There are many ways to get rid of fire ants. You can use a mixture of sugar and borax. Pour the mixture around the ant hills, and the ants will carry it inside the colony, killing it off. Another solution is the sugar substitute, Equal or Nutri-Sweet. These have been known to be poisonous to ants. Just pour it around the hill and you will see little any bodies laying around in a couple days. Like the others have said, if it's garden ants let them be - unless it's a huge infestation. Here is a link that might be useful: Ants In The Vegetable Garden

Greetings to all ... Wow, this is an old post but always very relevant, right? Actually, I recently purchased 3 pre-potted plants: Bougainvillea, Pentas Plant, and a large Kale from a popular local farm. They were not pot-bound, so I did not repot them ... Just placed them in my yard. Little did I know all three had millipedes in the soil, and all three eventually died. It was when I uprooted the dead plants that I discovered the millipedes in the soil. Now I know to always repot anything I purchase from them. This soil is very rich in organic matter, so I saved it in a sealed clear plastic bag and solarized it to eliminate the millipedes. I'm not certain if the millipedes eventually feed on the roots of potted plants, but that appears to be where the issue was. The plants just dried out rather quickly. In fact, I placed a potted succulent on top of the soil of the Bougainvillea and it lost all its root system. At least that one can be easily rerooted. Millipedes may be beneficial in natural settings but not in potting soil and definitely not in houseplants. Diatomaceous Earth (food-grade DE) does not address the issue. You have to replace the soil ... Especially so if yours is a houseplant. Millipedes do not bite but most people are allergic to a substance they ooze, which causes itching and skin irritation.

Those pinholes do look like flea beetle damage but I haven't found any flea beetles. These beetles are much larger (about the size of a Japanese beetle) and fly, don't jump. I suspect they are causing the large holes in the peppers. They seemed to disappear after the rain, but they're back today. Hope these are better pix: Damage They seem to like to burrow in the bark mulch - I wonder if they came in with it, or maybe the grubs were in our soil anyway? I'm wondering if mulching with newspaper covered with grass clippings would be better? Though we have used bark mulch for years with no problem?

So shortly after all this I placed out some *set* snap traps and nearly caught the rat pictured above. I didn't set it out properly though and it got away - heard that I should have baited them unset and left them out with the trap perpendicular to the wall where the spring on the kill-side should face the wall (is that correct?). Then after several days of the bait getting taken, set the trap. Anyway, after that incident the problem went away for a while. Fast-forward to this past week, I walked out there and apparently tracked fleas back in, realizing it *after* getting bitten :( I also noticed rat droppings. I sprayed down the deck yesterday and checked it again this morning - tons of fleas and several more rat droppings, so it's definitely active. I had set the traps (unset but baited with walnuts & cashews) prior to this) but no action. This time I smeared some PB and placed parmesan cheese rinds on the unset traps. Will be monitoring for the rat(s) - I have the camera set up again. I just have two traps - a Tomcat and a Victor. I placed one on each side of the shed. Will post updates as things progress (assuming they do and there's activity).