Thanks for using this forum.

We don’t quite understand what you mean by an “insecticide barrier”. What, precisely, do you have in mind? It sounds as if you might be concerned about ants entering your house. Is this what you are talking about? We’re sorry but the information you provided us is just too insufficient for us to craft a response.

We look forward to hearing back from you.

Many thanks.

Thanks for your response. Sime final questions to clarify things in my mind.  Did you have ants entering your house last year?  Were they found in your kitchen?  Do y

Thanks for your most recent response.

To answer your question, you could put this barrier down now. In reading about it, it would appear that it kills ants immediately upon contact and easily loses it effectiveness with rain. Many ant poisons consist of a substance that ants can carry back to the nest and kill the inhabitants. It would appear that this is not the case for the barrier you are considering. This causes me some pause in deciding just how effective it will be in your situation. Ants are now becoming active so it may be effective in killing ants that approach your house. However I suspect that there are one or more ant hills in your yard. Killing ants by your foundation will only buy you time. The queen is back in the ant hill. She can produce hundreds of new ants within a single day and this will balance any killing that you might do by your foundation. The only way to permanently solve your problem is to kill the queen. Just killing invading ants will not do this. I would suggest that you try and find the ant hill (there may be more than one) and completely dig it up so as to destroy the queen. If these ants have entered your house in the past year, they surely will do so again. You need to kill the queen for any effective remedial solution. See:

https://extension.umn.edu/insects-infest-homes/ants

https://www.pestworld.org/pest-guide/ants/

In the interim, keep your kitchen as clean as possible including any place in which food is stored. Ants are extremely resourceful and establish trails upon which their compatriots follow. However they are completely harmless though certainly a nuisance.

Good Luck!!

Thanks for getting back to us.

Removing or transplanting your peonies probably will not solve anything. Your peonies can attract aphids. These aphids upon feeding on the peonies produce a very sweet substance known as honey dew. This substance in turn attracts ants. Also as peony flower buds begin to form, they will release a very sweet substance that will attract ants. Once feeding on the peonies, ants probably should not be inclined to seek other food sources inside your house. I don’t see any positive advantage to moving your peonies. However if you see aphids on your peonies, you can apply an insecticide to kill them. This will cut down on the number of ants you will see on them. Remember that at this time of the year ants will only enter a house in search of food. In this sense the ants are probably very happy feeding on the honey dew and. the peonies. Once your peonies finish their blooming, the ants will disappear. You can purchase ant traps to place in your house that can help in reducing the ant population. See the following for more information on these and other points:

https://ipm.missouri.edu/MEG/2018/5/antsOnPeonies/ - :~:text=It is a myth that,from other floral-feeding insects.

https://www.bhg.com/gardening/pests/insects-diseases-weeds/stop-aphids/

https://www.almanac.com/ants-peonies

https://extension.umn.edu/insects-infest-homes/ants - :~:text=The most effective way to control ants is to put,nest at any given time.

https://www.paffyspestcontrol.com/5-ant-species-that-infest-minnesota-homes-in-summer

Good Luck