Homesteading

[DeepseekerADS]

Forgot to mention another surprise. I was talking to Mom this afternoon and she said there was a walnut tree in the North pasture (all grown up now). So, I went over there and found it and to my delight, another, and both with about 9" diameter trunks. So I have 4 ancestral walnut trees. I'm going to clean out around them so they'll flourish better, and hopefully drop a lot of nuts onto the ground in the future.

 

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[DeepseekerADS]

I'm sure I'm going to be dealing with a lot I'd not yet imagined.

I was just out there thinning my turnip plants, and I noticed big red ants going into holes, and then I saw they've an ant city under construction in that boxed bed.

Now it's time to figure out what I'm going to do about that

 

[DeepseekerADS]

These ants have reddish trunks and darker rear end, not the pi$$ ant size, large but not huge.

I read to use borax and sugar, but don't have any borax handy. I read they'll move out if you cover their hill with cinnamon, so we had too much of that anyway so I covered egress in the hill, and around the bottom outside corner of the frame, where I saw activity.

Took the cinnamon back and found a large shaker of black pepper. Went back out and saw the ants were absolutely avoiding the cinnamon. I covered the same area with black pepper. Now maybe they'll go away - but then to the bed next door?

Borax is on my shopping list.

 

[Bullet:Mich.]

Mix some vinegar and water, put it in a spray bottle and spray the ant hill heavy and around it.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Mix some vinegar and water, put it in a spray bottle and spray the ant hill heavy and around it.

Thanks for that tip. I went back out there and pressed forward with seed sowing, getting the interplanting done, maybe a few more to go but gotta review.

The ants had dug another entrance away from the cinnamon. I felt they needed the nutrients, so I gave them another dose of cinnamon. I'll go back down with the vinegar & water solution and go at them again.

Got a lot more planted today. Here's the current talley:



Realistically I've overdone it. But I'm not going to learn otherwise, and I'm certain to have something coming in at harvest time!

 

[BIGSCOTT]

borax is boric acid, if you look in the pest control section at the store you will usually find some roach pruff, or look at some of the other all natural pest powders
and find one that is 99% boric acid, mix it 50/50 with powdered sugar put it in a clamshell container, some thing that you might buy fruit or cookies or such in,
make sure it doesnt have holes in the top so the rain cant get in, put a rock in there so it doesnt blow away, the clamshell will keep the bee's and other critters out
but the ant's will get in.

mom has raised beds and her compost is very rich, and the ants will be in it in no time if she doesn't use a deterant this is where she uses the dr bronners
peppermint soap, sprayed all around the edge of the bed's no ant's so far this year, ant's hate peppermint.

 

[releventchair]

We spray diluted peppermint oil around the house doors.

I'm going to pick up some of this Diatomaceous Earth(DE) . Food grade. Store it in a lidded 5 gallon pail in the shed .
To harass/kill fleas before they get established. Ants a bonus.
Just need to replace it if it gets wet as soaking softens it.
Price at the farm store is not bad. Need to remember a bag to cover the paper bag with as it's kinda dusty.

Diatomaceous Earth (food grade): Bug Killer You Can Eat!

 

[joncutt87]

I went heavy on the de powder on the fire ant hills in the yard last fall, all but 1 hill died out. We found out yesterday that we are having a little girl, close to October 1st.

 

[releventchair]

In younger days I tried hot grease on one hill. They relocated but not far. Then rototilled the mound. Then used petrol. Kinda hard on the soil quality. They dig deep and flames putt out of varying holes a while.

Hey congrats on the forecast-ed child!
Early Oct. a good time to get exposed to the outside world in time for winter.
May not matter a lot, but midwinter a different experience. Bundled and covered ,missing the sun and fresh air..
I recall, long ago, running out to the truck with the infant kid on a extra cold day and snagged one boots D-ring on the other boots speed clip/lacer.
Was not a graceful landing but did not drop or land on the kid. L.o.l..

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Congratulations on the baby!

 

[BIGSCOTT]

Yeah congratulations

 

[BIGSCOTT]

If a mound ever gets real bad mom pours a whole box of intant grits on the mound, they carry it down and then it swells and blocks their entrance and exit,

 

[BIGSCOTT]

in one house my mom lived in she got carpenter ants, she noticed that they got inside and got trapped in sonic cups that my sister left laying around
so she mixed up some sugar water and put it in cups placed them around where the ants were the worst, she didnt catch a single ant so she ask's
my sister what kind of drinks she got at sonic and she said country time lemonade, mom was ant free in about 6 months.

 

[BIGSCOTT]

if you ever get roach's, the sugar and boric acid works, but even better take the lid off a jar put about a quarter inch of boric acid
in the bottom and put a rolaid in the middle and place it where the roach's are the worst they dont have to eat the boric acid only
have to walk through it and they will carry it back to where they are breeding, I dont know why but roach's love rolaids

Tomato's not many things mess with tomatos, aphids are one they work together with ants, unless you get them really bad they dont do much damage
but one way to trap some of them along with some of the ant's is cut up some yellow buckets and coat one side with corn syrup and lay the peices around under the
plants where the aphids are, they are attracted to the yellow and will get stuck in the syrup.
Horn worms dust your tomatos with self rising flour, I mix in some extra baking powder as the worms eat
the leaves they will be eating the flour and baking powder the results are explosive, I dust mine this way from about the
middle of june on weather i have worms or not, as it helps keep some of the heat off of the patch.

 

[BIGSCOTT]

one year here in spring texas, I had a little garden and got horworms pretty bad, I did the flour dust thing and was gettint quite a few of them, but it was raining every day. you could
set your watch by it at 1:30 a thunderstorm would roll through and wash all my dust off, I was picking alot off by hand and mashing them but they hide pretty well.
Afriend of mine said you have those two Rosemary bush's in pots over there one the porch, hornworms love Rosemary and are easy to find on them, so we moved them out there
and thrashed them a little so they would give off that smell, I kept the worms under control but they ate my rosemary almost to Knubs, but they came back I still have them today
planted in the ground at my farm in San Augustine, that year they also ate my hibiscus, and a sycamore tree by the garden.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

I picked up a box of borax and bag of Diatomaceous Earth today. I took a few tablespoons of borax and mixed it in a few tablespoons of sugar and put in one of those short ziplock baggies, sprinkled it around the entrances and then led a trail down to the open bag. I just planted a few more peppers and went back to the frame and the ants were beginning to find their way to the bag, So I'm kinda hopeful with that. Haven't opened the bag of DE yet.

 

[BIGSCOTT]

I had never heard of using de earth for ants, I have used it for worms though.

if you look at de earth under a microscope it is sharp crystals, as the worms crawl across it they get cut to pieces, stoopid worms.

 

[releventchair]

Ya, D.E. pierces shells and causes dehydration. Indiscriminately though per species affected. Any shelled insect is subject.

 

[joncutt87]

I spread it all over the hill, and the ants couldn't leave, in a day or so they would make a new entrance and I would sprinkle it.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

It was about time that I did this, performed a little experiment. We'd been saving egg shells since I came home.

This morning after doing my berry juicing, I decided to put all my egg shells into my Vitamix and turn them into powder.

I put a spoonful of the powder at the base of every live plant. I'd been worried about my Goji berry plants, the leaves were shading on the yellow side. Coffee didn't seem to be what they wanted, but they were getting better - I felt they lacked a nutrient or two. So, I gave them some calcium

Over the last week I'd been mixing left over coffee into my watering jug. On some of the plants I put coffee grounds around the base of a few which research told me they'd love it. The strawberries are reacting well, stimulated growth. The blackberry plants are knee high now, and the blueberry plants have perked up.

I'll see what they all look like in a week!