Cob: Flying ants? and red ants in new cob bench??????

[lightearth at onebox.com]

Borax maybe ? Worked great for me in several ant situations...watch out with soils it will sterilize the soil from growing anything even though it is natural.....works great to prevent bug/mold in many situations...

Marlin Nissen

-----Original Message-----
From:     "Myra Bonhage-Hale" <lapaix at iolinc.net>
Sent:     Sat, 12 Oct 2002 16:17:34 -0500
To:       <coblist at deatech.com>
Subject:  Cob: Flying ants? and red ants in new cob bench??????

Yikes, just went up to look at the aforementioned cob bench which a group of us worked on last Saturday - the cob = 2 seperate stages - one underneath the other - the top cob is still wet after almost 3 days of rain - it was covered with plastic and held down with large stones so rain did not get in.  The cob is above a dry wall rock base (not dry wall used on walls inside - just rock stacked without mortar) and it is about 8 inches high now = 9 feet long on foundation of tamped earth tires (3).
However, lifting up the cover to show someone working in my gardens today, I was astonished to find literally hundreds, perhaps thousands of winged ants and llittle red ants marching up all one side and in and out theholes for drying - what do I do?  I have an organic herb farm (certified for 3 years, still using same practices) and am chemically sensitive, so I do not use pesticides of any kind.  I guess I could put tansy and peppermint on the still drying cob - I'll do that and let you know if it works.  If that doesn't, I will try essential oil of peppermint.  Has anyone else ever had ants invade their still drying cob????  
Visit me on the web at www.lapaixherbaljourney.com
and www.sustainabledevelopmentforwv.com