Friday, January 27, 2012

How do I get fire ants out of my organic garden?

Normally I'd welcome bugs, but these are particular aggressive and the garden is my 15 month old daughter's favorite play place.

How do I get fire ants out of my organic garden?
Organic Control - Drench with the fire ant control formula - compost tea/molasses/citrus oil. The commercial product is called Garden-Ville Fire Ant Control. Many gardeners report good results with instant grits, Malt-o-Meal and other instant break fast cereals. Spraying products that contain molasses helps keep them away. Apply beneficial microorganisms. Laboratory tests have shown that the beneficial fungus Beauveria bassiana is effective against fire ants.



Step 1: Spray the site with Garrett Juice plus orange oil or d-limonene at 2 ounces per gallon of spray. Homemade citrus oil can be made by soaking citrus peelings in an equal amount of water for 10 days to two weeks. Adding garlic-pepper tea makes the spray even more powerful. This same spray will also help control aphids, white flies, and mosquitoes. It will also kill beneficials so don’t use unless pests are a problem and don’t use more than the recommended rates of any of the citrus concentrates or risk burning plant foliage or even killing plants.



Step 2: Treat mounds with a drench of manure compost tea, molasses and citrus oil. Commercial products are available that contain these ingredients. The homemade concentrate includes equal parts of compost tea, molasses and orange oil. Use 4-6 ounces of concentrate per gallon of water. Commercial products include Garden-Ville Fire Ant Control (Soil Conditioner) and GreenSense Soil Drench.



Step 3: Apply beneficial nematodes on problem areas. Be sure to apply these living organisms within the date deadline. They do have a shelf life.



Step 4: Spray the site at least monthly with Garrett Juice which is a mixture of manure compost tea, seaweed, natural vinegar and molasses. Long term this is the only step necessary.
Reply:I am not sure unless you could find their hole they are crawling in and out of and plug it up

baffin slippers

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