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Comment by Joel_Mckay | Hacker News Reader

I live in an area where Monomorium pharaonis is an invasive species, and there are many fruit trees in our city (mostly varieties of cherry and plum).

Leave this Mixture in a shallow lid/dish next to the Ant entry point:

1 part borax dish soap

3 parts granulated sugar

15 parts warm water

They will ingest the mixture, and return the payload to the colony if dilute enough. A few days later the slow poison should start to knock out the group.

Indeed, once a path is chemically marked it is very hard to keep ants out, and failure to remove a waste bin lures them in again.

Mixing kiln dried diatomaceous earth with water for treating the surrounding external structure also helps knock down anything with a chitin exoskeleton. It can be effective if a colony has attached to a tunnel system.

Best of luck =)

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Three other options (admittedly less effective, but the upside is no killing).

1. Give them what they want. I have a bottle of cheap corn syrup I use as a truce offering. If I start getting scouts or the beginnings of an incursion I just dump a big glob of the syrup right next to their nest outside. Everyone disappears from my house within a half hour. Usually, they forget about the kitchen for a couple weeks. Then I repeat.

2. Peppermint oil. The ants here will avoid it. If I smear it across an active ant line it interrupts it even.

3. Ant moat. Works great for sugar products and pet dishes. I use 4 shot glasses full of soapy water holding up a small kitchen rack. The rack is perched on 4 small submerged pillars I added to the rack's feet.

Edit: of course an invasive species needs to be dealt with in accordance to the threat to the local ecosystem. I'm just providing options for simple nuisance ants.

"1. Give them what they want."

Not a great idea, as people can skew the ecosystem into causing more harm. More ants can increase Aphid populations that spread viral plant diseases (see Huanglongbing or citrus greening disease).

"2. Peppermint oil."

Never tried this one, but seems expensive. Also, most mint products are illegal to import in some areas, given it can carry symbiotic fungus spores that may decimate food crops.

"3. Ant moat. "

Many species have building skills, and some will even build tiny twig/gravel roads/bridges over dangerous/irritating substances.

They are fascinating little creatures, and an important part of the ecosystem. =)

> once a path is chemically marked it is very hard to keep ants out

Nonsense. A wipe with plain white vinegar suffices to dissolve the pheromone trail, and seems to deter foragers for some while after.

I can totally see people removing concrete slabs, laminated floors, window drip drains, and exhaust vents inside walls. The ants won't understand human idealism, but most aphids and fruit flies sure love vinegar smells. =)

Never had trouble with those for using vinegar to remove ant trails. If you've got aphids and fruit flies getting in too, maybe that's the first thing to solve!

As for the rest, I certainly don't imagine it working all the time everywhere, but for the local pavement ant colony's roughly annual sortie into my kitchen it's fine. And what do you find of idealism in my not wanting to poison the room I feed myself in?

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