Help!! Ants Around Top Of Agp - Can't Get Rid Of Them!

[niklepikle]

Thanks, have tried dousing with water, drowning them, whatever....BUT it doesn't work! I think that they reproduce by the nanosecond! Flamethrower sounds great, but would like to have pool left at the end of all of this

[ellenicol]

Have heard that white distilled vinegar sprinkled around things will get rid of ants. ie: sprinkle around the bottom of the pool and they won't go up it. Not sure if this really works or not but it might. Supposidly you can use a rag to wipe your door jambs on the bottom with the vinegar and ants will not cross it. Hope you figure it out.

[CarlD]

DE powder.

That's right, I said DE powder! If you have a DE filter, you already have it. If you have a sand filter, well, a little DE in it can help as well.

It's one of the few, rare items that is FAR cheaper at a pool store than anywhere else. DE is sold as an insecticide at far higher cost. But I buy about 10lb a season for my sand filter for $8.

Poconos pioneered adding 1/3 cup or more to a sand filter, just enough to raise pressure 1 lb, and the performance improvement of the filter is AMAZING! You just need to add DE everytime you backwash, but in a sand filter that 10# of DE seems to last FOREVER!

Plus you have DE to kill the ants. My mom told me she used to use it when she and my late dad had a pool--she'd swipe some of his DE for it and worked GREAT. Folks here have confirmed that.

Cheap, effective, dual purpose!

There's been some discussion of using DE with cartridge filters. The verdict is unclear but it seems it may not be a great idea--it MAY clog the filter.

Edit by Poconos:
Just to set the record straight I didn't pioneer the idea about DE in a sand filter. I saw that idea a few years ago in some obscure thread on the old forum.
Al