Hi everyone,
I have red ants that live near my pond. The problem is that I have an allergic reaction to their bites. Their nest is about 3 feet from my pond, but they are always out and about. In the 2 1/2 months that I have had the pond, I have been bitten 3 times and have really bad swelling, which my doctor tells me will get worse with every bite. Go figure! I thought I would build up an immunity, apparently some bug bites actually wear away your immunity. Anyway, I was going to try to live peaceably, but after the last bite, I cannot. I have tried sprays on me, but I have to move around the entire pond to skim, weed and feed the fish. Is there any way to remove the nest aside from poison? And if not, what would be a good way to get rid of them with their proximity to the pond? My pond is cement.

Lesley

Spray the nest with a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher a few days in a row. Right after spraying, dig up the nest and respray if any are moving. Have someone who's not allergic do that. The carbon dioxide won't hurt the pond but kills everything it touches by instantly freezing. It may be hard to find a CO2 extinguisher these days.

Ive had the same problem - but not with fire ants. My pond is small - only 600 gallons and its in a corner of my back yard. I put out a few of those "Grants Ant Stakes" around the pond and then COVERED each stake with a small plastic drink cup. I did this because I didnt want my yard sprinklers to spray water on the poison and then have it runoff into my pond. Anyway, the cup protects the poison from the sprinkler water - but still allows the ants to get to the bait easily. They eat the bait and take it back to the nest and they die.

The 2nd thing Ive found is an herbal spray sold to kill pond aphids on water hyacinths. Its made of mint and thyme. Any pond supply place should have it - I think its called PondCare. Anyway, I sprayed the ant trail with it and they all died within 5 minutes. (If you get spray on a plant leaf, you need to rinse the spray off after 5 minutes - read the product directions for more info.)

It's Herbal Aphid Control. I think it says that it may burn water lettuce and maybe water hyacinth. It does need to be rinsed off. I had horrible trouble with ants around my lizard's cage and insect cages under it but couldn't use anything toxic (the ants would carry toxic bait to the other insects I have in cages since the ants were feeding on their food). I finally found something that made the ants drop like flies that I could spray on them (they were nesting under my aquarium near all my bugs who I moved during the spray). It's an all natural Citrus air freshener that's non-toxic to higher animals but kills bugs. It smells great to me. It's called Citrus Magic by Beaumont Products.