I think it depends somewhat on the number of colonies you have. If you have a huge population with many colonies, it may take longer as new colonies find the baits and take enough back to poison the entire colony.

I usually see trails slow to a trickle after a few days, but I think normally I'm only dealing with one or two colonies.

A few days to a week for me. But i put out new bait boxes every month to keep the population in check.

If it's fire ants, the boric acid baits aren't attractive to them.

Even with boric acid baits, if the colonies are large enough the ants start to learn that those baits/areas contain bad food and they relocate the colony or change food hunting areas.

It helps to move your baits around if you notice the ants stop visiting them in large numbers.

Hmmm.... I'll keep trying then

nc-crn:

Fire ants bite, right? Then not fire ants. Plus, these have been attracted to the baits. But, like you said, they do tend to ignore them after awhile. And so, I DO move them.

Must be a lot of colonies and there's no way of me knowing where they are. I don't see any ant hills in MY yard and I'm surrounded by homes -- typical SoCal tract home.

They certainly do seem to spend quite a bit of time at the bait -- almost like wildebeest surrounding a waterhole. Do you think they might be drinking up too much that they never make it back to the colony?

Thanks.

Kevin

The ones in my yard don't do hills. They're nests are in the soil, usually like having it against one flat side-- a brick or edging. Half the time I pick something like that up in my yard, I unleash a slew of frantic ants trying to move the pupa I exposed to a new place. I rarely see any actual sign a nest is there.

fire ants are small and gold/yellowish color. There are similar ants that are black. They all bite if you disturbed. Otherwise, normally, they do not bite and are HARMLESS in the garden EXCEPT for the aphids farming allegations. But sometimes they get annoying, that's all.

If they are large black ants they might be carpenter ants. Sometimes you can follow their trail and find out where they are setting up camp....hopefully not in your house. We have a few every year, and the Terro baits work well for us. I put out a bait on my desk last week and almost immediately saw 3 ants in it. Haven't seen many ants lately.

We had an ant trail going across our porch. Put two terro baits out, three days later, only a few stragglers remaining.

I've never had them work.

Try Specracide granules. Works GREAT around my foundation! Around veggies I would read the label closely though.

Sounds like you just had a larger ant problem than you thought. If they are collecting the bait, they are eating the poison. In a big colony, or with many small colonies it can take a while to get to the queen.

Never actually saw ants going for this stuff, so had to take the picture.

You have argentine ants. First you must see if they are presently attracted to protein or sugar. Use a piece of hot dog or peanut butter for the protein. You must add sugar to the boric acid. It takes a week or so to kill the colony.
Tim

Sometimes I wonder if San Diego is the worlds biggest anthill. Came home from work today and had ants all over the kitchen floor. Ugh!!!

I've always left the ones in my yard alone but I sure don't like them in the house.

Kevin...how did you do with the Terro?

Jude

Jude: They're eating it, but like nc-crn said, I have to move the traps every couple days. But, they just keep coming. Almost 2 weeks now and a half bottle and there's still plenty of trails.

Sometimes, I think they're under control but the next day, they're back. I'll keep up the fight though and report back.

Tim45z10: they're attracted to the Terro. I just don't see a reduction in the population yet.

Kevin

Hmmmm.....

Last year was the hornworm/grasshopper invasion. This year I have the ant/ aphid/leaf miner/raspberry leaf eating critter invasion.

I so appreciate the bees I had this year though so I consider myself lucky.

Still so much to learn........

I am NOT talking about ants control in the garden but for eradicating them from indoors I have found BORIC ACID POWER(?) the most effective solution. It works also well on roaches. All you have to do is sprinkle it in the cracks along their path.

This is an age old material that ants and roaches can not develop immunity, like some other chemicals.

Terro is essentially boric acid in sugar syrup.

Jude: Yep... but year by year we learn a bit more. I'm actually pretty happy so far this year except for the vinegar solution that I put on my cantaloupes and now all the foliage looks like crap.

Things I do NOW ---

Spray BT once every 3 weeks or so whether I see caterpillars or not. It's working well for me to have that peace of mind.

Planting flowers and herbs so they flower at different times throughout the year to attract the beneficial insects.

Treat for powdery mildew BEFORE symptoms show --- this one caught me by surprise this year... one moment it was Spring and the next moment we stated getting that monsoonal crap. It usually doesn't show up until August. I miss my "old" San Diego before the humidity days of today.

I usually leave the ants alone -- it's that I want to release some lacewing larvae and I'm afraid they'll eat the lacewing eggs before they hatch.

Kevin

Hey Kevin, where did you get the lacewing eggs?

I did a ladybug release earlier and they did a great job on the aphids...until they flew off to greener pastures. It was fun having them.

I used to live in La Mesa and I am having a hard time with the coastal marine layer. I've been here 5 years now and it just throws me for a loop. I have one little rose bush in my front yard and I can't get the mildew under control. Yesterday I noticed the biggest mushrooms I've ever seen growing under the roses. I don't have any mulch down so I have no clue where they came from.
My cukes and zucchini are not faring so well either. I figure I'll just chalk it up for experience and next year will be better.

Will your cantaloupes fruit?

Jude:

You're going to have challenges with warm weather crops if you're on the coast. Not that you can't, just compared to East County, production will be limited. You might want to call the master gardener's extension and ask them what varieties do well there or call Walter Andersens's in Point Loma.

regarding the lacewings, I'm going to order online from rincon-vitova. I called City Farmer's Nursery(usually very helpful) and great organic product. And they said that they could order lacewings for me but then left me on hold so I just decided I'll get them online.

Also, I had problems with ladybugs taking off also until this year-- they came to me! I attribute this to creating an environment for the adults to propagate by planting beneficial attracting flowering plants that flower at different times of the year. Research IPM(Integrated Pest Management) and you'll learn loads. I'll attach a link of some general plants you may want to plant.

The cantaloupes -- a far amount is fruiting right now and have already picked about a half dozen. I just don't know if the plants are going to be able to hold out from the damage I exposed them to.

Good luck.

Kevin

Here is a link that might be useful: benefical list

This post was edited by woohooman on Sat, Jul 27, 13 at 18:08