*DE vs Ants*
I have had Fire Ants in my garden in the past years, but didn't want to use a poison where my vegetables are growing and contaminating the fruits or ground.
A few weeks ago I had just dusted my chicken coop and chickens, and as I was walking back to the house to store my Diatomaceous Earth, I saw a small fire ant bed in my yard. I took a hand full and covered the ant bed, and proceeded to the house.
Diatomaceous Earth (often referred to as "DE") is an off white talc-like powder that is the fossilized remains of marine phytoplankton. (This is from the internet.)
The next morning I kicked the ant bed and there were no ants. I thought that this might be some good stuff to use in the garden. I had an ant bed in my strawberries.
I sprinkled a couple of hand fulls of the Diatomaceous Earth on the fire ant bed.
I then stirred it in with my hand. That really stirred the fire ants up, but because my hand was coated with the Diatomaceous Earth, they would not get on my hand.
As you can see from the next picture, the ants are dying.
I then left the bed alone, and came back in a couple of hours. The live fire ants had moved over about a foot so I did the same thing again, only after stirring the ants up, I covered the bed with a liberal amount of the Diatomaceous Earth.
When I went back the next morning, the ants had all died. There were no new fire ant beds anywhere in or around the garden.
We then had a rain of about 3" come through, and when I went to the garden, I had 3 new fire ant mounds in the garden. I proceeded to apply and mix in the Diatomaceous Earth to the new mounds, only this time; I did cover each bed with a liberal amount of Diatomaceous Earth. When I went to the garden the next day, there were no new beds, and the 3 beds I had treated were all dead. I then ringed the entire garden with a sprinkling of the Diatomaceous Earth.
It may not be necessary to mix in the Diatomaceous Earth, but that is what I did, and I am pleased with the results. It has been a week now, and I still have no fire ant beds in my garden.
Pistolshooter
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