Hello all!
Anyone have experience or knowledge about raised beds in areas where carpenter ants are prevalent?
I use lumber (2x8s etc) to build my raised beds here in the Pacific.
Northwest but have realized my soon to be new home in Texas has a lot of wood eating ants.
Does anyone have any input on raised beds in this type of area?
I don’t want to spray bug killer around my vegetable garden and I won’t use treated wood either.
Is there a way to deter the ants without contaminating my veggies?
I could replace my raised bed frames every few years....I really like the system ai have now because it gives me a place to sit in the edge of the bed while I work.
Thanks in advance.
I’ve only had an ant hill in a raised bed once, and I just got the hose and drown them out! I don’t know a thing about carpenter ants. The first thing that comes to mind though is Diatomaceous Earth, of course. Nobody likes that, LOL! Use ‘food grade’ of course.
Do the carpenter ants actually EAT the wood that makes up the raised beds?
I looked around a bit and I did find this ‘organic’ solution:
“Combination of Cornmeal, Borax, and Honey
Are you looking for the cheapest alternative? You may find this useful. This method is more likely to wipe away the entire colony!
Even the queen will be no more! Here is how it works.
Mixing cornmeal and borax (commonly found in toothpaste) posses a considerable risk to ants health when they ingest it or even pass over it.
Going an additional mile by adding honey to the mixture, conceals the taste of borax and invites more ants.
The honey will make sure the mix gets carried to the ant Hill where the queen will also have a taste hence killing all of them.
This mixture is friendly to your crops and humans. You should not get worried about your safety while using it. Unfortunately, this method may take some time for you to notice its effect.”
I’m curious to see if anyone has any Real Life experience with this situation.
https://gardenersyards.com/ants-in-raised-garden-bed-how-to-get-rid/
We scrounged a bunch of cinder blocks we found on the property and built my raised beds from those.
They are not very tall, of course, but considering how boggy my garden can get when it rains a lot, it raised the plants enough to keep them from rotting in the water.
Carpenter ants are a huge problem here. West Michigan. Plus we are in the woods for the most part. Our house originally had cedar siding and treated wood for all the retaining walls. We had a big carpenter ant problem. In 2009 we had the siding replaced with vinyl siding, got rid of all the retaining walls, rebuilt with bricks. Got an ant and termite service which we still use for around the house. We haven’t seen an ant in a few years now. We are going to keep the termite service but chuck the ant service. We’ll buy those Terro granules again. We have a short brick retaining wall around our garden. So all I can advise is to not use wood at all if you are in an ant or termite area.
Concrete frames (Part 1):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuSBwFkCiAw
Finding Part II is left as an exercise for the student. ;-)