Leaf-cutter Ants

We have these ants here, as well. They come from a neighbor's yard, who have no plants, so the ants come over to our yard. The darn ants cuts all the leaves off my "Butterfly" bush, my roses and my "Heather" bush. My husband is using a prehistoric sea shells, (look up in "Google"), I forgot the name. We heard that "Borax" mixed with something that will make the ants eat it, will work. However, we haven't tried that method yet.

A little info: The ants cut the leaves of your plant, take the leaves into their hives, or nest, chew them up to make a fungus. Then they and the queen live off the fungus until it's gone. Then they come out again to forage for more leaves. There can be at least 8 million ants in one nest!
If you researched these ants on the Internet, you will... read more see that this is some of the information we've found on these pests.

I've heard "Terminex", (sp?) will come out and put rods into the next, in hopes of spraying the queen. If they succeed, then she dies and the whole nest of ants will die. I have no idea if this is a working way to rid these ants and have no idea how much it costs. My challenge is that the neighbor's ant hill is in his fenced-in back yard and probably will not allow this company to come in and terminate the ants.

If anyone has any other ideas on how to keep these ants from attacking our plants, please reply to this posting. Thanks

Will strip your plants, trees bare overnight. They particularly love Hibiscus. Neither the nurseries nor Master Gardeners know of a proven method of extermination. Maybe a product called Volcano, but it is not available to the public - only government agencies.