I use home defense. I know all of you are looking for a chemical free way to rid yourselves of ants, but Home Denfense doesn't hurt anything. Just spray the perimeter of your house and also your windows and doorways. Also inside under the counters and fridge. Keep your pets away until it dries and then they can come back. Since it has no odor, dogs and cats can't smell it, so they have no temptation to sniff or lick it. I have two chihuahuas and a cat, and they have had no problems so far. You can also get it in granuals. It doesn't hurt plants, but it can hurt fish and lizards, so keep it away from those. And not only does it kill all types of ants, but it kills roaches, beetles, earwigs, mosquitos, fire ants, crickets, centipedes, flies, pantry pests, scorpions, spiders, sliverfish, and ticks. Here is a link that might be useful: Go here for more information.

LOL. Here's a couple things that help. First, cut a clove of garlic into slices and let him stand on them barefoot for a few minutes until he tastes garlic. Yeah - you absorb stuff through your feets ;-) The A in MSMA is arsenic. ...great stuff to absorb. I'm 'quiet' about my natural gardening. Nobody likes a lecture and nobody likes self-righteous a-holes. Rather than 'FINE! Use chemicals! Kill our beloved Earth Mother you warming denier SOB!' you may find that the best 'argument' is to kick the ever loving humanure out of your neighbor's property by having a better looking lawn. When I moved into my current property a year ago I noted that there was a 'competiton' for best lawn going on between the guy across the street from me and the guy next to me. They giggled when I scalped my lawn and started spreading compost because I went from 'a nice chem lawn' to utter crap in days but a month later they were asking what the hell I did and this spring one of them tore out half his front yard and put down new sod because my impossibly thick, dark green, 3/8" tall bermuda 'carpet' was just killing him. ...I don't preach or gloat, I show and tell and explain pragmatically and sensibly and avoid any sort of judgment. ...and OK, OK, I sneak out with my pump sprayer each night and apply that day's gallon of liquid gold to the grass with an ounce of molasses and a gallon of water and I never reveal that part of it because too many fools have no understanding that liquid gold is not the least bit unsanitary and would freak out but the proof is right out front ;-) Had a funny one last week. Some service came by to pitch their spray program as three of us neighbors were doing what men do - chatting about the finer points of lawn care and beer and football. I actually felt bad for the pitcher because we were in front of my house and the guy had really picked the wrong place to pitch. "We fertilize regularly" - hmmmm... is my yard in need of fertilizer? (lawn is pine green, thick and lush). "We treat for broadleaf weeds and crabgrass!" Oh really" How? "We spray the entire yard" Hmmmm.... ok, but there aren't any weeds or crabgrass, doesn't that stuff knock the grass back a bit? What's in it - can I walk barefoot after you spray it? "we also spray for insects so you won't have any ants and spiders". Oh... other than the occasional black widows which don't live in the lawn, why is it good to kill spiders? Does the spray kill only the spiders and ants? What about ladybugs and flutterbys? My kid likes ladybugs and running through the yard barefoot. Would it be OK to run around barefoot after you spray? Poor kid. I looked at him and said "OK, so you want to spray several gallons of poison to kill weeds that are not present and insects that are harmless for $500 and the benefit to me is that I can't run around in the yard barefoot with my toddler? No offense man but how does that sound like a good idea?" I was nice about it but the lack of sales training was probably more annoying to me than the lack of cognition. If I had to sell a used Pinto I would probably not try to sell it at a Mercedes dealership and that's what this kid was trying to do. Worse - the neighbors were asking me how to get the same benefits without the negatives and cost. That's how we win the debate and the key is not to over-reach. If someone asks me how to kill Nutsedge without chemicals I don't BS them. I pull the stuff until it eventually stops coming back. The best advertising we can do is to show results and avoid recommending anything that is iffy. I've read about how Nutsedge hates a good organic yard and that is just plain ...compost nitrogen of bovine origin. If someone WANTS to go all natural then they will. The other 90% want something that works so pick our battles wisely. Rather than spray 1/4 acre with a quart of MSMA maybe you can help a neighbor see the wisdom of using one ounce in his sprayer to spot treat. Rather than spraying the whole yard for insects (God that is freaking moronic) how about a spoonful of fire ant bait right on the mound? If we push hard to get people to go 100% natural we will fight like hell to win over 10-20% of those we argue with. If we are pragmatic rather than dogmatic we can probably get 80% of people to use only 20% of the bad crap they use currently and that has a MUCH greater impact. 32 ounces of MSMA targeted where indicated across 32 lawns is better than half of those lawns getting a full 32 ounces, right? Progress, not perfection. Show, then tell. Who do you listen to? The guy who is kicking your ass at something to the point where you break down and ask him how he does it or the guy who tells you what you are doing wrong without first having shown you a reason to believe he knows his ass from his elbow?

So funny. I have to add some. When you fill your pots and/or pot your plants behind your car in the parking lot because you don't want to have to carry whole bags of potting soil up stairs. When you park in a sunny parking spot just so you can claim the rest of the space for your plants for the afternoon. When you use a tarp under your planting/potting activities so the neighbors below you don't have potting soil all over their patio. You store plants under the staircase so you can put them out in the sun without having to carry them up and down stairs. You have counted carrying 5 gallon buckets up and down stairs as your workout for the day. You have stolen every plastic folding table in the house to give plants access to better sun. You have hit your downstairs neighbor dumping water out of a drain pan. Your balcony is now secluded and enclosed almost entirely with plants, which you use not only as a pleasant place to sit, but also as a hidden vantage point from which to spy on the goings on in your remote part of the complex that has recently been hit with car break-ins and has been attracting all kinds of shady people lately. You have had conversations with multiple people through your tomatoes and snow peas about why they need to park in the guest spots rather than taking the spots of the people who actually live here. You interrupt your gardening to do any of the following: write down a license plate number, ask people if they live here/what their business is, tell the teenager(s) from other apt complexes who park in the corner to get high to get out, tell the teenager(s) from other complexes who are "just hanging" in your neighbor's bushes to get out, tell that shady guy to clean up that big mess of wires and junk that he left in the middle of the parking lot when his car caught on fire last week, write progressively more angry and sarcastic notes explaining what is and is not a parking space, talk with maintenance men, contractors, or movers who are working on other units about your plants, or if you have ever said something along the lines of "I don't care if you get high/kill each other/worship satan here as long as you don't litter, make noise, or touch my plants." You have had to explain to a dozen drunk partiers from downstairs why you are sitting under the staircase at midnight wearing a headlamp so you can squish blackflies. You have ever hidden behind the plants on your balcony to avoid saying hi to the neighbors because you are grungy, in a horrible mood, not wearing a bra, hate everybody today, etc. Your plants compete with the cats for sunny windowsills. With respect to plant "requirements," the "I'll do the best I can" attitude becomes a "you're not the boss of me, plant" attitude. You have grown tomatoes in the shade and greens in the summer and you are not. apologizing. for. it. Because your garden is gangsta and it doesn't give a $%&*. And I have to second the using kitchen utensils in the garden thing. Just the other day I decided that I shouldn't be using my wusthof kitchen shears out there because I an't afford to replace them. Also seconding searching the forums for that one person who says it's okay to grow tomatoes in part shade. lol And I have to put this in there for any other knitters. You know you are a city knitter when your neighbor's guests park their bicycles on the lace shawl that you have blocking.

I agree. The Cambro Container (aka dough rising bucket, dough doubler, and food storage container with a lid - when purchased from a restaurant supply store) is the perfect micro-environment for dough and does an exceptional job holding that all-important moisture in (it's temperature, humidity, as well as the strength of the yeast that = rise). I have these containers in a number of sizes to accommodate the amount of dough, but the 2-quart is the one used the most. Because this container is transparent (enough you can see the dough rising inside), has graduated markings on the side, and most importantly - straight sides - you can easily see when the dough has "doubled" so over- or under-proofing dough is easier to control. If you pat 1-quart of dough into the container, when it reaches the 2-quart line it has doubled in bulk. A slant-sided bowl makes the task much harder because the area is smaller at the bottom than the top and "double" is just a good (or bad) guess. Add to that, covering the bowl with a cloth so you have to play peek-a-boo, releasing the warm/moist air each time you lift the cloth. Not optimal.... Use plastic wrap that holds moisture in and you can see through. Cloth covered dough is not optimal either because it can draw moisture from the dough surface and cloth can stick to the dough. When the environment you are proofing the dough in has low-humidity, a dry cloth can cause a stiff/dry crust to form on the dough surface by drawing moisture from the dough - diminishing the rise and possibly the oven spring. Plastic wrap is a better choice because it holds in moisture and is lightweight so it doesn't hold the dough down while it's rising. If you handle your dough with oiled hands when forming it on a Silpat (dough doesn't stick to a Silpat and no bench flour is necessary) or a countertop sprayed with non-stick vegetable spray, rather than a floured surface, there is usually enough oil left on the surface that the plastic wrap doesn't stick. If you are worried that it might stick, spray the plastic wrap with non-stick vegetable spray or a spritzer with oil. The "professionals" also consider the temperature of the dough at the end of kneading. If the dough is 65-degrees F one time and 80-degrees F the next time, there will not be consistency in fermentation and in bread flavor. The temperature zone that works best, particularly for wheat-based breads, at the end of kneading time, is 75-78-degrees F. Due to seasonal changes in our homes ambient temperature and humidity - it's not an exact science. There is even "friction factor" when making dough with a machine taken into consideration by professionals. Friction from the bowl and dough hook can increase the finished temperature beyond what is considered "optimal" if left to work too long. -Grainlady