Get Rid of Ants & Aphids FOR GOOD In Your Garden 🐜

[@epicgardening]

Big shoutout to Ants Canada for the feature! Go check out his channel, it's certified epic. - Kevin

[@maryanneegan4646]

So happy to see the vloggers I follow are somehow connected…Garden Answer; Ants Canada, Mikey Bustos and Epic Gardening. Kevin…do you collaborate with Mikey? Mabuhay ka!

[@donnabrooks1173]

I live in North Carolina and the fire ants are horrible. They are evil little creatures. I believe in live and let live, but fire ants, mosquitoes and aggressive bees will die immediately. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@strangeadv4977]

As a kid who grew up in SD and now actively follow both Epic and Ants Canada this was a pure gem...Even my kid got hyped. Keep it up Kevin & crew

[@Dreamzz101]

I have been watching Ants Canada for yrs now .. was shocked when you brought him on the video..lol

[@Bindy36]

I could never grow cucumbers until I started coating the bottom of the vine with a thick coat of Vaseline. The ants got stuck in the Vaseline and couldn’t go up the vine. I hosed off any pest that got near the flowers in the beginning. After that I didn’t need to do anything. Got at least 40 cucumbers off that vine.

[@jeannegow2144]

Wow that's an excellent idea...will try it on my chilli plants

[@allaboutrap1]

What? Wow! Thanks 😊

[@firefly5247]

Biologist here! I have to clarify for 2:52 - honeydew isn't excrement, it's just that the phloem in the plants is so high-pressure compared to the aphids, it literally forces its way through them. It'd be like a human trying to drink from a fire hydrant. Gotta love nature.

[@RolloTonéBrownTown]

Do you have a degree? Do you have a neat job in that field? Or maybe just fun facts about misconceptions you've observed people have about biologists

[@tsuribachi]

the concept of what you drink having so high pressure it shoots out of your back end sounds traumatic both physically and mentally

[@RolloTonéBrownTown]

@@tsuribachi i think ppl with ibs know this very sensation !

[@RolloTonéBrownTown]

Just to clarify, i didn't mean that in a mean or laughing at it kinda way. One girl i know has it and she is normally very athletic so she has a hard time when it flares up. Obviously you can't really go around mountain biking when something like that could strike!

[@emmythemac]

WOW, that is very gross and also kinda cool

[@user-cy4fs5li5c]

Hi-larious animation! Now I can’t unsee an ant tickling an aphid. Thanks a lot!

[@eviltomthai]

I imagine Kevin tickles Jacques like that sometimes

[@Neenerella333]

The sound effect too!😅

[@springflowerdark2137]

Garlic water with a few drops of dish soap worked for me. I boiled the garlic for a few hours. Let it cool, put it in a spray bottle and went to work.

[@ZappBrannigan88]

The black aphids infesting my garlic plants must've missed the memo 😢

[@OutsiderLabs]

@@ZappBrannigan88 Garlic bulbs contain all the magic, not the above ground parts

[@a0flj0]

Don't use dish soap. It works on many insects, but it also stresses out the plants. Use solid hand soap instead, ideally hand-made. The chemical structure is very different, and while soap is also stressful for the plant, it does a lot less harm, while affecting the insects just about the same.

[@fyofrep]

Love seeing all the butterflies flying around in the background. Gorgeous garden!

[@SusthaniaTatiana]

I actually watch AntsCanada too, this is a real treat

[@haylee.noelle]

A few drops of dish soap in a spray bottle with water worked well for me this year! I have a patio garden with no hose so I just spray them off the leaves, remove any leaves that have a lot of aphids on them, and wipe them off leaves with gloves on. It is the only thing that has worked for aphids in my patio garden.

[@PatienceLove]

I’ve used this method on pepper plants.

[@CWorgen5732]

I was outside just now, doing that exact thing. Bleh.

[@corinneowens4583]

Never had to deal with aphids in my garden before until this year, so I'm glad you're sharing your wisdom about this! I just live in a townhouse, and my garden is in a raised bed and pots. My 10 year old wanted to plant and grow some fruit trees, and we've seen groups of aphids near the tops of the saplings. We've tried a couple of things to clear them off, but we'll also try your methods as well. Thank you!

[@crystaltoyne3059]

Yessss!!! My summer garden was taken over by aphids. I barely got any harvest:( it was my first time gardening, so it was a big disappointment. Thanks for the video!

[@robincardoza1904]

I'm in Florida. I hate the ants. They swarm my plants, escort the aphids to the new leaves on some of my trees, bring in weed seeds and bite me. They suck!

[@bluelilly22222]

Another solution....when you wash the rice, take the first water fill it up in a air jar or a bottle...leave for 15days in a dark place, the water gets fermented...spray that fermented water over the affected area, and the Aphids loose their wax coat n can easily clear them..

[@Alfwin]

I lost a bean crop last year to ants & aphids. One of the things I tried was introducing predators - specifically ladybugs - to try to reduce the aphid population, but the ants were too effective as guards. I remember watching them body-blocking and chasing away any ladybug that tried to attack an aphid.

[@epicgardening]

Yeah they are vicious!

[@PatienceLove]

I’ve seen this in my garden too. The few ladybugs I do have, get bullied. I literally had to guard two mating ladybugs on a cucumber plant, because a huge army ant kept trying to bother them. I was excited to get some ladybug babies.

[@bummblebee77]

I see more ladybugs in my house than in my garden where they belong

[@Alfwin]

@@bummblebee77 Ladybugs are... worryingly rare in my neighborhood. Much fewer of them about than there were a decade ago. And they have fewer spots, too, I've noticed. Nowadays most ladybugs I see have just three or four spots at most, and some have no spots at all.

[@zymurgist8844]

I've had great success with diatomaceous earth. Excellent against earwigs, too.

[@mykolapliashechnykov8701]

What did you do with it? Just sprinkled around the plants or something else?

[@CWorgen5732]

Meh, I have mixed feelings about DE. Effective, yes. But it doesn't break down or dilute like soap does, and it kills everything it touches, not just your target.

[@RFC3514]

Aphids don't crawl around much, so diatomaceous earth isn't super effective against them (unless you use a _ton_ of it), but it will kill ants and prevent them from farming aphids near the plant. Basically, if it's a pest that doesn't _move_ much, you always need to spray it *directly,* which means there isn't much point in using something that _stays_ on the plant. Water + 1% soap + 2% neem oil (or water + 1% soap + 5% isopropanol) is generally effective against aphids, and doesn't leave your plants looking like they have a cocaine problem.

[@moekusaki]

I've lost many battles with aphids eating my vegetables... I decided to just work with them and grew a sacrificial plant they can munch on for a long time like my dying calendula plant. Keeps them busy!!

[@cameronnicholson9752]

Hey this is the collab we’ve all been waiting for . I’m gonna need you to go to Mikey Bustos’ farm in the Philippines and make this most beautiful garden to date !

[@sequoiawarner6756]

The tiny sugar ants have been crazy bad, I dry mixed borax and sugar, will try making the paste this time. Have found frequent watering the flower pots on the deck drowned out the ants. But what I was wondering about was so many sticky plants, oh honey dew! Built a garden in what was a weed fill lot last year and pest control has been a harsh learning curve. Thanks for this video!

[@Kira-kg4kl]

Omg the explosion of aphids we had in the UK this year was insane, they were even taking out buddlea and elderflower 😅

[@epicgardening]

Sheesh!

[@stellarform-9440]

I love that Ants Canada was included.

[@mommafraser9495]

@5:27 love how the butterflies came by to say hi 😂😊❤

[@epicgardening]

They're always around these days!

[@mommafraser9495]

@@epicgardening yes I love it 🦋🌻🌹🌺🍃

[@shellycarter155]

You could spray the aphids while on the plants with whole milk. The milk then dries very quickly and crystallizes on the aphids and smothers them. The milk spray method works very quickly, within a couple of days! There is no foul order and doesn’t hurt the plants or beneficial bugs. Very inexpensive as well!

[@NicolaiAAA]

Interesting 🤔

[@shellycarter155]

@@squidward5110 you can use any whole milk that’s organic.

[@mykolapliashechnykov8701]

In fact, you can use the milk whey instead of the whole milk. Works great on the plants that can't be sprayed wth a real insecticide.

[@shellycarter155]

@@mykolapliashechnykov8701 I was going to post using fresh, unpasteurized cow milk but it’s hard to come by due to current laws… hence the whey. You are correct.

[@CWorgen5732]

Yes, and using whey from yogurt-making can be a beneficial bacteria feed.

[@JWDicus]

Cool video. Loving the science here, Kev. In my central Arizona garden, and the gardens of my local gardener friends our biggest ant pest is leaf-cutter ants. They regularly strip every single leaf off of our pomegranate trees, and also our pepper plant leaves are a favorite target of theirs. Do you know whether leaf-cutter ants will go to sugar, and thus be suitable targets for the borax and sugar treatment, or do they just want leaves? If they won't take sugar, do you have any tips for dealing with the leaf-cutter ants? Thanks!

[@valarmorghulis8139]

I've been stung by different kinds of ants and fire ants are the most itchi when they bite.

[@rockyusa2012]

2:58 Omg the graphics of the ant 🐜 😂I had no idea that was the relationship between arts and aphids. The planet 🌎 is so intertwined, it's amazing.

[@mannjaeger9158]

Shout out to your Epic Editor! Heckin love the person!

[@anna9072]

There was a big ant mound in one corner of my parent’s garden, and the daffodils LOVED it. There was a forest of daffodils around the perimeter of the mound. Unfortunately, the hens eventually found the mound and destroyed it, and all the daffodils subsequently died ☹️

[@epicgardening]

Sorry to hear it!

[@bubbafett225]

Bruh… what a time to be alive for the ants Canada-epic gardening collab

[@shirgo5700]

love watching ants Canada too, as well as his other channels. I find it interesting how they grow veg and other plants in the tropics. Also nice to see a little bit of home after living in the US for over 50 years.

[@jfrazz9729]

I have a huge mealybug problem in my greenhouse. BT has really knocked down the fungus gnat situation, and Purecrop1 works for mealybugs, but it’s not systemic so it needs constant reapplication. I’m looking into ordering some biological controls like lacewings or something that will hatch this winter. Our hibiscus and cordilynes are pest magnets. Definitely going to smother in Neem before bringing in this fall

[@Snakeskii]

Great info. I have a lot of ants at our new place and I was wondering how much I needed to worry about them. I see them a lot but I haven't seen a lot of aphids.

[@VeretenoVids]

Off topic, but all the butterflies in your garden!!! So envious--don't see butterflies where I am as much as other places I've lived. In spite of all the pollinator plants I grow I see only cabbage moths and the occasional skipper. (Lots of bees though!)

[@katherinekithas5532]

I spent the last 3 days trying to solve this problem! Perfect timing!

[@riverbilly64]

My family always used Borax for various types of pest control by just sprinkling it around.

[@John.Doe-OG]

Ants in my garden & yard are a HUGE problem. The destroy everything, such as sweet corn. They get in the husk and eat the cornels. They're nests get so large, they destroy the plant roots, including flowers and grass. Not too mention the issue with fire ants which infest my entire yard including the garden.

[@guestaccount9051]

Dish soap in boiling water will break surface tension and penetrates ant nests faster and deaper. Dish soap and water makes effective sprays for aphids on plants and trees.

[@SoJahSeh91]

The dish soap/water trick never worked for me and the aphids on my blueberry bushes.

[@CWorgen5732]

It's an oil change funnel for me. Send it down straighter and faster!

[@guestaccount9051]

@@SoJahSeh91 Are they near trees or tall shrubs and dropping back onto the blueberries or soap and water just flat out not working at all? I've never had it fail.

[@SoJahSeh91]

@@guestaccount9051 container bushes on my balcony. Neither soap & water, nor planting basil in the same container have done anything to control the aphids already there or their reproducing.

[@EmeraldsFire]

I didn't know the ants would actually cull out sickness in their herd. That's awesome in itself

[@nikijaye8647]

Love the Videos. But i live in zone 10a in deep south texas along the border, so we get the heat and humidity. We have Leaf Cutter Ants. once you have them you can never rid of them.. they love to eat my plants, especially my young seedlings. I have tried everything to get rid of them, even a professional pest control company couldn't get rid of them. I am so Discouraged.

[@epicgardening]

Hoping you can find a solution!

[@cookplantworkout]

I let the aphids go on my milkweed, and ants started to work with them. However, on one of the lower leaves, it was covered in these eggs attached to a string attached to the leaf, which I found out are lacewings and now I have about of hundred of them guarding my plants. Leave a couple plants like milkweed that ahpids love (plus, certain aphids like the ones that use milkweed specialize on milkweed, so they very very rarely hop over to other plants unless related) so that you can get those lacewings and ladybugs to protect your veggies.

[@NicolaiAAA]

I've recently learned that they like to farm the young treehoppers that are all over my sunflowers, too! For the same reason - honeydew. This is my first year growing sunflowers and I think the other predatory insects have yet to catch up on the treehopper nymphs because they're _everywhere._

[@rachellemazar7374]

The Castile soap trick is new to me, I’ll give it a try

[@SometimesIGrow]

The crossover I never knew I needed

[@tracybrown5220]

Every year we get ants on our okra flowers. We only got 1 okra this year from 5 plants. I would try spraying them off with water but they were hanging on for life.

[@Dreamzz101]

every time I bring in my Pepper plants in my basement for the winter , they dont have aphids when I bring them in.. I do cut them way back but in a few weeks they are all infested with aphids in my basement.. last yr I replaced all soil and cut back to no leaves .. as soon as the leaves started growing aphids set in and destroyed my pepper plants.. they kill off my plants and the ones that survive are deformed .. when I bring them out for the summer the aphids leave the plant but the peppers are deformed for several months till the plants manages to bounce back.. nothing works to get rid of them .. I can slow them down but never kill them off.. and they are in my basement..ug

[@CuriousMisterG]

I "keep" ants on my pepper plants, even though they do destroy some of the early fruiting BEFORE the flowers even open. It's upsetting, but I still receive crop, AND they keep off all the pests. They've never tried to come inside thank god

[@piantiamo]

Thanks for all information! Love plants!!

[@blanckieification]

Had some succes removing aphids and other fungi with hydrogen peroxide (3%). What is your stance on that?

[@ramonsita625]

Also, aphids were destroying my milkweed, but I decided to leave it alone. In just a few days two species of hoverflies, lady beetles, mealy bug destroyers and lacewings completely obliterated the population. There’s hardly any aphids left and I’m happy that beneficial insects were able to thrive from them.

[@rbrack54]

When using the soap spray I find if you have a foam sparyer it seems to be more effective.

[@kevinpoe8137]

Have you considered growing date palms (Phoenix dactylifera)?

[@B-Th-Change]

My ants are an integral part of my garden. I do have one plant that I’ve been battling aphids on though and some ants are farming them. I just hose them down every couple of days.

[@Stoned0nes]

I am currently dealing with a crazy whitefly infestation, I’ve been spraying at them with a neem oil baking soda soap and cinnamon mix for about a week now

[@fourcatsandagarden]

I started a milkweed bed this year and the aphids absolutely coated the plants just after I planted them, but after a few days of washing the aphids off to try to make sure the baby milkweeds had a fighting chance, I started seeing tons of aphid predators in the area, and after a few weeks they stopped being a problem. The milkweeds look like they're doing great, but I'm gonna be pensive until I've seen them survive a winter lol.

[@lwliu1112]

Golden aphids overwhelm the milkweeds I grow (for the butterflies!), and while I have a lot of lady bugs and a variety of ants, they’re no match for the aphids. Ugh.

[@a0flj0]

Ants can definitely detect borax. They can't detect it when its concentration in a sugary mix is too low. When using soap, don't use dish soap on plants - it does work on insects, but it is also mightily stressful to the plant itself. Use hard hand soap instead. The chemical composition is different. It is still stressful for plants, but a lot less, while being equally effective against insects. When spraying plants with insecticides don't do it while plants are blooming. You'll kill off beneficial pollinating insects feeding of flower pollen and nectar too. Also, don't spray if you have a healthy population of beneficial predatory insects, like ladybugs, parasitic wasps or soldier beetles. Those will exterminate not just aphids but also other pests very effectively, but will be killed off by insecticides, leaving your plants unprotected by successive waves of combined aphid and ant attacks as insecticide decompose and washes off, ants will repeatedly move in on areas with shelter and food, restarting the farming of aphids. Ants may want to do their farming thing with aphids, but they can't if they can't climb up the plant. Placing some really smelly sticky collar around the base of the plant, such as a ring of adhesive tape with the sticky part outwards, smeared with regular ball bearings vaseline, maybe with some ground cinnamon mixed into it, will create a barrier for their feromone-marked paths. This may be tedious on plants like tomatoes or outright impossible on plants like squash, which like to spread out on the ground, but it's effective on trees and bushes which have a single small trunk. A plant's ability to fend off disease is highly increased if it gets more copper than what its roots can absorb. Sticking a thin copper wire into the plant's stem, somewhere at the base, causes just that. As sap flows up and down that wire, copper ions will be caught in the sap and travel everywhere into the plant. That's too little copper to make any difference in the edible parts for humans, but enough to majorly boost the plant's defensive mechanisms against disease. Only, it only works on plants with a somewhat soft stem, like tomatoes or peppers, and it's tedious to apply when you have a large number of plants.

[@AnyKeyLady]

Mikey! 🐜🐜🐜🦜 I use a jam jar and put holes in the lid on one side. I put the jam jar on it's side with the holes at the top so it doesn't over flow into the soil. Borax is banned in the UK but i use either baking soda or soda crystals.

[@SydneysDesertGarden]

Awhh I watch Mikey’s vlog channel with his farm house and good vibes! 💚

[@crimsonraen]

I think getting a bag of ladybugs is the most satisfying for aphids, just watching them go to town. Good to know about borax and sugar though! :O

[@samm8697]

We have carpenter ants here in the upstate of South Carolina, been trying to grow an avocado tree and mango tree. Both died from the ants eating the roots and seed of the trees 😢

[@ChrisG-g4r]

Br0s why aren't you growing marshmallow root ?! Super-cool medicinal for water-infusions AND homemade marshmallows :).

[@danbourlotos5188]

Any recommendation for a greenhouse? I managed to get a pretty impressive ant/aphid infestation that is pernicious enough to be affecting my plant health, and has been an uphill battle for over a year. Even with a very sizable ladybug population, there are not enough natural predators inside my greenhouse (not a surprise...). Went the borax/sugar route for the ants, and then tried the diatomaceous earth. Killed the aphids, but also killed the lady bugs (bad). Tried the water spraying, but it ends up just soaking all of the wood in my greenhouse and then I end up with mold/algae issues. The issue is that since there is no rain, anything I spray on the plants (dish soap, neem oil, DE) I then need to eventually spray off.

[@saintmig1101]

Plain vinegar in a spray bottle works for me

[@CWorgen5732]

Yes, but it can burn your plants and it acidifies the soil. Are you using it on just the nest?

[@travistaylor6110]

I have a few pots (container/balcony gardener) that have little tiny black bugs crawling all through the dirt and around the pot. They don't look like ants, they look more like gnats almost. They don't seem to hurt anything so I've kinda just let them hang out because they basically live in the soil. Anyone else have these and know what they are?

[@GardeningWithjoash-d4j]

Ants Canada, epic gardening and dr plant is like mg holy trinity

[@TheGamersHaven]

I really had no idea that ants were farmers, Eric blew my mind with that one!!

[@pippa3150]

I am wondering if you ever use diatomaceous earth?! Thanks for the video!

[@epicgardening]

Sometimes!

[@jakeg7033]

I had aphids attack my blueberry bush this year, tearing into the new growth. So I just mixed 2 tablespoons of cayenne pepper, and a few drops of dishsoap into a gallon of water and used a sprayer to take them out. It will kill aphids, ants and more while not killing the plant!

[@melindaroth5796]

WOW they really studied these bugs.😮

[@LynnYeaman-n7b]

Yeah AntCanada Epic crossover, 2 of the best !!!!!! Awsome 🎉❤

[@StraightUpAGuy]

Ants did this with Tree hopper on my bean and it KILLED them I was so sad, will this work for that?

[@kristydoman3434]

Can I pick off the aphids and put them in a container of soapy water?

[@terrivance8750]

Kevin, Good advice--thank you!

[@IdiosyncH]

Oooh boiling water!!! There’s an idea! My flowers were absolutely decimated by ants and aphids and they’ve created massive colonies along our foundation. We used an ant killer powder but it didn’t last long. The boiling water sounds like a better idea. Definitely trying it next year.

[@CWorgen5732]

Since it's your foundation and not directly in the garden, I would liberally dust the perimeter with diatomaceous earth.

[@pediatricot]

Ants farming aphids-I didn’t know that! Good info.

[@nateralus]

Do these tips apply to mealybugs? From what I can tell I have ants using mealybugs on my citrus tree

[@gogogaga7441]

The aphids are literally swarming our okra and no amount of spraying or squishing is making a difference. I'm thinking we may have added too much manure when we amended the bed..time to try some soap spray! :(

[@vlong7112]

Nature is wild 🤪 As always, thanks for the info, Kevin!

[@DancesForPlants]

So the bar scene in "Antz" was legit...nice

[@Vgardener]

In Vietnam, some kinds of Ants we use them to make good food ^^, the yellow ant

[@DanGus-yh1bj]

Is there a reason Neem Oil and/or Neem powder wasn’t included?

[@epicgardening]

Not a great solution against them

[@DanGus-yh1bj]

@@epicgardening guessing the dish soap is doing the actual work. I’ve been using neem for my indoor plants when Isolate sick ones. But will try with just the soap next time.

[@McKenzie90740]

Thanks for the information!

[@whycamucwatuwant]

Nice introduction into farming evidences.

[@RootandLeafCo]

In the south, a stupid simple ant remedy is to sprinkle cornmeal or grits around the ant hill. The ants will feed the queen until she is full. Because grits or cornmeal expand in the stomach, she will eventually burst. Because the ants won't eat until the queen is full, they will all starve due to the dead queen. Works like a charm!

[@theutopitarian]

Did not expect this crossover!

[@28pinkdancer]

if youre on the west coast theres a good chance youre dealing with argentine ants, *especially* so if you're in CA. they are your classic looking ant, small bodied and completely black. these ants are non-native, invasive species and they are particularly challenging to manage because they are one of the few ant species that live in multi-queen colonies. this means that even if you manage to poison the main queen using the borax-sugar method, they are very likely to recover and resume their pest/farming activities by the end of the week (speaking from experience in regards to the timeline). i do stand by the sugar-borax method (i actually use borax and honey, the honey is already in a "paste" form and i actually do almost a 1:1 ratio and the ants still go for it) but I have to be extremely vigilant. its really unfortunate because these ants are able to completely wipe out native ants with their multi-queen colonies, and their multi-queening way of life allows them to form what's called supercolonies. These supercolonies are so large with so many ants that they are literally constantly at war in some areas under California, just continuously battling on piles of slaughtered ant bodies. I've never seen a native ant species in my five years of living in this area, and I have borax-honey traps set year round otherwise I would literally be overrun. by ants. i not from CA originally so learning all of this was like reading a sci-fi horror story

[@CaelansMusic]

Holy shit epic gardening just did a crossover with ants Canada guys

[@smuggafree]

Good tip. Short and sweet video.

[@vsznry]

I wasn't expecting AntsCanada, who is actually in the Philipines or something lol

[@HerbBeers]

Tell me how to get rid of mealy bugs...PLEASE

[@JudyJR-il2ww]

This video is right on time. It’s my 1st year in gardening & just yesterday I noticed my cucumber plants have aphids & ants. I observed them, I like & can relate to the animation. Thanks for the information.

[@jalexander305]

That Ant tickle 😆

[@vernaweese-nn6df]

Millions of years is not logical. Just informing you. I love your garden helps. You guys are great.

[@nicholashowze1664]

My family always used Simple Green the all purpose cleaner to kill the aphids

[@Orchid-Care]

Very helpful this video, thank you ❤

[@rasserfrasser]

Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth (DE) - I have an Aji Dulce pepper plant that was hoarded by aphids, of which I saw ants too. Thank to this video now I know why :). I bombed the plant with DE not even knowing if the plant would survive. They all died and/or disappeared. What's odd to me though is that my pepper plants are really close together on a grow table and only one plant was affected. I immediately quarantined the plant by first moving it on top of a cinder block before using DE, but thought that was rather odd. Lucky for them, they have not since returned mwahahahahaaa.

[@B-Th-Change]

That’s crazy though that they will take them underground

[@TJtheHAWK]

Do the aphids actually enjoy being tickled?

[@JulieBulie85]

What is the box at top of the dragon fruit posts?

[@recynd77]

Love AC! I’m in zone 10b, and I’m so over those damn Argentine ants. They look so innocuous, but those buggers BITE, and they search out our delicate bits to wreak their assault: crooks of elbows and back of the knees are their favorites to attack. The more I battle, the more I get…and finding their colonies is practically impossible. 🤬

[@epicgardening]

Best of luck!

[@TDAEON]

In the same boat. They are impossible to kill off/deter for long. Baits can help, but with the many queens in each of the many nests they have, they just show back up. I've tried clove oil and cedar oil sprays, but they are not deterred by the smell. I wash their trails with water and dawn soap (which kills the ants, too) to get rid of the pheromones they follow. They took over my Zucchini plants this year and fed on the pollen and whatever is inside the female flowers. The bees stopped coming to pollinate. They destroyed my cuccs last year by farming aphids on them. It's all out war in my garden. I check daily for new arrivals. But they cross into my yard from the neighbors. I have tracked their trails across my 2 acres. It's insane how far they travel and how big their colonies get. Not had an issue with them biting me, though, so I guess that's good.

[@Vgardener]

nice works! Thanks for sharing

[@AdamJensenReal]

I curently have a problem with ants and aphids they attacking my peach tree and there are thousands of ants and they farm the aphids and they sucking the tree also there is another problem ants made their house with tunels (don't know the word sry. ) in the base of the tree. I think to not use hot water maybe the tree can harm. I tried the ant trap with borax and sugar, but I think I added more water and ants are not attracted. I killed few ants but for 3 days it was nothing. I have a question I watched another video 3 days ago it was about simple dish soap 2-3 spoons or 1/4 of the bottle in 10 liters of water in spray machine, mix good and than spray everything. In the video he knocked out all aphids for 5 seconds. But the question is that soap isn't it bad for the pants itself. In that case plant was zucchini 10-15 plants and he sprayed them all good. If you think it is safe I can try it but I think its dangerous for plants.