Natural Solutions to Things That Bug You by Myles Bader Read Free Book Online Page A

damage.
     
    TYPE OF HOUSE TO BE ATTACKED
        Wood frame
    Crawl spaces
    Houses with cedar or plywood siding
    Slightly slopping roof
    Houses more than 7 years old
    Houses with vegetation next to the house
    Houses near a forest
  PUT A TAIL ON THEM
        If you spot a carpenter ant, it is best to follow them to their nest. They come out late at night and you will need to place some honey out for them on a piece of cardboard or any other object that you can easily clean up. They will take the honey back to the nest.
     
    When you find their entrance, drill small holes and blow boric acid in to fill their living spaces. Boric acid will kill them! They may not be in the house and you may have to follow them outside to find the nest. It is critical to find the parent nest if you plan on getting rid of the colony.
     
    ELIMINATE THE PROBLEM
       Correct any water leaks on your property.
       Eliminate any wood to ground contact points, especially where soil has been pushed up to the side of the house.
       Make sure that there are no tree limbs or bushes touching the house.
       Firewood should be a good distance from the house and elevated off the ground since this is their favorite location for a nest.
       Old wood stumps are their favorite
     
     A good quality poison-free killer is VICTOR POISON-FREE® ANT & ROACH KILLER. Comes in mint or cedar scents and is safe around kids and pets.
     
    MAKE THEM SNEEZE
    Mix together 1 teaspoon of table salt and ½ teaspoon of fine white pepper in 1-quart of water and mix well, then strain and spray the ants. This will work great to repel them and will kill the workers but not the queen.
     
    OUTSIDE NESTING LOCATIONS
    Forest, if within 100 yards of house………….25%
    Live trees………………………………………..18%
    Dead stumps, buried wood……………………16%
    Landscape wood………………………………..  7%
    Stacked lumber/woodpile………………………  3%
     
         INSIDE NESTING LOCATIONS
    The outside walls…………………..35%
    Attic…………………………………..21%
    Ceilings & crawl spaces……………20%
    Stacked lumber, firewood, etc.
     
    YOU MUST FIND ALL NESTS
    Since carpenter ants have satellites as well as a home nest, it is necessary to locate all satellites as well as the home nest if you ever plan on eradicating them. You can find the nest in your home and destroy it but the workers will find a new nest in the home in very short order. Once you find the nest in your home you can spray the entire perimeter to stop a new housing development.
     
    FIELD ANTS
     
    General Information:
        Field ants are a very large group of ant species that make their nests in the ground in lawns, gardens and fields. Depending on the species, the workers range in size from 1/8” to ¼”. The color of field ants may be red, black or a combination of red and black. The ants usually nest near trees, sidewalks, fences or around the base of buildings. A number of species make a mound with the soil that they excavate under the ground.
     
    Sometimes these mounds are mistaken for fire ant activity; however, field ants do not sting and only bite when they are disturbed. A number of field ants can spray formic acid while they bite, so their bites are painful.
     
    Field ants love to eat honeydew, which is a sweet substance that they get from insects like mealybugs and aphids.
     
    They locate the aphids on trees and shrubs, but some species of field ants, like the silky ants, keep herds of aphids so there is always a supply of honeydew. Field ants will also eat other insects and they are attracted to meats. Most species of field ants are scavengers.
     
    Field ants do not usually invade homes but workers will often hunt for food on decks, porches, and patios. Sometimes people see black field ants on the wood deck and assume they are carpenter ants.
     
    To prevent field ant