It’s a beautiful 72 degree day outside and everyone else is heading off to the beach for the holiday, so I’m going to talk about . . . . ants. Yes, those little picnic visitors with high hopes are causing me some grief. While most of the BMS Courtyard has a normal amount of creepy crawlies and winged creatures, the corner that has been used as a trash pile has enough ants to move ‘The Black Pearl’ across the desert. Even with gloves, nobody is brave enough to rake up that mess. So, I could take a chemical approach and seriously poison the corner. However, if it was MY house I would want a less toxic solution. What bothers me the most, is the knowledge that some of the medically fragile children who use this Courtyard can’t be anywhere near pesticides. School is just slightly more than a month from starting again. Is that enough time for rains to make the area safe if I use chemicals this week? “GAH! Too much pressure, I can’t take it!!”
For the seriously-evil variety of ants, I say kill them and kill them quickly – I like the granular fire ant killer you can get at Lowes. It works on any ants, and they clean up is easy if you use too much because it’s granular.
Not only can you see if they have carted it away (back to the nest) but it doesn’t just spread indiscriminately around. But believe me, they will cart it all away.
And it works.
And if you get the kind in the blue jug, it has a self-measuring pour cap, and you end up using just the right amount.
I’ll go look at the hardware store if you want the brand name.
There are any number of safe ways to get rid of ants, including using vinegar, or a mixture of sugarwater and borax (this takes a bit longer though, so you may consider using the vinegar at first to knock off whatever ants you can see first then use the borax mix later for the rest. Since there is no poison involved, there is nothing to be concerned with for the children.