Sorry but ants are not allowed to run willy-nilly in my garden

Killing creatures is not something I ever like to do. At heart, I like to think of myself as a man who wouldn’t harm a fly.

I capture moths by hand or by using a glass or napkin whenever they find their way into the kitchen. Then, I release them gently back outside.

Slugs, if ever I catch them slithering along, I relocate into a place where they can dine on things other than my plants.

Sometimes, if I’m in a hurry, I will drop them in with leaf litter in the recycling. Well, at least they stand a chance.

Ants, unfortunately, fall into a different category.   I like them. I admire them. I love the way they rush to protect their eggs when threatened.

But, I’m sorry, but they can’t live where I live. In this regard, I feel the same about a colony of invading ants as I do about wasps at a picnic: they have to go.

Ants can’t come on my deck. They can’t run all over my patio. They can’t run into the branches of my favourite plants to milk aphids they have herded into colonies that weigh down the juice tips of young stems.

No, sorry, it’s just not happening.

I’ll tolerate ants running over the buds of my peonies. I read once that this actually stimulates the buds to open faster. Not sure if that is correct, but hey, I let the ants run free around my peonies.

But, nope, they can’t swarm willy-nilly out of the crevices of my paths or over the flagstones of my patio or into the cracks in my driveway.

If you have a similar problem, you’ll want to get rid of them, too.

Boiling water was the preferred method my mother used. It was what I grew up being taught to do in response to an ant attack: pour boiling water into the hole the ants were coming out of.

Today, I prefer the “foam method”. It is a pesticide that comes with an extension tube that delivers killer foam deep into the nest.

These products were made to get to ants that are in difficult places, such as in the crevices of paths and cracks of pavers.

I have Raid: Ant Nest Destroyer ($9.99). It “kills them where they hide.”

I also bought OneShot, the Wilson equivalent ($8.99). And I invested in Ant BGonMax that is the Ortho product ($7.99). 

I’ve tried traps. They didn’t work. I’ve used dust products. Didn’t work either. And I have used liquid sprays, which worked for a bit but are really not effective long  enough.

Now, I can promise you that I don’t use any other pesticides, but I simply cannot abide ants crawling everywhere.

Yes, I have done everything I can to eliminate what encourages them: rotting wood and debris and so on.

But every July-August, I find ants find a way back into the garden and their nest can be big indeed and they do end up spoiling our time on the patio if they are running over everything.

In the past, I have advised gardeners that the only solution is to decimate the ant population to keep it down to an acceptable nuisance. That’s still what I think. I know we can never get rid of them forever, just achieve an acceptable peace for summer.

If you’ve a better idea for keeping them under control, let me know. But make sure it’s a method that works.

swhysall@hotmail.com