Balcony Gardening
Welcome to c/BalconyGardening @ slrpnk.net!
A young community dedicated to balcony gardening.
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Show off that vertical veggie garden 35 stories high. Or that bucket of potatoes you're proud of. Perhaps some fall mums that have been catching your eye through the sliding door into your living room. Any and all balcony gardens are welcome! Come and show your's off because we love to see it. :)
We also welcome ideas, tips, and items which have helped you in your balcony gardening journey. No balcony? Feel free to join in with your container garden with limited space too!
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If you don't remove them from your balcony that horror will become reality, sooner or later.
I don't mind having ants in my garden, but when it's next to the house I do remove them. It's way easier to nip it in the bud then having house guests.
Any tips on how to get rid of them?
Food grade Diatomaceous earth. Won’t harm you or your pets but will kill the ants.
I agree with this. It's what we've used to keep a sugar ant infestation from overwhelming us. We had to step up to a professional spray, but inside the diatomaceous earth was a lifesaver for years before it just got too bad outside. And food grade is easy enough to find and safe in the kitchen (where the sugar ants liked to be here)
Typical ant control involves leaving sterilizing bait granules on (or near) "roadways". Worker ants carry them into the hive and feed them to the queens. The trick is that they aren't poisonous, they are sterilizing. The queens cannot produce more workers and the colony gradually disappears.
Not sure about effects on other insects. I think the key would be putting them where ants travel, because that's where other insects don't.
There are bait boxes that you can put in the ant trails/highways. I think they're called Ameisen köderdose in german. Much less cleanup compared to granulates/powder that you pour out.
Thanks mein Freund, then I'll think about buying an Ameisenblaukorngiftköderfallendose if needed 👍
rofl, and people whine about swedes combining words. :D
We sprinkle a line of food-grade diatomaceous earth outside right next to each of our doors, so the outside ants would have to cross it to get inside.
We also got a plate that’s larger than our pet’s food bowl. We put diatomaceous earth on the plate and then put the pet bowl on top of that.
Finally we put out a borax-sugar solution. I drilled some ant-sized holes in the side of several plastic containers that have tight lids (we have an indoor bunny and I didn’t want her getting into the borax even though it shouldn’t be enough to affect her). I soak cotton balls in the borax solution, put them in the plastic containers, and place the containers along any ant trails I notice.
Borax solution: 1 cup warm water, 5 Tbsp + 1 tsp white/caster sugar, 1 Tbsp borax. Mix until dissolved.
Do you know where I can find Borax locally for reasonable prices?
I find it in a box at the grocery store in the laundry aisle. In Canada the product is even named Borax, but if you’re somewhere else you might have to check the ingredients on products if they’re covering it with another name (e.g. how “Mrs. Dash” is just MSG).
Same as i_stole_ur_taco. The brand I buy is “20 Mule Team” and it’s advertised as a detergent booster. The only ingredient is sodium tetraborate.
Along with diatomaceous earth, consider buying nematodes. They are tiny living creatures, and one of the varieties eats ants. There are multiple varieties, so make sure you get the right one!