We've always had ants around our concrete pool deck but this year they have gotten right next to one of the skimmers. They are dumping a lot of dirt / sand into the skimmer as there is a small gap where they can come through. Any ideas on how to get rid of them without putting poison into my pool water? Anything natural that can go into pool water that will drive them away?
Ants near skimmer - dropping sand into skimmer
- Thread starter jandersen13
- Start date
I use poison.... Can't help. The buggers survive the poison but do move their nests further away from the pool. We have a truce.
Diatomaceous Earth? That's what we use to kill our beds but it's not effective on the ants once it gets wet. We also use boric acid traps. As far as I understand it both would be safe for the pool...
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I had the same problem for the first time this year. I sprayed Home Defense inside the skimmer, along the deck and coping joint and around the edge of the pool deck adjacent to the skimmer lid. That was a few weeks ago and they are still gone even after lots of rain.
For a truly poison free solution, if you know where the nest is- pour boiling water on it.
We've done that many times but they end up popping back up in other areas of the yard. It would be very effective if they just needed to be removed from near the skimmer though. Maybe doing that and setting some homemade boric acid traps would eliminate them permanently - for awhile.
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Interesting. So it's really ok to spray Home Defense (or other ant killer sprays) right into the pool basically? I just thought it wouldn't be safe to swim in after that. So I am wrong?
I've had good luck with Advion ant gel. It's a bait that they love. They take the bait back to the colony and kill more of them.