Ant Problem

Are you getting small ant hills in the crevices of your sidewalk? I get those on my patio and I do have a simple thing you can do that I learned from my mom. It's not permanent, though, so you have to repeat it every once in awhile, when you see ant hills returning. Get yourself a bottle of Sunlight dish soap (for handwashing dishes, not dishwasher). Put a good amount into a watering can (I use a depth of about 1/2" in my small one) and fill with warm water. Pour that into all the crevices and it'll take care of the ants for a week or two at a time (depends on how bad they are). My mom swore by Sunlight rather than any other soap and I always thought it might be because of its particular citrus content or something. Anyway, I start doing this in the spring, as soon as I see the very first ant hill. It has worked great for me so far and it's cheap! We have a pesticide and insecticide ban in my town so we do have to pursue other options. Oh! If it's of interest, you can also make this same mixture in a sprayer and use it on your plants, bushes, flowers, etc. Great for keeping a lot of pests away from those too. My mom used to even spray the hedges that lined her property with the stuff :)