HELP! I am desperate to find a way to get rid of the ants in my flower beds. They are small black/dk brown ants that prefer greasy foods over sweets. (Discovered when my daughter dropped a french fry in the kitchen and didn't pick it up.) They are in my flower beds. I have found them in two potted plants already this year (one of them a hibiscus). They were in my mailbox without dirt at one time after it had rained for a while. Luckily, they do not bite but they are walking around my house all the time and I'm concerned they will be a bigger problem when I bring my tropical plants back in the house in the fall. Does anyone know if these methods safe for houseplants and herbs?

You are dead wrong in your supposition, wynsworld. The people you will talk to when calling the information hotline are in the business of helping people like you use their products properly, safely, effectively, and legally. They are one hundred percent willing to tell a caller that they MUST NOT use their product in a certain way because it may: damage the plant, not do the job the user intends, harm the user, harm non-target animals, harm the environment, or be illegal. Ortho has nothing to gain from people who get themselves into trouble by misusing their products and a great deal to lose. That number is the very first place you should go to for good information. Look on the label and call the number listed. If you have never done so, you might be surprised. I've called them many times over the years, mostly to see to what they had to say about certain off label uses. I've never had a sales job pulled on me, but have been given a great deal of good information....mostly in the form of "NO, you cannot use our Ortho product for that use." But plenty of times to explain how to safely use it for something that might not be listed on the label. Chemical companies spend multimillions of dollars in research in order to produce their products and the labels that are considered federally legal documents. They want their customer to be successful and will help you to that end. On the other hand, if someone wants to do something dangerous or even non-effective with their product, they'll tell you immediately that you cannot. I suspect that they will be happy to bless your use of this pesticide for your purpose, and why not take advantage of their insight? They have an awfully lot at stake that you will be satisfied with their pesticide and live to tell the story. ;-)

Acutally, to clarify, carpenter ants will not leave just because moisture problems are fixed. If there's an established nest, it's not going anywhere unless you kill the ants, run them out with something that disturbs them (and if they're in the house the place they'll run to will almost certainly be another part of the house), or remove the wood in which their nest is located (in which case they'll just establish another nest nearby). And BTW, there have been plenty of documented cases of carpenter ant nests in otherwise healthy or unblemished wood (i.e. not water-logged or even stained from previous moisture). Carpenter ant nests can be destroyed by killing the inhabitants of a particular nest, but that does not rid an area of them. Established queen nests will have satellite nests, and killing a queen prompts the otherwise sterile workers to produce eggs for the purpose of creating another queen. If the main nest and all its satellite nests are destroyed, there is still a chance of re-infestation in the future by neighboring colonies further out that spread into the newly vacated area. Monitoring for, and possibly treating for, carpenter ants is just one of those things that has to be done regularly when you own a house that has wood in its structure (in an area known to have carpenter ants -- which is almost everywhere in the U.S.). Oh, and finding carpenter ants in a house doesn't necessarily mean you have a nest in the house. Carpenter ants can be in a house just as scouts, so the idea that lack of moisture will keep them out of the house is incorrect. They prefer to tunnel through moist wood for a nest, but they will scout anywhere within 100 yards of their nest. And I mean anywhere. If there is a nest near the house, and there's a way into your house, they will almost certainly end up in there. That doesn't mean they're turning your framing into swiss cheese; in such a case they're just looking for food. Carpenter ants do not consider our houses to be sacrosanct -- inviolate unless the sin of failed maintenance is committed. They do not distinguish between forests and houses, or woodpiles and houses, and while it's true that they're attracted to moist wood, they do not require it -- it is simply a convenience for them. Like lions picking the weakest animal in a herd, it's just easier. As for your original quaestion, I've never used the gel, but it's generally considered worth the price if used as recommended. For the gel, it's important to use it in a well-travelled (by carpenter ants) area, with the understanding that it can be attractive to other insects and animals, and that it can lose its attractiveness quickly as it hardens from exposure to air. You need to locate the foraging trails and put it as close to the nest as possible -- protected from the elements and from other creatures -- and renew it at intervals (the packaging will go into more detail) if you know there are still ants in the area. The most effective way to treat carpenter ants is generally considered to be: 1. Ensure that there are no nests in the house (track the ants, kill with bait if you're uncertain of their location, or kill with drione dust if they are in a house and location is known and accessible). 2. Use a perimeter treatment at regular intervals (for the life of the home) to keep them out of the house. Ants in a natural setting do not necessarily need to be destroyed. If you are sure there are none in your house and you use perimeter treatments correctly, ants in the landscape should not be a problem (unless they're destroying something alse you cherish, like a fence). Carpenter ants are everywhere -- they exist, and there's nothing we can do about it. Get them out of your house (if they're there), keep them out, and let the ones outdoors do their thing.

Roach Proof (boric acid) mixed with honey will kill carpenter ants. Ants will take this mixture back to the nest and in time will kill the queen. Maybe you could figure out a way to put Roach Proof/honey in a small container and fasten to trees out of reach of children to reduce the ant population. Protect from rain. Since the mixture worked in a weeks time I did not get around to putting the mixture on trees. I did put jar lids of the mixture in the upstairs and downstairs attic. Ants will enter a home through the weep holes of the brick. Ants enter the home looking for water.