Ever wondered how you can kill fire ants naturally in the yard or garden… and actually get rid of them? Learn a safe and effective way to get rid of fire ants, it’s even good for organic gardens.
Living in the south, one of the biggest challenges about gardening, or quite frankly, having a yard – is fire ants.
Naturally getting rid of ants in your house, is simple to do, but fire ants? Those are a serious challenge.
Fire ants really love disturbed soil, or raised beds. That makes gardening a bit hazardous. If you have ever accidentally stood in, kneeled on, or stuck in your hand in a fire ant pile, you know what I mean.
You’ll discover just how quickly you can rip off a work glove when you have one full of those wicked little beasts.
Now as much as I love gardening, and as much as I prefer to avoid using chemical pesticides, I have tried many, many ways to get rid of the fire ants. Normally the end result is the mound simply moving to a new spot, or coming right back a week later.
Last year I discovered a natural method that actually worked. Not only did it work overnight, but it lasted all summer long!
How to Get Rid of Fire Ants without Chemicals
I treated that raised bed in the early spring, just before it was time to plant. And I didn’t have to treated it again all summer.
To Make Natural Fire Ant Killer You Will Need:
- 1 gallon non-chlorinated water (well water or rain water)
- 4 oz. Garrett Juice Plus
- 2 oz. orange oil
- (optional) 2 or 3 drops dish soap
- measuring cup
- garden sprayer
Combine all of the ingredients in your sprayer jug.
Close the sprayer and shake to combine.
To use, thoroughly spray the ant mound, concentrating in the center to attempt to “get” the queen of the ant colony.
Completely soak the entire mound and about 6-12 inches around the mound as well, for good measure.
I occasionally shake the jug as I go around the garden spraying, to make certain all of the ingredients stay mixed.
How This Works:
This mixture uses three important ingredients. Garrett Juice Plus, orange oil and non-chlorinated water.
Garrett Juice Plus is a natural plant food and soil drench created by Howard Garrett. It is a wonderful combination of compost tea, apple cider vinegar, molasses, seaweed and hydrolyzed fish. This nourishes and helps repair the soil from the damage that the ant colony does.
Orange oil is what really kills the ants. The orange oil dissolves the exoskeleton of the ant, and the ant is no more.
The non-chlorinated water (well water or collected rain water) is very important, because part of the purpose of the Garrett Juice is to restore the ecosystem of the soil, to include the important bacteria and micro-nutrients that make the soil healthy. Chlorinated tap water will be counter-productive to this. You can use chlorinated water if that is all you have access to, however the benefits of the Garrett Juice will be reduced.
If you like this article, you may also want to read about how to make Homemade Weed Killer.
Watch the episode from last year, where I first tried the natural fire ant killer, and explained about this method:
Do you know if this formula is safe for bees?
Well thank you for the ant killer recipe. Where do you get the orange oil? I looked for it a few years ago and had no luck? My mother grew some flowers similar to your Torch flowers and she called them a Red Hot Poker? Maybe they are different. Just beautiful. Thank you. MiChelle Jaggard.
I bought it from Amazon. If you click on the image of the orange oil, it will take you to it.