If you look up Boron fertilizers such as "Fertibor" or "Granubor" they are called: "Sodium Tetraborate Pentahydrate" and the "Borax" cleaning product you find in grocery stores is: "sodium Tetraborate Decahydrate" I know they are very similar but the "Borax" cleaner has 10 water molecules hence its chemical description (decahydrate) and the Fertilzer grade bought in co-op stores is "pentahydrate" meaning 5 water molecules. Is it a big deal?

Boric acid kills ants not borax. Small black ants like living wood and are tough to get rid of them. I hope she has pulled up those wooden timbers because that's probably where they were/are living. Why do you not want these guys in your garden? They're aphid farmers and will carefully put their herds all over your crops. Fire ants are another big no-no to have in your garden, yard or property for that matter. Fire ants are non-native to North America. These tiny terrors kill 1 or 2 people a year generally people with allergies or the bedridden. But they will strip your garden of anything they want, including squash, tomatoes and few other "water" heavy vegetables during a drought. They will attack you if get near their mound, in a swarm attack, with the mound emptying out to go after the invader. For the person who is not allergic it's a stinging fiery bite, that raises a blister on most people. One is annoying, a few are painful but many may make you sick. Keep Benadryl around if you live in fire ant claimed land. Thanks to fire ants each year agricultural losses run somewhere around 6 billion and we all pay for it each time we shop for food, clothes and medicines. I don't like flagrant use of pesticide but there are times we have to do something to protect ourselves, our families, our homes and our gardens from from insects. I use no more then I must, ground based and carefully. As to why I know about fire ants, I became interested in learning about them after nearly dying from them as a small child.

They do still hunt, in quail season. I'm not sure just WHO hunts, but I understand that hunters come from far away to quail plantations. This one just happens to be a scientific lab as well. They study the effects of fire on pine forests, and the butterfly garden is used for teaching -- schoolteachers come for workshops. Those are just a couple of the things that go on there. We met several graduate students who are studying various plants or animals, or soil or water. Here is a link that might be useful: More than you probably want to know about quail and plantations and pine forests

Quote: "And whatever happened to all the good Westerns. Maverick Bat Masterson Gunsmoke The Virginian The Rebel Rifleman Rawhide Bonanza The Ponderous Daniel Boone Big Valley " Unquote. Today, these are playing on MeTv. I watched an episode of 'Gun Smoke' yesterday morning. It brought back memories. I remember seeing these shows when I was in a Dorm in college in the late '50s. It was scramble after the dinner meal to race to the lounge to get good seats for the show. We had one TV set in the dorm, and a commitee chose by vote which program to tune in for the after dinner hour. I could not afford to spend much time on TV because my studies occupied almost all of my time ourside of class. However, I did squeeze in a few episodes a week for a break in the routine.