Where do ants come from in a summer cottage?
With the onset of a warm period, these insects become more active and try to densely settle throughout the entire territory. Therefore, it is urgent to take drastic measures. Forest ants come from the forest located near the summer cottage. They don’t stay in the gardens for long, but go back.
The garden view is established precisely on the site: tree cuts, under the roots, in the ground or in the beds. They also come from nearby areas. Small groups of small pests migrate in order to search for food and territory for permanent residence. The abundance of vegetation favors their high fertility. Insects build multi-level nests, reproduce and feel great. Before autumn, it is necessary to destroy their homes and exterminate ants from the garden, otherwise they will overwinter and again cause trouble for their owners in the spring.
The benefits and harms of ants on the site
In addition to the negative impact on yield, ants saturate the soil with phosphorus and potassium in a diluted form, useful for absorption by plants. Insects eat caterpillars and other pests. Their opponents are more likely to think that the negative aspects outweigh all the positives. Here are some of the negative factors:
- Garden ants breed aphids in the garden in order to obtain sweet nectar.
- They attack fruit and berry plantings and lead to their death. The peculiarity of ants is that they carry away aphids for the winter and remain a threat to future crops.
- Like moles, colonies of insects destroy beds, plantings, flower beds, lawns, and eat up vegetables and fruits.
- They build anthills with a huge, labyrinth-like network of underground passages, where cold and toxic substances do not enter. Subsequently, the individuals move into a person’s house or apartment, disturbing normal life.
Features of fighting ants in the house and apartment
Unlike garden plots, where ants can bring certain benefits, pests in the house must be immediately destroyed.
Usually house ants appear in apartments, another name is pharaoh or ship ants.
Measures must be taken as soon as the first insect is noticed. If you miss time, the ants will build a nest, and it will be much more difficult to get rid of them.
Another difference from garden ants that attack suburban areas in warm weather. House ants are able to enter homes all year round.
If for some reason time is lost, methods of controlling domestic ants are usually chosen taking into account the following factors:
- The degree of contamination of the room.
- The presence of children and animals in the house, people prone to allergies.
- The effectiveness of the product.
- Availability.
In conditions of limited space, not all methods can be combined. For example, bait traps and repellent traps will be useless in the same room.
Before treating your home for ants, experts recommend doing a general cleaning. After destroying the population, it is worth resorting to preventive measures to prevent the reappearance of pests.
Video: how to deal with ants in an apartment
https://youtube.com/watch?v=lDzv6p3oWzo
How to find an anthill?
If you don’t find out where the colony lives, you won’t be able to get rid of pests from the area forever. The only insect on which the growth of an ant colony depends is the queen. Therefore, to prevent the population from reproducing, it is necessary to destroy their nest, queen or queen.
To find an anthill, they follow the working individuals. This applies to where they take their food. If the anthill is immediately noticeable and is freely accessible, then there will be no difficulty in completely destroying the nest. In the case where ants are located in hard-to-reach, invisible places and corners at home, in this case it is also possible to completely destroy the colony using insecticides of a wide range of actions.
Common mistakes
- The fight is only with working ants. The most important thing is to kill the queen. Without it, the anthill will not exist. By killing the workers, you only briefly reduce the insect population.
- Using oil belts on trees. Because of this, the tree bark suffers.
- Frequent use of kerosene and brine. It is acceptable to use these drugs, but you should not do it too often. You will damage the soil.
- The fight against ants is carried out from time to time. If you quit halfway, the queen will give birth to new workers, and all your work will be in vain.
- Use of toxic products indoors. Remember your safety. If you can’t remove the ants, hire specialists.
Varieties
There are several types of ants: forest, red (brown), red and black (garden). The last species is a real pest of its forest counterparts. They make an anthill out of a small hole in the soil, with a hill on top of it. Under your feet you can see the homes of individuals around trees and in the roots. The red species is also called pharaonic. When they appear on the site, almost all plants suffer. The difficulty lies in destruction, because insects quickly restore the number of their offspring and get used to the chemicals.
Pests parasitize the root system, causing the death of the plant. Even if the ants’ home appears in the garden, not in the roots, nothing will grow in these places.
Prevention
The flavus ant likes to settle where there is enough food and water. Therefore, the best prevention is timely cleaning of the house. It is necessary to hide all food, wipe crumbs from the table, vacuum and wash the floors. In summer cottages, you need to loosen the soil and water the plants thoroughly.
A couple of yellow ants in the house will not cause a problem, but they can bring with them a queen, which will give birth to numerous offspring. Therefore, it is important to start pest control in a timely manner using all available means.
How to fight in the garden?
The extermination of females, males and eggs is carried out in a comprehensive manner. Ants love quiet places, so they colonize the soil where areas are cultivated less frequently. An important rule is to frequently dig up the soil or loosen it. Thus, there will be less chance of strengthening the ant house.
Trees are treated with a strong, saturated lime solution. This applies to the trunks, the exposed root system and the surrounding area. If you find one or more nests or small anthills, you need to destroy it. Using a shovel, dig the nest and adjacent soil deeper and fill it with lime. It is also recommended to cover the top with ash or ashes. The final stage is to re-dig the soil.
Chemicals
There are many products available to control insects. The composition should contain diazinon compounds. This element immobilizes and affects the nervous system. After a couple of days, the larvae and adult ants die completely. The consumption of the product is minimal, but it is not recommended to get carried away with the drugs, as it causes serious damage and harm to the plants that will be planted in this area.
Insecticidal gels
Insecticidal gels are effective and easy-to-use remedies for annoying red ants, which can poison the nest and queen without knowing their location. The peculiarity of the action is that insects treat them as a delicacy and carry drops of gel into the anthill in working groups. Scientists selected the dosage of the poison specifically so that after eating, the ant would not die instantly, but would have time to take the poison to the nest. Breeding males and females in this way depends on the area and ranges from 2-7 weeks.
A neat droplet-shaped preparation is applied to the location of the home or onto a cardboard, which is placed next to the anthill.
Of all the products, Globol, Grom-2 is the most effective: one drop of the drug kills up to 600 individuals.
FAS and Raptor gels are popular in the fight against brown and red specimens, but also work with other species.
Initially, the bulk of the working classes die, and then the remaining pests are removed with gel.
Sturm paste is also an effective insecticide. It is important to choose the right product for your dacha.
Sticky traps
Summer residents are familiar with chains of ants climbing the trunks, branches of trees and shrubs. Insects hunt for aphid milk. For this purpose, in the spring they bring aphids to plants and receive nutrition from them. Gardeners protect the future harvest and come up with sticky belts. Instead of destroying the colony, you can limit access to the tree.
There are belts:
- funnel-shaped;
- with adhesive, sticky tape;
- with a trap.
An adhesive belt can be found in a specialty store, or you can make it yourself.
First, all cracks in the tree trunk are covered tightly with a consistency: garden pitch, plasticine, clay.
When purchasing adhesive tape for catching flies in a store, pay attention to ready-made gels based on glue. Their disadvantage is that they dry quickly. The tape is wound in a wide layer around the trunk, making further movement difficult.
The disadvantage of adhesive tape is that due to its non-elastic shape, the trunk does not increase in diameter. This is typical for fast-growing apple tree seedlings.
An independent hunting belt is made on the basis of grease, rosin glue, and Vaseline. Ants that get on the sticky mass die. For the material that is attached to the trunk, take cling film, any dense fabric, non-woven material or paper.
Folk remedies
Since ancient times, people have used pest control recipes using natural remedies. These recipes have a right to exist and are as effective as professional insecticides. Unlike chemicals, there is no damage to future plantings and soil composition.
Boric acid
The popular antiseptic substance was used to cleanse wounds and also to control cockroaches and ants. The powder was combined with dough, egg yolk, and bread crumbs, and the prepared baits were placed around the area.
Borax is boric salt, which is considered an equally reliable insecticide.
Fill the anthills or tunnels with a solution of boric acid and sugar - in the ratio of 1 glass of acid and 4 tablespoons of sugar.
Complementary food for ants is prepared in the following way: 3 tablespoons of water, 1 tbsp. sugar and 1/3 tsp. Mix the borax, heat and cool. Add 1 tsp. honey Place such a “tasty” trap near the habitat, the accumulation of eggs.
Baking soda
Baking soda receives special attention according to reviews from gardeners. White powder, available in every home, expels ants from the house and garden forever.
2 tablespoons are poured into the jar. soda and 2 l. boiling water The ingredients are thoroughly mixed until the small particles dissolve. The resulting consistency is poured onto the anthill and sprinkled with earth on top, covered with a thick cloth to block the access of air.
In minimal quantities there will be no damage to the soil.
Ants are sweet lovers. To attract bait, you can add powdered sugar to the mixture (in equal proportions with soda).
They also sprinkle soda on their habitat, location or nest.
Some speak of a more cruel method of killing ants - soda mixed with vinegar will give a strong corrosive reaction.
Within 5-10 minutes the pests die.
Yeast and sugar
For people, this is a familiar, safe and healthy product. Over time, the yeast will ferment to rot and spoil the food previously collected. The ants will die of hunger. For 50 g of yeast, crushed into crumbs, you will need the same amount of sugar. The mixture is poured with warm water and mixed thoroughly. Balls are formed from the pulp, which are laid out near nests, anthills and other places where pests accumulate.
Ammonia
An aqueous solution of this product cannot be replaced in the garden. It is important to observe safety precautions when inhaling ammonia vapor. Ant heaps are watered with alcohol. It is not difficult to prepare the solution. To do this you will need 5 liters of water, 2 tbsp. ammonia. You can soak a cloth in the resulting solution and place it on top of the anthill. Cover with polyethylene.
Spraying plants is effective. You will need 10 liters of water, 10 ml ammonia. Pour the liquid into the plant at the root. This method will provide nitrogen bait and will destroy pests.
To kill aphids, mix: ammonia - 50 ml, water - 10 l and shampoo - 10-15 ml. The composition is generously sprayed onto the affected plants.
And more proven methods
You can also use the following methods of struggle:
- Sweet baits. They also help cope with annoying insects with the help of carbohydrates. To do this, containers with sweet syrup and jam are placed around the garden. Insects flock here. Some gardeners prefer to simply take the bait outside the site, while others advise pouring boiling water over the insects. Here everyone decides for themselves.
- Baking soda also helps get rid of ants in your garden. It is mixed with powdered sugar and paths are laid for insects. They die from such a treat. You can also dissolve baking soda in boiling water and pour it directly into the anthill. Even the queen could die from such rain.
- Boric acid. It must be mixed with sugar in equal quantities. Then the area around the trees is sprinkled with the prepared mixture and poured directly into the anthill.
- Dangerous bait. There is another way that kills ants. Experienced gardeners advise pouring a thin stream of sweet syrup from the anthill. It is better to make the path as long as possible. At its end a container with syrup and dry yeast is placed. Insects die from such treats.
Interesting: Path made of wooden cuts on a summer cottage
Is it possible to drive ants away from a site without causing them harm?
To maintain ecological balance, even pests must be treated humanely. There are ways to repel insects or block their path.
If there are several anthills at your dacha, they can be moved to another place, away from the site. Ants build their nests in warm and sunny areas. If you move an ant heap into the shade, the anthill will quickly become empty. Ants cannot tolerate the smell of valerian, parsley, bay leaf, mustard and tomato. Summer residents lay out leaves and branches of plants near ant nests, passages or trees. You can put twigs, parts around or plant marigolds, mint, cloves, onions, and garlic.
Gardeners use millet and semolina as bait. The principle of action is that the cereal swells in the stomach and the insect dies.
