Question
We recently bought a townhouse in the suburbs of Baltimore, MD. It seems to me that our house (and likely most of our neighbors' houses) were built on one GIGANTIC ant hill. At summer's peak there are ant hills abound. We recently built a patio in our backyard and used stone dust instead of sand. We hope that will go a long way in keeping the ants off the patio and away from our back door. But how do we keep ants out of the rest of the yard without chemicals? We are preparing to have several yards of topsoil delivered so we can regrade the yard, since erosion has taken it's toll. Is there is something we can do before we lay sod or a particular variety of sod we should use so that we don't have to share our yard with the ants?

Answer
Hi Jennifer;
Lemon oil repels ants, and I am told so does talcum powder.
Orange oil is the main ingredient in effective fire any control, so I advise people to peel a coupkle of oranges and 3 or 4 lemons, grind the peels in a food processor, and add to about a gallon of Epsom Salts, store it in glass containers overnight, then scatter that all over the yard.
I peel lemons, chop the peels very small, about the size of a small fingernail and scatter them in my flower beds and containers, and that keeps neighborhood cats from using them as a litter box.
I chopped orange peels, and just scattered them all over the yard, when it was time for fire ants to swarm in early spring, and that kept fire ants out of my yard for the whole year.
Since I have been on the organic lawn care program long enough to build up a large herd of lawn critters, lizards, grass snakes and toads, they eat all the ants and other harmful insects, so I haven't seen them in my yard in years.
I haven't use the orange peels for about 4 years now.
I have read that sprinkling talcum powder around also repels ants.
Charlotte
Cjharlotte