ants in garden

[lovelomsak]

I have decided to take more interest in gardening. So will be here often asking for help my knowledge of gardening is very little. I would like to thank everyone beofre we start for all help coming.

I stared working in the garden a few months ago. Now I am covered in ant bites. I wear a hat long pants tucked into socks high boots long sleeve shirt and still get bitten all the time. So my question is how can I eliminate most of the ants in my garden .The bites last for days into weeks so my body has numerous ones driving me crazy.But I do want to learn to garden well. So will persist covered in lotions and creams to dull the itch. But if someone can help with some way to control this situation it would greatly be appreciated.

[Jotham79]

Are the ants the large red leaf cutter ants? What are you growing?

[teletiger]

Sounds more like fire ants.

Borax.

Regards.

[samuijimmy]

Which ever kind of ants they are, a solution made with Borax and sugar and water (about 1 cup hot or warm water to dissolve sugar and add about 3 teaspoons each of sugar and Borax powder) Make little traps around the house / garden and they should be gone for several months.... repeat when you see them again, it has been almost 4 months free of ants around my place since I first did this....

Make as much as you need, and allow two or three days for it to work.... Use some kind of small container with holes punched in .... the ants will go in and out of the holes, and go back to the nest .... killing the colony! In trees, I place some solution in the cracks if I see ants going up and down! (usually the red ants)

But I suspect these bites you are getting could be from Sand flies.... which do itch for a long time, causing small open wounds... they seem to get under the skin .... I have not found a solution for getting rid of these ..... yet!

Anyone any ideas for dealing with sand flies?

[Neeranam]

[samuijimmy]

20140121_154117_resized.jpg

Borax, (mix mentioned above) would be far less toxic to use for ants! Than this!

[lovelomsak]

Thanks to all of you for your advice. I will try borax for sure. I seem to have little black ants to big red ants there is no particular kind. I am getting bitten so much I cover myself with dettol when i shower to get rid of any that maybe on me. I also want to apologize for taking so long to reply but i live in a small village without internet and only use internet when in town.

I will be asking many questions in the future for I have little gardening knowledge and am overwhelmed in Thailand how things grow so quickly and easily.

Right now i will be digging and preparing. First I get borax. Thanks again.

[samuijimmy]

If the bites you are getting look like this, then I am pretty sure it is Sand Flies or "No see em's" Which you don't see....

The open wounds last for several days to a week or more ... The little buggers seem to get under the skin and are very irritating! ....Where as generally ant bites don't seem to last more than a short while... (they don't seem to affect everyone as much)

Borax does not seem to work on sand flies, and I have searched the internet to find a solution, to get rid of Sand flies, with no solution found!

I have Calamine lotion to help here.... but not much help either to relieve itching... !

This is what the box of Borax looks like, sounds almost the same in Thai as English.... If you can find the agricultural grade, it would be lots cheaper....

Good luck ... hope this helps!

[rice555]

Hello All, the none on the right works better than the 20 Mule Team.

I think in most cases, they are both under Bt.100 for the 450grm box,

they will EMS if you don't have a local suppler.

rice555

[samuijimmy]

Hello All, the none on the right works better than the 20 Mule Team.

I think in most cases, they are both under Bt.100 for the 450grm box,

they will EMS if you don't have a local suppler.

rice555

Well being hard to get on Samui, at least, my local Pharmacy brought in the one on the left .... and it works fine.... Borax.... I have been just about ant free for four months now .... If you can get for 100 baht that is a good price...

This Boron/ Borax argument gets a bit silly ....They both work fine.... for getting rid of ants and cockroaches.

I just had some one bring me a 2 Kg box, from Canada, Cnd $6.00 ... I was actually surprised it got through customs!

[lovelomsak]

Yes Samuijimmy I think it is sand flies that are getting me. I am having a hard time finding borax though. I tried local fertilizer shops,tesco,big c,local shops of various kinds none could even point me in the right direction to buy it. Where do you guys get it from? You guys are now seeing how lost I am about this gardening stuff donot even know where to get what I need to start.

[samuijimmy]

Yes Samuijimmy I think it is sand flies that are getting me. I am having a hard time finding borax though. I tried local fertilizer shops,tesco,big c,local shops of various kinds none could even point me in the right direction to buy it. Where do you guys get it from? You guys are now seeing how lost I am about this gardening stuff donot even know where to get what I need to start.

Read this thread.... http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/719283-ant-killer-that-works/

The biggest problem in some areas this Borax seems to be hard to find..... I suggested phoning the number on the box (look at image I posted... ) One of my local pharmacies on Samui, brought some in for me.... from BKK....

Anyway look at the link! ^ so I don't repeat myself... Burp!

[lovelomsak]

Well I found something that doesnot get rid of them but stops them from staying on my body and biting me. My wife told me baby powder keeps ants away but doesnot kill them. I put baby powder all over me before working in the garden and havenot been bitten in 2 days of working areas before totally un accessable for me because of ants. I have tried this now for only 2 days but so far it has been excellent. Oh and the wife says my skin is baby soft now.

[teletiger]

I think I'd prefer the ants to bite me than to piss themselves laughing as I passed....

Hearty regards.