Methods and compositions in which botanical oils, such as wintergreen oil, and/or isolated methyl salicylate are combined with an attractant matrix (pellets) and applied near a nest of leaf-cutting ants. These oils possess fungicidal and fungistatic properties that destroy and inhibit growth of the ant-cultivated fungus—the ant colony's sole food source—thereby promoting destruction of the colony. These oils are also highly attractive to the ants, exerting no repellent effects, encouraging transport of the fungicidal materials into the nest and ensuring that the fungal colonies come into contact with the materials and suffer mortality.