no, this has nothing to do with dave matthews. i just called home and my wife said the pool is being swarmed with ants. they are jumping in by groups. a couple of summers back we had this on a much smaller scale. while i was in the pool, i would see an ant come to the edge, stop, and jump in. it happened all the time but then stopped until today i think they have a lemming complex. has anyone heard of this? without poisoning the pool, is the best thing to just the filter do it's job? i might spray around the pool but would need to be careful not to get anything in the water. help!
ANTS MARCHING!
- Thread starter davmar77
- Start date
Yes, be VERY careful not to poison the pool. You might try finding the source and giving them some nice Amdro to take back down to the queen. Gets the mound every time. This "Anticide" works very well for me on Fire and Red Ants.
A borate treatment of the water might help kill them once they've jumped, but I'm not sure how to stop them from basejumping to begin with. I agree w/ Brushpup in that Amdro does a good job for fire ants, but may not be as effective on black ants. Since they seem to be in search of water, perhaps you can give them an alternative source?
- Jul 2, 2010
- 95
Couldn't wait to jump in on this one..........
:idea: The borax that we so lovingly take care of our pools with is a great ant bait. Mix a little sugar with the borax and put near where the trail is. They will take back to their nest and bye bye ants! But.......do not let children or pets near this mixture as is VERY VERY toxic to them. If there is no safety issue here, then you are good to go.
:idea: The borax that we so lovingly take care of our pools with is a great ant bait. Mix a little sugar with the borax and put near where the trail is. They will take back to their nest and bye bye ants! But.......do not let children or pets near this mixture as is VERY VERY toxic to them. If there is no safety issue here, then you are good to go.
Terro sells a really good borax ant bait - already mixed and always effective. I used to mix borax and sugar for ants, now I put out drops of Terro. They do a better job than I ever did. ( http://www.terro.com/ )
It's gotten kind of hard to find around me these days, but I can often find some at a Home Depot nearby.
It's gotten kind of hard to find around me these days, but I can often find some at a Home Depot nearby.
wimpy
0
Wally World stocks in springtime then thats it, so i grab my stash of 1oz bottles for the year and just refill old bait stations. Once you find a trail follow it back and bait them suckers. Within two days trails gone.Great stuff.
Still think an alternate source of water might keep them out of the pool while you're baiting. A shallow pan, maybe sunk in to ground level so ants can walk right into it, placed on or near the ant's path, might give them a source before they get to the pool.
Ants like borates. They take it back to their queen as a gift. Very toxic to queens, btw...
For those searching for ant issues, 20/20 Mule Team works on regular sugar ants. Fire ants I couldn't comment about it's efficacy (other than to recount the time my 2yo self encountered them in Miami grass... in my socks while my parents fumbled about wondering why I was screaming...).
For those searching for ant issues, 20/20 Mule Team works on regular sugar ants. Fire ants I couldn't comment about it's efficacy (other than to recount the time my 2yo self encountered them in Miami grass... in my socks while my parents fumbled about wondering why I was screaming...).
we were away for the weekend so i haven't had a chance to check things out yet. hopefully they are just at the bottom now and ready to be vacuumed out. i still need to spread the amdro.
thanks for all the advice folks.
thanks for all the advice folks.