From: Andy N Pryke (A.N.Pryke@cs.bham.ac.uk)
 Subject: Re: herbs which repell ants? 
 Newsgroups: alt.folklore.herbs
 Date: 1996/07/04 

On alt.folklore.herbs, Sat Jun 29th 1996,
cclud@sylvania.sev.org (CsquaredL) wrote:

> A tip I read on a brewing newsgroup regarding ants.  Someone
> recommended mixing 3/4 cup molasses, 1/2 cup sugar, and one or two
> packages of active yeast together.  Place the mixture someplace
> close to the ants, they love the sugars in the mixture, but the
> yeast causes them to blow up.  No chemicals... just blown up ants
> all over...  I haven't tried it so of course your mileage may
> vary. :)

Iril Kolle  wrote:
:
> Try a mixture of 50/50 vanilla powder (sugar) + baking
> powder. Baking Powder makes the ants go POP! Use it only in dry
> weather, when it rains you have to sprinkle it out all over
> again. It really works, and the stuff sticks to the ants so that
> when they go home to their "nest" several ants get the stuff in
> them. I've tried it with great success, and neither my cats or my
> dog gets near the stuff (I mix it into the earth) so it's quite
> safe!


Try mixing nitroglycerine and icing sugar together, this accumulates
within the ants, causing a small explosion when you step on them. They
also take it back to the nest. Due to the instability of the mixture
and the acidic atmosphere found within ant's nests, the whole nest can
spontaneously explode. 

For a herbal touch, add sweet smelling herbs, such as lavender, or
powdered frankincense. As each ant explodes, a cloud of incense-like
smoke will appear, scenting your kitchen or garden.

If you want to use this method, here are a number of tips.

1) The nitroglycerine-sugar mixture is quite tasty, but don't allow
pets / children to eat too much of it, unless you want them to
explode too!

2) Only mix small quantities at a time, otherwise you could blow your
hand off.

3) Make sure you know where the ants nest is - you don't want your
front porch blown into orbit when the nest explodes.

4) Check out rec.pyrotechnics for more info on nitroglycerine.


Hope you find this helpful (and not too un-herbal),

	  Andy