Question
hello charlotte,
i have read your answers about ant control and i have some questions about them. the first one is about the cornmeal gluten. is it separate from just regular cornmeal? i bought some cornmeal(it didn't say anything about gluten on the package) and sprinkled it all over but the ants loved it i think.
the second might be silly but i don't now so ill ask. you say to mix epsom salts with lemon peels that have been ground up in a gallon jar. do i put water in there or anything? it just doesn't seem that the salts will absorb the lemon without water. if you say it will ill try it but it just seems like i am missing something.
     thanks for all your help!
                    tomk

Answer
Hi Tom;
I didn't advise corn meal gluten for ant control. Corn meal gluten is supposed to be a good weed and feed, but the sugar feeds the microbes, which enrich the soil, and that is what gets rid of the weeds. The starch ( sugar )in the cornmeal is what feeds the microbes, so sugar does about the same, only in my opinion, a little better.
I use horticultural corn meal for fungus treatment, or baking soda disolved in water.
Horticultural corn meal is the husk of the corn kernel that is removed when the corn is milled into the corn meal we cook with. It is that husk part that treats fungus.
Corn meal gluten is the whold kernel of corn, ground up.
Corn meal we cook with is good only for cooking. It doesn't treat fungus or feed the microbes.
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The Salts will absorb the oils from lemons or oranges. The oil will cling to the grains of the Epsom Salts, but left overnight, it will absorb into the salts.
I recommend a glass container, because the oil will etch into plastic and absorb, and that polastic will have that oil in it, and you can't get it out.
Left for several days, it will start to absorb into some plastics and the plastic will become flabby. I imagine if you left it long wnough, it would disolve into the plastic till it breaks it down completely.
You don't put water in it.
And that wasn't a silly question. To ask for information about something you don't know, and want to, is not silly.
In that regard, there is no such thing as a silly wiestion.
I but pickles in half gallon and gallon jars. We have a lot of family dinners, and a large part of my family are in this area, so I save those pickle jars to make my opotions in.LOL
That is what my daughter-in-law calls my mixtures, but she uses them too.LOL
Charlotte

PS:
I put Epson Salts in glass decanters that I prowl yard sales for, and scent them by putting some of my colognes in them. I make bath salts to match my perfumes for a fraction of what matching bath salts would cost.
So you could make the ladies in your life some neat bath salts by scenting Epson Salts with their colognes. It only takes a little cologne to scent a decanter full of bath salts, and the epsom slats makes a relaxing bath at the same time it gives a lovely scent.