Ants Versus Termites - The Battle Of the Micro Titans

Termites are very annoying and not to mention very, very, very destructive insects. They are quite stubborn too. Even applying insecticides in order to eradicate these pests, they will always, sooner or later, manage to come back. These insects are mostly attracted to paper and wood. They can make colonies under the cement floor and then work their way in the house by creating secret passages through the walls. One can't even notice until damage has been done. They are so fast. They are also so efficient that they can eat a wooden box overnight.

I can no longer count how many times I sprayed our house with anti-termite insecticide.

There is another but more annoying yet not so harmful insects, the ants.

They are attracted to food, specially sweets and sugar. They appear in different kinds of sizes and colors too.

The ants are more than powerful compared to any man-made radar system when looking for food. They are so efficient food hunters. Just leave something sweet and edible anywhere, the ants will be there within a couple of minutes.

I have this habit of drinking coffee under the mango tree. Mainly, because it is cool under the shade.

As I was staring at the thick branches of the mango tree hoping that it is already starting to bear fruits, I noticed some white crawlers going down to the bamboo pole used to support the tree.

I dismiss the crawlers as the busy ants. Then I took another sip of my coffee, I suddenly feel some odd taste. The thing stuck in my tongue that seems like a little bit larger speck of sand except that it pinches like a very small vise grip. It hurts.

I have no other choice but to take it out with my fingers. It was a red ant.

It occurred to me that the crawlers I saw on the branches of the mango tree must not be the ants, so I look up and to my amazement I saw termites crawling down to the ground.

The termites were heading towards the piece of log I was sitting on. I jump up to stand and yes, unnoticeably they reside inside the cut down wood.

An after thought came to my mind, where did the red ant came from? I look around and there is nowhere near the log the red ant could have come from.

I look up and there it is! A red ant colony resides inside a hive looking make shift made up of mango leaves hanging from a mango brand three feet above my head. Right down from where the red ants? colony hangs is a colony of termites living inside the log.

An experiment came up instantly in my mind.

What will happen if I can make the red ants invade the colony of termites?"

So I pour a cup of red sugar on the log seeing to it that most of the sugar granules will fill the holes where the termites use as passages.

The effect is like the battle of Mactan, Datu Lapu-lapu versus Ferdinand Magellan, insects version!

The soldier termites position themselves on top of the log while the big red ants started to fall from above. I can see the hand to hand grid lock, a termite to an ant. Some duelers started to fall from the edge of the log. It was magnificent. It reminded me of a scene in the movie 300.

Furthermore, surprisingly some other kinds of ants started swarming from everywhere towards the log. Big red ants, big black ants, small red, small black, much more smaller red and black ants joined the battle. It was like People Power 1 and People Power 2 combined with the fleet of Douglas McArthur in tow.

Amazing.

The colonial war between the termites versus the ants lasted for three days with the queen termite's skin ended up on top of the log.

Wow! I will not be needing termite insecticide to get rid of the termites. All I need is sugar.

Concerning the ants, I think they are the kind of insects I have to live with.

I don't want to end up like the queen termite. 

How to Get Rid of Those Red Ants in Your Garden

Believe me, you'll hate those small creatures in your garden that are really painful once they bite on to your skin. It's really bothersome to see them attacking your eggplant, tomatoes, pepper, and almost majority of your vegetables are victims of these little ants, yet a problem in our garden.

I have experience the tremendous pain by these ants when I was weeding my plants and I happen to dug into their colony, not knowing there was any, when suddenly my feet was already half covered by these tiny creatures.

I suffered too much pain and was sick during the night after being beaten.

So, what I did, the next day, I mixed my homemade insecticides with the following formulation...

For one gallon of water, I measured two tablespoon of powdered laundry soap, two tablespoon of vegetable oil, two tablespoon of baking soda, and one teaspoon of chlorine powder.

After mixing all the ingredients I placed the solution to the hand sprayer, about one half gallon in size and immediately I went to my garden where the ants colony was located.

Upon seeing that the ants were somewhat enjoying their work, I immediately sprayed directly to them the solutions I made. You could just imagine once the solution hit them, it only took about 30 seconds all those that were hit instantly died.

I continued the process until almost all were totally killed. Those that were below the soil, I used a digging tool to let them come out to the surface, and do the same process sprayed them directly.

It took me about one hour to continue spraying until almost all were totally eradicated.

So, if you have these tiny creatures in your garden, don't panic anymore, follow my formulation and say goodbye to the red ants. It's really effective, although you've to spend a little amount to buy the needed ingredients for the mixture, but any way it's worth the amount and efforts.

Happy gardening.

Red Ants! They Are Ferocious!

One of the earliest memories I have as a child is when I was playing with one of my first childhood friends, Jason Vanzant. We had to be around 5 or 6 years old. Anyway, we were in the backyard of our house down at the end of Mahogeny Circle by the freeway in the old part of town. Our backyard was shaped like a giant wedge where the tip of the wedge was the furthest part of the yard away from our house, and was the only part of the yard that wasn't landscaped, or set aside as a play area.

Well, Jason and I were climbing one of the large trees in the far back. Jason and I were basically joined at the hip. We did everything together. Jason was older than me by a year, but I was a little more "in charge" of things as far as taking the lead on what we did and stuff like that.

Well, we were going through a stage where we liked to climb trees. Jason decided to give it a try first. So, he started shimmying up the tree to the first branch, which was a good 5 or 6 feet above the ground. This took some effort and I stood at the base of the tree giving my shoulders as a place for him to step. Well, as I stood there I noticed a small group of red ants. I don't remember why I had the idea that red ants were "killer ants," but for some reason I was afraid of the red ones and thought that they could eat through your flesh. I'm sure one of my older brothers talked me into that.

Anyway, Jason is dangling from this branch and is almost secure when all of the sudden I scream like a little girl "RED ANTS!!!" and I jumped back from the tree. This spooked Jason and he lost his hold on the branch and came falling down. He jumped up and was startled. "WHAT DID YOU SEE?" he asked, thinking that I had seen a large spider or a snake. I pointed at the tree and showed him the small group of red ants. Needless to say, he wasn't very happy that I had just made him fall from the tree over a couple of harmless red ants. Not only that but I think he ended up chipping a piece of his tooth off. I sure felt dumb and learned quickly that those red ants really were harmless.