Gardening and Exploding Ants

Since I am no longer working, I have been doing a ton of work in my vegetable garden. It really needed it. A couple of weeks ago, I discovered that bugs had totally destroyed all my tomatoes, peppers and the little watermelon I was trying to grow.

I had read online that ants were killed by baking soda, so I sprinkled a bunch on the nest in the garden. It didn't really work, so I purchased some bug killer that can be used in the vegetable garden and sprayed the garden down. Then I did a bunch of weeding and replanted the tomatoes and peppers. I also had to purchase pumpkin, squash and zucchini plants as my seeds didn't ever sprout.

The radishes and green onions have been ready to pick, but because of the bug spray we had to wait a week before we could pick and eat any of them. I have been doing more weeding (it never really ends) and am still noticing tons of bugs in the garden. So I went back online to see if there are any other things I can use to kill insects that wouldn't prevent the kids from being able to pick and eat stuff right out of the garden all summer.

I discovered that in order for baking soda to work I have to mix it with powdered sugar. Apparently ants aren't interested in eating baking soda, but when mixed with the powdered sugar, they will eat it. The baking soda is supposed to react with the acid in the ants stomach creating a gas that will cause them to explode.

So, yesterday, I mixed together some baking soda and powdered sugar and sprinkled it in my vegetable garden. Today while I was weeding, Gavin asked me what the white stuff was and I explained what it was, and what it was supposed to do to the ants. A little while later he came back to me and asked if he would hear a "boom". You know, when the ants exploded.