So simple but makes so much sense!!! Thanks!!!

You're welcome!

I do that around my a/c units. I've had a bad infestation attack my contact points. Cost me $150.00 and was hot for 3 days.

You have some mean ants Jeri!

The South Louisiana variety!!! LOL!!!

Getting rid of ants around your plants is a good idea for other reasons, too. They will farm aphids, mealybugs and scales on your plants, moving them around and helping them multiply deliberately so the ants can get the sweet sticky exudate from the pests. A minor pest infestation can turn into a major problem with the ants doing this. I'm battling scales now because the ants are tending them and even moving scale babies from plant to plant to start new "farms".

Try this stuff it works a treat! I know as we get an ant problem and this stuff last 6 months! Kill the problem at the nest.
Regards from across the Atlantic.
Neil.
https://www.google.co.uk/searc...

Use CINNAMON!

I am SO SORRY that you are no afraid of insecticides, as if you aren't getting poisoned, also. I was exposed to household stuff, and now I have weird, unexplainable pain. Sometimes it feels like a needle is being pushed into the end of my toe. Sometimes it an unexpected stab of sharpest pain into my leg/hip joint while just walking along, I almost fall sometimes the pain is so sudden and great.

After World War Two, the chemical companies didn't know what to do with their huge stocks of nerve gas, the 'other side' had a lot, also. Some bright guy said, let's add a weakener and sell it for bug spray!

Read the lable, that should scare you.

(off soapbox now)

CINNAMON, what you eat, gets rid of ants. Sprinkle thickly on the surface of the soil, or any surface. Within an hour or so, they will be gone.

Cheers,

Melissa

I'm very judicious in my use of poisons in the garden. Most of the time I use diatomaceous earth for insect control but once the ants take up residents in the pots DE just doesn't work!

Try cinnamon, they hate it. Maybe it's poisonous to them

I like the idea that "a little" granular insecticide would do the trick. Last winter I tried using the ant bait dispensers that are designed to be pushed into the ground on a spike -- in my pots! I just kept moving them from pot to pot all winter long... never quite got rid of them, but at least kept their numbers controlled. Maybe in fall all the pots will get a little sprinkle of the granules and a good watering a couple days before they come in. Thanks!

I'll try the cinnamon, too.