Whenever spring arrives here at Backyard Gardening Tips we start getting a lot of questions about getting rid of the ants that are building their anthill condos on our properties and ruining picnics everywhere.

Anthills seem to sneak up on home owners. One day there are no ants and then BAM they are everywhere and in everything. Then the anthill starts growing on a daily basis.

Not too many people like ants, except little boys with magnifying glasses.

There are a number of recipes for killing ants where they expand until they explode.

Baking soda and icing sugar.

Ants seem to have insatiable appetites and are always on the hunt for something to eat. A good home remedy of baking soda and icing sugar will temporarily satisfy them, well until they swell up and explode.

Note: There may be a slight explosion just before they bother you no longer.

By eating the mixture for the icing sugar the ants can't help to digest some of the baking soda and that's all it takes to get rid of ants.

You don't have to worry about dead ants lying around the house and yard as they usually carry the deadly combo back home with them and life ends under ground.

You can do the trick with a mix of about 50/50 baking soda to icing sugar.

To spread the mix you can use a bottle. Just poke a few holes in the top of the lid and start shaking those ants up a bit.

Using Cornmeal or Grits

This years we gave cornmeal a try. Ants just seem to love corn but they can't digest the cornmeal and starve to death or bloat up and die. Either way it works great.

Put the pressure on those ants, literally. We haven't use grits here in New Brunswick but further south it has been an ant killer recipe for quite a while.

The ants love it, eat it like little piggies and promptly explode.

Get your ants to move next door.

Lime is very corrosive so avoid having it touch your skin and keep away from pets. This makes its use less advisable than other methods. Ants don't like it and will avoid it so it makes for a great barrier they won't cross.

Another use for baby power.

I usually reserve the baby power for playing 9 ball but if it will get rid of ants then I have another use for the baby power.

Good ole table salt.

Use the table salt to block any entry ways they have found into your house. They won't cross the salt line.

It's time to draw the line, with Chalk.

Where ever you want to block the path of marching ants think chalk. Just pour a little line of chalk to block any entry. Works great around the outside of your house.

You can buy Ant Chalk but it has insecticide in it so you may want to skip this one if you don't want to use insecticides.

Boric Acid Powder.

A 50/50 mix of boric acid powder and plain old sugar. Make a slurry in a bottle by adding water to the mix and you're good to go and so are the ants.

Boric Acid is toxic enough that you don't want your family or pets eating it so keep it where they can't get into it.

The boric acid has to be ingested by the ants for it to work unlike some other methods where walking through it will work.

Hopefully this information on getting rid of ants and anthills is beneficial to you.