How to Get Rid of Ants in the Garden

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by Renae Chiovaro on June 23, 2015

ants in garden

When we were planting our vegetable garden this Spring, we came across an unusual amount of ants. It seemed that everywhere I dug, an ant nest was uncovered. There were a variety of ants too! From tiny to large and a variety of colors. While ants can be good for pollination, too many ants can be a problem. They tunnel under the plants disrupting root systems.

Since we try to keep our garden as organic as possible, I looked into natural ant control solutions for the garden. There are a variety of everyday products that are harmful to ants but okay for vegetable plants. Here is a list of products that might be helpful in controlling ants naturally:

ant

  • Coffee grounds: just dump your used coffee grounds on the ant hill. The ants will take the coffee grounds back to their nest and it is toxic for them. Plus coffee grounds are great for acidic loving plants.
  • Diatomaceous Earth: buy food grade diatomaceous earth and sprinkle throughout the garden. It kills soft bodied insects just like the lice in the chicken coop.
  • Baking Soda: sprinkle baking soda around the garden. It is poisonous to ants.
  • Borax: mix sugar water with borax. The borax kills the ants while the sugar attracts the ants. Borax can be poisonous to your pets though so be careful using this.
  • Garlic Hot Sauce Spray: Make a natural pesticide with minced garlic and hot sauce. It will kill the ants instantly when sprayed on them. However, it will not kill the ants hiding in the nest.
  • Boiling Water: Dump boiling water down the ant hole. However, make sure the ant colony is away from plants if using this method. Boiling water will kill plants too.

The two methods that we have tried are the coffee grounds and diatomaceous earth. They seemed the simplest and we had the items handy! They seem to work okay for ant control although I doubt we will ever rid the garden of all ants. Thankfully, we haven’t had an indoor ant problem!

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Renae Chiovaro

Renae is a married working mom of two handsome boys. She works as a registered dental hygienist by day and blogs here at How to Have it All by night. She enjoys cooking from scratch, working in her vegetable garden and functional training.

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