I prefer borax (a laundry detergent they sell at cvs), sugar and water mix for ants. It doesn't kill them right away and they take the poison home to their queen. It can wipe out whole colonies.

I already tried that and I don't know if it will work,put a little too much borax but put honey in to attract them

The honey and borax mix should work, I mix it until it forms a paste. Then I use a piece of cardboard such as one that a case of soda comes in and cut 3x3 inch squares out. I put about 1/4 teaspoon of the mix onto the square and set them around the ants. You may need to use a little ingenuity to keep the mix out of your soil. This method takes a bit more patience than just wiping them out with a can of spray, but I've used it countless times in the last place I lived where ants proliferated every single year. Best of luck to you!

Tracy

I do something similar but I cut the bottom of a cardboard cup.might be better to put in sugar because it will be harder for them to differentiate.

Yeah keeping up with them is almost impossible, especially if they are those ants in the southwest, the dark brown ones. Unlike other ant colonies they share territory and you can have 2 or more queens working together to make a super colony. What this means is killing one trail of ants might not be enough to get rid of them all. I usually have to put out a few jar lids of sugar and borax for every colony, in most cases you might have 6-8 colonies in your backyard and frontyard.

I mostly just do enough to keep them out of my work area and house. Otherwise to keep aphids and mites off my plants I use Bayer advanced 12 Month Tree & Shrub Protect. It is a systemic poison that kills anything that tries to eat the plants sap or flesh. Works great on my succulents but it is hard to find the formula that doesn't have fertilizer in it.

Dephora do you spray the Bayer directly onto your plants or do you dilute it in water that you feed your plants with?

Good Question!

The type I have is a liquid concentrate that you mix into water and feed your plants with once a year. Though they make a granule type as well you just put on the ground. I don't think they make a systemic spray as the plant has to take it in through the roots for the poison to circulate through the plant. Since it makes the flesh and the sap deadly to bugs that would eat it. I mostly started using it for my Plumeria but found it also worked excellent for other succulents that sometimes get scale, mites or aphids.

Hey what kind of damage can ants do to opuntia and also my borax traps are working