Black Ants

• 1). Keep your yard and garden area clean. Food and spilled beverages attract ants. Make sure you don't leave any scraps or crumbs of food in your garden area and avoid drinking beverages other than water around your herbs. If you have garbage containers in or near your garden, keep them sealed tightly and coat the exteriors with a mixture of insecticidal liquid soap (one capful in water) and a teaspoon of either mint, cinnamon, citrus or hot pepper oil from a spray bottle.
  
  
• 2). Soak your herb plants with the insecticidal liquid soap concoction every other day until the ants no longer invade your garden. If you find ant trails leading into your yard, spray them as well. This will kill ants on contact and discourage their return.
  
  
• 3). If the insecticidal liquid soap concoction doesn't work, combine boric acid with sweet jelly or jam likely to attract ants, and scatter small amounts along ant trails and around the borders of your garden. The ants can't resist the sweet bait, and the boric acid will kill them without harming you, your pets or your plants.
  
  
• 4). Powder the ground around your plants--or the border of your garden--with diatomaceous earth as an alternative. This kills most ants on contact.
  
  
• 5). Dust the tops of ant mounds with corn meal. After eating the powder, water the ants drink will cause the meal to expand and kill them.
  
  
• 6). Use natural repellents to keep ants away from your garden. Cedar wood chips make excellent mulch that ants will avoid. Certain plants deter ants as well, such as sage, peppermint and spearmint.
  
  
• 7). Eradicate aphids from your garden. These tiny insects attract ants by secreting a sweet fluid called honeydew. Ants will fiercely defend aphids to protect their source of the fluid. If you see any aphids in your yard, buy a bag of ladybugs from your local nursery or feed store and release them into the yard. Ladybugs have a voracious appetite for aphids.
  
  

Fire Ants

• 1). Locate the ant mound or mounds.
  
  
• 2). Place an inverted bucket over the ant mound.
  
  
• 3). Pour boiling water all around the bucket. This will cause the ants to evacuate the mound and enter the bucket.
  
  
• 4). Use a stick to right the bucket after a minute and fill it with boiling water. This will kill fire ants on contact.
  
  
• 5). Repeat this process as needed until the nest is empty. This may take several days.