desirable prey for them, but random. What, for example, red ants cannot stand, see the video below. A fairly effective, but labor-intensive and expensive method - the odorous substance/object is exhaled, soaked in rain, and needs to be changed frequently. If garlic stalks or tomato tops are used for scaring, then you won’t have enough of them for this purpose.
• Hunting belts useful to remove ants climbing fruit trees, especially in combination with repellents. Tempted by sweets, foragers may come to the garden from the nearby forest, see below. It is useless to destroy them: the loss of some of the working individuals for an anthill is the same as cutting our hair or cutting our nails for us. In addition, forest ants are very fond (in a gastronomic sense) of bark beetle eggs and larvae. The hunting belt will not allow ants to get to the fruits, and all the more reason for them to deal with more serious pests crawling from the ground up the trunk.
• Near-trunk ring traps and barriers, eg an old tire cut in half and filled with water. Labor-intensive and ineffective, ants build bridges by gnawing and dragging straws.

Video: how to get rid of red ants, what are they afraid of

About hunting belts

You should linger a little while on the hunting belts, because... they are effective not only against ants, but also encourage the latter to prey for the benefit of the gardener. Traditionally, a hunting belt is a strip of sheepskin tied around the barrel or a cone made of tin, foil, dense thin plastic (PET from bottles, for example), wrapped around the barrel with the socket down. But ants gnaw sheepskin, gnaw through foil, and overcome tin and plastic, building living bridges. Much more effective are catching belts made from masking tape and special glue (sold in agricultural chemical stores), see next. rollers.

Video: catching belts - a non-toxic way to fight ants

Lomehuza against ants

It is possible to destroy garden and earthen ants biologically if you introduce the lomechusa beetle to them, see Fig., its secretions have a narcotic effect on the ants. Ants do not miss the opportunity to greedily lick them, which Lomehusa takes advantage of by devouring their eggs, larvae and pupae. The ants don't mind as long as they get licked.

A pair or two of Lomechus live in almost every large forest anthill near the top. You need to pry off the top of the anthill with a shovel, quickly, before its alarmed inhabitants pounce, put this heap into a plastic bag, and dump it on the anthill in the area. Forest aliens will not attack the locals, as is sometimes written. Forest ants do not directly quarrel with earth ants, and the forest ants will have no time for that: having lost contact with their anthill, they are completely discouraged and doomed to death, but the locals, sensing the lomehusa, will quickly drag it away to themselves.

Large forest ants are more or less accustomed to Lomehuza, and its secret affects them, well, let’s say, like a bottle of vodka with a drink on a man: he’ll pass out, but sleep it off. For small earthlings, the “dope from Lomehuza” is like a mixture of crack with “krokolil” (desomorphine) for drug addicts of the human race. Having licked the Lomechuza, they will not be able to work and will die from an overdose, and the Lomechuza, having devoured the brood, will wander to the next anthill on the site.

Over the summer, Lomechuza will destroy all the surrounding anthills, even mature ones, see below, the fight against which by other means is ineffective. Unfortunately, if the ants appear again next spring, you will need to either destroy the anthills from a young age (also see below), or look for Lomechuza again: it does not survive the winter in earthen anthills.

Who inhabits anthills?

The abundance of methods for exterminating ants alone (and we have not yet gotten to the recipes for the corresponding drugs) suggests that it is necessary to combat ants in a comprehensive manner, taking into account their species composition and biological characteristics. Let's start with the types, because... on the site, ants can be alien harvesters and constant harmful parasites. The former must be scared away, and the latter must be mercilessly exterminated.

Most noticeable are forest red ants of several species, poses. 1-3 in rice: they are large and biting. In nature they are useful, but in the garden they attack sugary berries and fruits, see fig. on right. Red ants should be discouraged from eating sweets, but they should be completely driven out only if there are a lot of them and they bite: red ants are active destroyers of harmful insects, arachnids (spiders and mites), worms, etc. Red ants, as a rule, do not cultivate aphids on cultivated plants; but they can gnaw leaves for food in reserve or to prepare a nutrient substrate for growing mushrooms in an anthill; in this case, red ants become absolutely harmful and poisoned baits must be used against them.

Small red earth ants (pos. 4) bite even more painfully than red ones, but you most likely will not see them near your home - these are typical savages who avoid inhabited places. They are not interested in sugar: red earth ants are ferocious and merciless predators, hunting for any small animal that they can overcome, incl. and on aphids as a source of protein. Red earth ants are very aggressive; You can drive them out with repellent odors (repellents), the same as for red ones, and for personal protection - with mosquito and midge repellents.

Most often, black earth ants (garden ants, pos. 5, turf ants on lawns, etc.), as well as yellow thief ants, pos. 6 (mainly in greenhouses; the species name speaks for itself). It is easy to confuse the pharaoh ant with the thief ant, which attacks, in addition to residential premises, greenhouses too. Pharaoh ants are not found in open ground; they were brought to Europe by accident in the 18th century. from Egypt. All these types are certainly harmful, because... They do not prey, but live by feeding on aphids and eating plants.

How does an anthill live?

Communities of social insects, and anthills in particular, are referred to by a number of zoologists as “superorganisms.” What this means is that:

• The representative (unit, subject) of a population of a given species is not an individual, but a “superorganism.” The ant itself is nobody and nothing.
• An individual in a “superorganism” is its structural unit, like a living cell in the body of a living being, although the individuals of the “superorganism” themselves also consist of cells and tissues.
• Individuals in the “superorganism” are divided into castes that perform strictly defined functions. Unlike the old Indian castes, individuals in the “superorganism” naturally move from caste to caste throughout their lives. For example, a worker ant can be a cleaner, a “gardener” (caring for mushrooms), a “courtier” to the queen, a forager-preparer of food, a “nanny-educator” caring for the brood. Outside the anthill, except during the flight period, only foragers appear.
• Without a connection with the “superorganism,” its individual is not viable. Pure cultures of living cells have long been known, but no one has yet succeeded in maintaining an isolated culture of ants of one caste.
• In a “superorganism” the exchange of information is carried out chemically and mechanically. The information flows inside us are electric, in the form of weak electric current impulses spreading along the nerves, and social insects, in the order of the life activity of the “superorganism,” exchange food flavored with their own secretions or pure ones, make movements with their legs (antennae), legs, abdomen, or move the whole thing (dance bees).
• The laying of eggs by a fertile female (uterus) of a “superorganism” is not an act of reproduction in the strict sense, because It just makes up for the loss of workers.
• The “superorganism” reproduces by swarming.
• The dispersal unit (diaspora) of a “superorganism” is not an egg, larva, embryo or cub, not a herd, school or fragment of a colony, but the same swarm - a certain number of adult individuals temporarily endowed with special functions. The swarm may consist of a single winged fertilized founder female.

Ant nest

The vital organ of the “superorganism” anthill is its nest, see Fig. on right. The fertile female - uterus (queen, queen, Queen) - is much larger than the working individuals, pos. 1. She lays eggs, which develop into worker ants, pos. 4. Next to her in an adult anthill there are always several smaller, but still larger than working “court” substitute individuals (vice-queens, position 2). They are much more mobile than the uterus and take food after it. Almost indistinguishable from the “courtiers” are the “servants” (position 3) - the guards and breadwinners of the uterus. Our garden ants do not have a special caste of soldiers, like termites and tropical ants.

If something happens to the queen, one of the “courts” begins to lay eggs, one of which gives birth to a new queen. Then the “courtiers” and “servants” die, or they are killed by worker ants, most of which also die. The anthill seems to have died, but due to the accumulated food reserves, the new queen first produces worker ants, to which new “courtiers” and “servants” are added at the time of maturity of the anthill.

Why ants of different castes hatch from seemingly the same egg has not yet been solved by science. But with regard to the fight against ants, it is already possible to draw conclusions, firstly, that it is useless to destroy foragers: in the anthill there is a supply of eggs, larvae and pupae, the development of which ants can accelerate and slow down. Secondly, it is not enough to destroy the queen; you need to quickly destroy the entire nest before her replacements spread out. Thirdly, in order to get rid of this anthill forever, you need to destroy the food reserves accumulated in it or make them unsuitable for ants.

How does an anthill grow?

Having been fertilized during flight (the male, having completed his task, dies) and landing in a favorite place, the founding female bites off her wings and digs an almost invisible hole (shown by the arrow in position 1 of the figure); This is the embryo of an anthill. There, without feeding, she lays 2-3 dozen eggs. Energy for this is spent from its reserve in the so-called. fat body found in the abdomen of all higher insects. There is no point in destroying an anthill at the embryonic stage: it is difficult to detect, and another founder will sit in the same place, because the founding of an anthill takes much less time than the duration of flight.

From the first portion of eggs (the female, while caring for them, is already feeding), workers emerge, equipping the anthill and feeding the founder, who is now the queen. The vegetation around the anthill is dying, and around the entrance to it a roll of discarded earth is clearly visible, pos. 2; now we see a young anthill. This is the most vulnerable phase of its “growth”: the structure of the building is still simple, pos. 3, but there are no food supplies yet. The greatest depth of the building usually does not exceed half a meter.

It is best to poison ants at the young stage of the anthill. If a flexible tube is pushed into the entrance and insecticide or poison for ants is poured through the funnel (or pumped from a confectionery syringe), then the anthill will die completely and irrevocably: the female has already largely lost her mobility, the “courts” have not yet hatched, but the workers have already specialized and They won't survive without a uterus. You can also dig it up and pour boiling water/poison on it, but if the properties of the soil allow it (and ants know how to choose it), the female can go into hiding and the anthill will be reborn, because she developed a fat body again. If a young anthill is under a paved or asphalt path, then injection is the only way to remove it completely without spoiling the coating.

If you start the business, then, depending on the type of ants, a clearly visible earthen mound will form, pos. 4, or several/many entrances on a barren area, these are developed (adult) anthills, pos. 5 and 6. It is difficult to get rid of a “mature” anthill, because a mature “superorganism” is well protected from external influences by its very structure and is very resilient.

How to harass ants?

There are also many known recipes for compounds to kill ants, but boric acid has proven itself to be the best base: in small concentrations it is harmless to humans and plants, but is a deadly poison for ants. Most commercially available ant repellents (sometimes quite expensive) are also made with boric acid.

Another effective remedy is ammonia. But not ammonia (an aqueous solution of ammonia), but ammonium chloride NH4Cl. It is also harmless to us in a weak solution (used as a food additive, including for high-quality confectionery products), and ammonium chloride is a nitrogen fertilizer for plants (25% active nitrogen).

Ammonia can be bought at radio and electrical stores; it is sometimes used as an active soldering flux. But remember: when heated above 338 degrees, ammonia decomposes into extremely toxic free ammonia and chlorine!

Note: ammonia against ants is also applicable, but under certain conditions and with precautions, see below: the correspondence between ammonia and nitrate is approximately the same as between pure sodium and chlorine and table salt.

Radical means

The following compositions have been tested in practice for filling/injecting anthills:

1. Concentrated boric acid solution;
2. 10% solution of ammonia, which is ammonium chloride;
3. Soil disinfectant/disinfestant based on copper sulfate of triple concentration compared to a solution for treating plants: 3 g of copper sulfate, 6 g of boric acid and 30 g of potassium permanganate per 10 liters of water. The most economical means;
4. Concentrated solution of dichlorvos. After cultivation, the land within a radius equal to the depth of the anthill is removed from agricultural use for a year. A good way to quickly and surely destroy ants nesting under a path or blind area of ​​a house, because... It also destroys developed anthills.

All these preparations are poured/pumped into the anthill in dry weather so that the solution comes out of the entrance (with the top) or the ground is apparently saturated with it. For a young anthill, 2-5 liters are usually enough.

Lures

All poisoned ant baits are based on boric acid powder mixed with sweets: molasses, honey, jam, sugar, etc. Take 2 tbsp per teaspoon of boron. spoons of sugar or a glass of molasses, jam or honey. Add water to the dry bait until a thick syrup forms. 1/2 teaspoon portions of the bait are placed on pieces of foil or scraps of PET bottles and laid out on ant paths. The top is covered with straw to prevent birds from pecking at it and flying insects from eating it.

The trail bait is even more attractive to ants. composition, by volume:

• Granulated sugar – 40%.
• Honey – 10%.
• Borax – 5%
• Water – 45%

The ants seem to consider this drug a delicacy, because they carry it directly to the queen. The effect of this drug begins on the 2nd day and, if the developed anthill is not an old perennial one, even the “courtiers” have time to eat the sweet poison. Also on the 2nd day, the popular commercial drug “Great Warrior” begins to act with the same effect.

Note: It is unacceptable to use poisoned ant baits in an apiary or in the “operational zone” of bees!

Fermenters

These compounds spoil the ants' food supplies, depriving the anthill of nutritional resources for revival. The base is regular baker's yeast, diluted with water to the consistency of sour cream. The application is twofold:

1. Together with baits - mixed with fermented jam 1:3 and laid out on separate “plates” alternately with them.
2. 10 minutes - 1 hour after injection into the anthill, when the pesticide is completely absorbed into the soil: dilute with water “to milk” and inject. After dichlorvos it is ineffective.

Repellers

A serious problem is keeping ants away from the beds. Hunting belts are not applicable here, garlic needs a lot, and pesticides and a decoction of tomato tops can make the crop unsuitable for food. Regarding the compatibility of agrochemistry with health care, 2 methods can be recommended:

• A mixture of dry oregano herb ground in a meat grinder (sold in pharmacies) and fine sulfur 1:2 by volume.
• A mixture of wood ash, ground dry conifer bark and slaked lime in equal parts by volume.

Both compositions are poured into the row spaces in a strip 4-5 cm wide and dug in with the soil.

On the bushes

Berry bushes with fruits from ants are regularly sprayed with a solution of (1 tbsp + 1 tsp) ammonia in a bucket of water. The solution is allowed to sit for half an hour and the bushes are sprayed. Its effect is short-lived, no more than 2 days, so re-treatment should be carried out as soon as the ants are noticed again.

In the greenhouse

This is the most difficult case, because... Greenhouses are most often inhabited by very cunning and tenacious thief and pharaoh ants. The radical remedy for both is to freeze the greenhouse, but this is not always possible. You can significantly reduce crop losses from ants using the already mentioned “Great Warrior” or bait with borax in combination with fermenters.

An effective method, but requiring observation and knowledge of the habits of insects, is ammonia. First you need to find the entrance(s) to the anthill. Most likely, it will end up in a hard-to-reach place: under a heating pipe, near a frame post, etc. It is difficult to track ants along paths in well-kept greenhouse soil.

Next, you will need an absorber - a piece of moisture-absorbing fabric (calico, flannel), felt or natural felt (best) the size of a tea saucer, cover the entrance to the anthill with it and drip ammonia from the bottle until the absorber is soaked through. Don't forget to wear a respirator and safety glasses!

The absorber soaked in the volatile reagent is inverted and covered with a piece of plastic film to reduce evaporation. The door and windows are opened wide, otherwise ammonia vapors will damage the plants. If the anthill is developed, the treatment will have to be repeated, but not earlier than after 2 weeks.

Finally

The basis of all life on Earth is one and gives a huge variety of its forms. Zoologists globally divide animals into protozoa, protostomes and deuterostomes. Each of these groups represents a separate trunk of evolution with dead-end and productive branches. The protozoa followed the path of specialization and improvement of intracellular structures. The crown of the trunk of protostomes is precisely the “superorganisms” of social insects.

There are many more insects on land, both in the number of species and in biomass, than all other animals. However, the deuterostomes achieved the greatest success: they improved a fast, compact and capacious system for transmitting information within the body electrically through nerves. This made it possible to fit all the complexity necessary for survival and development into one individual and ultimately led to the emergence of intelligence.

The mind has made it possible to purposefully change the environment and, without changing the organism itself, to live even where life is impossible in principle, for example. in space. Man influences nature not always for the benefit of it and himself, but this is a matter of rational use of the same mind. Nevertheless, we are still the kings of nature, and even when solving completely private issues, such as the one to which this article is devoted, we need to find ways to do this without harming the environment. Let's hope that the material presented will help you with this.

Damaging trees and wood structures. Therefore, the question of how to get rid of ants in a summer cottage is relevant for every owner who cares about his property.

Where do ants come from?

Garden ants emerge from winged pupae. insects occur during the mating flight, after which the fertilized female sheds her wings and looks for a cozy place to create a nest and a new colony. The partner dies after fertilization. Thus, insects settle in vegetable gardens and summer cottages.

What attracts insects to the garden

Many people are interested in why ants appear in their garden plots. From the eggs laid by the female, which outwardly resemble small white worms, young offspring very soon appear. The “position” of future individuals depends on the quality of the food that the older ants feed it.

Finding food and providing it to the whole family rests with the worker ants. Having found a more favorable place to live, they can migrate there as a whole colony. It is there that the ants will be able to enjoy her sweet secretions (honeydew). Plants from such proximity begin to get very sick and dry out.

On a note!

Ants damage the root system of trees by setting up their nests there. They cause no less harm to lawns. Pests also spray formic acid on the fruits, causing the latter to begin to deteriorate. If no measures are taken, their presence will very soon affect the harvest. Therefore, it is very important to remove ants from the area as quickly as possible.

How to clean your summer cottage from pests

Fighting ants in the garden can be frightening and destructive.

• A more humane method is to repel insects. You just need to know what. And they cannot tolerate the pungent odors that many plants and substances have. It would also be a good idea to know how to remove it from your site without harming its inhabitants.
• If there are too many pests, repelling is not enough. The most effective way to control is to kill ants using chemicals.

Application of pesticides

Despite the effectiveness of toxic drugs, it is much safer to deal with garden ants in a summer cottage. The folk methods presented below will not harm green spaces, and therefore people.

Vinegar

You can get rid of the ant population in a very simple way using. It is necessary to prepare a working solution from it (1 tablespoon per 8 liters of liquid) and use it to water the entire area of ​​the summer cottage. The smell of ammonia will cause ants to migrate, and the plants will only begin to smell fragrant from such additional fertilizers.

Ash

You won't have to poison insects if you use regular wood ash. You need to sprinkle it on plants damaged by aphids and on the trajectories of ants. The inhabitants of the anthill will leave the summer cottage forever if their home is disturbed and covered with hot ash.

Black pepper

The smell of black allspice effectively repels ants. Insects find not only its specific aroma unpleasant, but also its dusty consistency, due to which the respiratory tract of pests becomes clogged.

Ground powder is generously applied to ant paths and nests. To enhance the effect, you can mix black pepper with ash and use the resulting mixture to irrigate plants affected by aphids.

Boiling water

The use of boiling water in the fight against harmful insects cannot be considered a humane method. However, when there is a large concentration of pests in a summer cottage, this method of control is very effective. Cool boiling water is poured into the anthill, having first stirred it up.

Kerosene

It is one of the well-known means in gardening. Usually a solution is prepared from kerosene and poured into an anthill. And so that the specific aroma does not lose its properties, the treated nest is covered with polyethylene. The pungent smell will very soon force insects to leave their usual habitat.

Syrup

Many gardeners use the ants' taste for sweets against the insects themselves. Country pests will not be able to resist thick sugar syrup. It is poured into small containers, which are placed in the habitats of the ant population. To enhance the effect, poison is added to the syrup.

On a note!

Not wanting to kill insects, you can dig up the ant nest along with its inhabitants and move it outside the summer cottage.

You can prevent the appearance and spread of ants in your summer cottage by cleaning it regularly. It is necessary to promptly get rid of weeds and dead plants. The appearance of aphids, which serve as a source of food for insects, is also unacceptable.

And behind it, in turn, bacterial and fungal diseases will arise. In general, garden plants with such neighbors have almost no chance to fully develop. And if you do nothing, then you shouldn’t count on a harvest. How to get rid of ants in the garden using improvised means and what to do to ensure that these nimble insects bypass your plot - this will be discussed in our article.

Damage from insects in the garden

Despite the fact that ants also destroy other harmful insects, they are unwelcome guests in garden beds. During their life, the soil becomes loose, enriched with nitrogen, potassium and humus; they do not harm plants. Why do they need to be driven away from the site?

Did you know? During an experiment, scientists from Harvard University in Florida managed to find out that ants are as ancient as dinosaurs. These insects first appeared about 130 million years ago and have already experienced mass extinction.

By collecting dead beetles and butterflies throughout the area in order to feed the queen, ants contribute to the spread of aphids. But this is not all the accusations against them: when constructing their underground dwellings, the ubiquitous insects make many passages in the root system of plants, thereby preventing the development of garden crops.

Moreover, they are carriers of weed seeds. It is obvious that the benefits that these clever insects bring to the beds and gardens do not at all compensate for the losses from the life of their faithful companion - aphids.

Folk remedies

Fighting ants in a summer cottage is a labor-intensive process, so you immediately need to be patient. It makes no sense to kill an entire colony; relocating these insects to another location turned out to be more effective. There are many ways to do this, let's look at the best ones.

Digging an anthill

This is one of the radical methods of fighting insects. It consists of removing the entire ant nest and relocating it off site. Experienced owners advise protecting yourself with special clothing and digging as deep as possible.

Then, depending on its size, the anthill is loaded onto a wheelbarrow or into a bucket and taken away from their property to any place they like. They resort to relocation in rare cases when other remedies for ants in the countryside are powerless.

Be careful: the remaining residents may settle in the old place, so to prevent them from having such a desire, sprinkle the dug hole with table salt. You can also use powder or wood ash. As a preventative measure, it wouldn’t hurt to dig up nearby areas. They can also be fertilized with ash.

Plants that drive away pests from the site

Some housewives share their experience of sowing daffodils, lavender, lemon balm, peppermint, mustard and even allowing wormwood to grow in garden beds and tree trunks. The fact is that these odors are very unpleasant to insects.

The list of crops that repel ants also included tomatoes, mustard, red hot chili peppers, onions, garlic, parsley, anise, marigolds, black elderberry, and all representatives of conifers. And the more similar smells there are around, the faster garden lovers of aphids will run away.

If you did not manage to sow these crops in a timely manner, and the ants have already taken a fancy to your plot, do not be upset. It is enough to cover their anthill with tops, and soon the insects will leave your yard.

On the forums, summer residents are advised to mix pine needles or sawdust with the leaves of wormwood, mint, fennel, douse everything with kerosene and place a “treat” under the abode of uninvited guests. To improve the effect, sprinkle the area around the nest with dry mustard or ground black pepper. Please note that the degree of evaporation of incense is affected by air humidity and temperature. Therefore, be prepared to select a product that will work.

Important!To save your garden from aphids, spray the plants, especially the leaves on the inside, with a soda solution in the proportion of 10 liters of water to 3 tablespoons of powder.

For those who are looking for answers to the question of how to instantly remove ants from the garden, a recipe is suitable, the main ingredient of which is boric acid. It is enough to dissolve 30 g of powder and 5 tablespoons of sugar in 1 liter of boiling water, add 100 g of sunflower oil, and the product is ready.

You can enhance the effect with a few drops of any essential oil or a glass of table vinegar. This mixture should be poured as deep as possible into the ant nest. To do this, you will need to make a deep hole in it, and after the liquid is at its destination, cover the anthill with a piece of polyethylene and secure its edges. After a couple of days, the procedure should be repeated.

Did you know? The main task of ants is to prepare supplies for the winter, but they do not eat the food they obtain without permission. Everything goes to the disposal of the uterus, the so-called “queen,” who decides what, when and to whom to eat.

You can improvise when creating an “anti-ant”. On forums, gardeners share a recipe with the addition of shampoo (for the given mixture you will need about 100 g), soda (no more than 2-3 tablespoons), ash (the quantity does not matter). Instead of water, you can take a decoction of pine branches or tomato stems. Plan the treatment for the period when all the inhabitants of the anthill have returned home, and be careful not to burn the roots of the cultivated plants.

Kerosene

The smell of this liquid is unbearable for ants. Having sensed it, they immediately begin to look for another suitable place for their monastery. Kerosene should be generously poured over the anthill and the area around it. Some gardeners advise additionally pouring a little product into the recess made in the nest.

As a preventive measure, you can soak small pieces of cloth in kerosene and place them, for example, in a berry garden under each currant bush. Watering tree trunk circles with such a substance is strictly prohibited, otherwise you will lose not only ants, but also plants in the garden.

Boiling water

If you don’t want to interact with chemicals, and small workers have occupied your garden and vegetable garden, prepare boiling water and scald their lair several times every day, having previously stirred it up. The discomfort created will give immediate results.