# Red ants



## BjornBee (Feb 7, 2003)

While inspecting a hive today I noticed a large pile of leaves and grass underneath the wood pallet that the hives sit on. Thinking it was the ever present mouse, I took my hive tool and scraped across it. What I broke into was red ants. Nasty aggressive and not all that common in these parts. And they seemed to have a nice collection of dead bees also. We have four kinds of ants here in Pa. The really small ones that we call pissers, the common house or backyard ant about 1/8" in length, and then the carpenter black ant at something slightly larger than 1/4 inch. The red ants are about that size but a whole lot faster and aggressive.

I have at this time the following:
Paramoth crystals and moth balls
Systemic spray that kills about anything on contact.
Ant bait traps. The kind that they take some back and it kills the nest.
Normal "raid" type bug spray.

I do not want to move the apiary location. Just eliminate the ants. Is there something else that would work. I heard about boric acid but didn't know if that would work on a actual ant mound type home. Plus I don't have any.

This will make me happy the next time I have a few common ants under the cover.

Please direct me. Thanks.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

My favorite is a can of Bugler or Top Tobbaco. Just bury the ant hill in it. Otherwise, move the hive over, take a shovel and a hose and dig and stir to the bottom of the ant hill while dousing with water until the whole colony is liquid mud.


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## BjornBee (Feb 7, 2003)

What is bugler or top tobbaco? Never heard of it.
The hose thing is out unless I carry the water since its in the middle of an orchard.
Thanks.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

Bugler and Top are brand names of cheap tobacco for rolling cigarettes.


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## Robert Brenchley (Apr 23, 2000)

You can make a very effective instecticide by steeping tobacco in water, giving a nicotine solution. Its highly poisonous; people used to die regularly as a result of using it, so home-made insecticide was eventually banned in the UK. An infusion of rhubarb leaves would also work well. Otherwise, you could mix a little borax with jam, and put it on top of the nest, covered up for obvious reasons.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>You can make a very effective instecticide by steeping tobacco in water, giving a nicotine solution. Its highly poisonous; people used to die regularly as a result of using it, so home-made insecticide was eventually banned in the UK. 

Much safer to put the tobacco on dry and maybe wet it aftwards so it will stick together and not blow away. Or put some plastic on it with some rocks so it won't blow away.


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## dragonfly (Jun 18, 2002)

Orange oil 2 tbsp and molasses 2 tsp mixed in a gallon of water and poured over the mound as a drench will also kill ants, fast. I have an ant bait called "Come and Get It" that works great, but takes a day or two. It does the trick on fire ants, so I suppose it may kill other ants also. You just sprinkle it over the mound and around the perimeter. The ants take it into the mound and it wipes the ants out.


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## ikeepbees (Mar 8, 2003)

Or leave the ants alone and see if they actually do any real damage to the colony. Only way to find out! And maybe they will feed on SHB pupae.

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Rob Koss


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