Subject: Re: Ants and Spiders
From: [email-masked] (Cissy Bowman)
Date: 14 Jul 94 05:09:00 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.sustainable.agriculture

In a message to All <07-13-94 20:33> Tom Budai wrote:

TB> MSGID: 1:231/710 2E1CB81C
TB> Does anyone know how to keep ants (hundreds of them) off my tomato
TB> plants and spiders (hundreds of them also) out of my house?  I've
TB> used the hose to get the ants off but they keep coming back. Should I
TB> go to a pesticide?  The spiders are everywhere in the yard and in the
TB> house.  There is both little harmless ones and huge (one inch across)
TB> ones.  Should I spray these little buggers? Thanks
TB>
NO!!!!!  Use a boric acid mix--1 part boric acid to 8 parts sugar.  Put it 
where you see the ants.  They will have a party for a few days.  Then they 
die.  But ants don't eat tomatoes, nor do spiders.  Are there also aphids? 
They indicate too much nitrogen. Ants "farm" aphids.  Cut down on the 
fertilizer.  Spiders eat bad bugs.  Get a dust buster if they are really in 
your way, but the best thing is to let them be.  If you kill off ants and 
spiders you upset the ecological balance of things.  Learn to appreciate this 
sign.  It's telling you things about your garden.