Treating raised bed for ants

15 years ago

Hi,

I've got an 8' x 5' x 2' tall raised bed with melons and squash. Everything has been doing great - lush growth and lots of fruit - until recently. I wasn't able to get out to the bed for several days, and when I did finally get out there to examine things, I discovered that aphid farming ants had about taken over. In spite of my best efforts, I haven't been able to control either the ants or the aphids (trying most everything suggested on this and other forums) and I'm afraid I'm going to have to yank out all the plants soon.

Although I read the comments about ants not being all that bad, they are not my friend and I want to get rid of them before I put in a late summer/fall crop. Once all the old plants are out of the bed, how can I treat the soil to get rid of the ants without making the soil unsuitable for veggie gardening? I assume that some things used for spot treatment of ants - like vinegar, borax, oil, etc. - could really get the soil out of kilter if used in large amounts. There aren't any ant hills in the bed. When I flush the bed with water, the ants seem to emerge from between the boards halfway down the bed and from the corners of the bed at the top surface. I've been spraying them with soapy water/vinegar when they're on the outside of the bed and this kills them, but there seems to be a never ending supply of them!

Along with my fall veggies (thinking about brussels sprouts, garlic, maybe yams, carrots, beets), are there any suggestions for plants that repel ants and/or aphids. Seems I read that mint might be good (I know it can be very invasive, but haven't found this to be a problem in other areas of the yard). FWIW, I'm in the CA central valley and we have a very late frost date.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Anne

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Comments (6)

rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
15 years ago
You can use Amdro granular ant bait on the outside of your vegetable beds or edible crop safe ant bait containing Spinosad inside. Read and follow all directions carefully for the best results. These baits are extremely effective as they are taken down into the nest and eventually introduced to the whole colony.
money_man
15 years ago
I had a similar problem; built 4 raised beds and within three weeks had sugar ants everywhere (they managed to take out half of my beets in about 3 days). I mixed up about 2 parts peanut butter, 1 part sugar, and about 2-3 parts borax soap (just kept adding in as much Borax as the peanut butter would absorb). I made penny sized discs and put them around my boxes (would not recommend putting the stuff in your beds) and wow, the ants went crazy on it. Three days later there were very few ants remaininng and I have not had any problems since. Good luck in your battle...
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DE isn't harmful to the lungs unless you make a point of fluffing it into a cloud and then inhaling it. DE from fresh-water sources (Food grade) is less irritating to the lungs than DE from salt-water sources. You can use one of those common dust masks if you want. I've used DE on our version of the fire ant, the thatch ant. I tried everything I could think of: boiling water, vinegar, bleach, poisoned sugar water, poisoned meat. I got a pound of DE and sprinkled it over the mounds. It slowed them down, but didn't stop them. Then I found a fifty-pound bag of DE for $15 and got it. Since DE is quite light, it's a BIG bag. I took a 3-lb coffee can and coated the mounds with DE half an inch thick. If it didn't penetrate their carapace, by golly, I was gonna make 'em CHOKE on it! Well, I guess I had put it on thick enough (!) so all the ants were forced to wade through it and take it into the nest area to the queen. It got them, and they haven't come back. And I see no mounds anywhere else, either (in the past, I had annoyed them so they moved). The stuff is cheap, and non-toxic to earthworms, bees, pets and kids. It's safe to eat, and it even contains trace amounts of desirable minerals. It works by sucking the moisture from the insects' bodies, including fleas and cockroaches. If you looked at DE under a microscope, you would swear you were looking at sharp shards of glass. Some information says it takes one to three days to kill the insects. DE only works when it is dry. And because it acts physically, not chemically, the insects can't become resistant to it. To make sure you're getting the non-toxic kind, make sure it says something like CODEX FOOD GRADE. Call around to your local farm supply stores -- some of them should carry it, as farmers like to mix it with grain and feed it to their livestock, as it's also supposed to help keep flies down. NEVER get the kind that is mixed with an insecticide, or the kind that is used for swimming pool filters. Stick to the food grade kind. Sue
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DE sort of works for the ants and does help a lot with other pests. Spraying plants helps a great deal with aphids, allowing predators to come in. I think one of the organic sprays I have, a natural bacteria, also kills ants. For fire ants, I would use beneficial nematodes twice a year. This will also help with fleas, ticks and chiggers. Finally, consider trap plants, like sunflowers, Nastaturiums and radishes. The radish flowers also attract a lot of good guys. I always plent these three in and around the garden. Sunflowers are good for hot summer protection. Also, I've found cowpeas and yard longs tolerate some aphids and will attract a whole slew of predators in the heat of summer. I once had a "science experiment" with a bunch of cowpeas. Nasty aphid infestations but I had every imaginable predator from syrphids, rare desert lady bugs ( more heat tolerant than regular Asian type) and praying mantis. For cool season gardens radishes are perfect. Also, the nastiturtiums will work well. My ants are vivacious desert fire ants and I do end using a little amdro outside the edges of my raised beds now and then.
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I think you can safely say that the ants you found are not fire ants. While the brave and slightly unwise are willing to poke a fire ant nest with a stick, I doubt that any local would do that with a bare hand more than once anyway. The first point is that they sting and it hurts a lot for a week to a year and several stings would give you a medical visit. AND they are agressive. Second, they live underground but build tall mounds, probably over an inch high. However there are little black ants that build small mounds too. Here is what I wrote a couple of years ago: The North Carolina ag extension agents have been giving classes in fire ant removal for a year or so. The gist of the class is the following. The effective way to remove fire ants is to poison the ants with any of the slow acting types that slowly get carried to the whole colony including the queen. This completely removes the colony AFTER A FEW WEEKS. Generally these are distributed around but not on the hill on a warm day when the ants are foraging. Put a potato chip near the mound if in doubt; if the ants don't show up in 30 minutes they won't be around to pick up the poison until it gets damp and unappatising. Also important; one should not indiscriminately poison all ants. Other ants are teritorial and will fight to keep fire ants away. They are your friends!
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aclum
Original Author
15 years ago
Hi,

Thanks for the recommendations! I'll give the peanut butter mix a try tomorrow and look into the Amadol and Spinosad.

It seems like my flooding the beds is sort of working as a temorary fix. I think there's a 50/50 chance that I can save at least a few of the plants. When I flooded the bed this morning there were very few ants (comparatively speaking) that emerged. I'm pretty sure they'll be back once the bed dries out a bit, though, so I'd like a more permanent cure.

Anne
chrisd_fl
15 years ago
Although I have yet to try it myself, diatomaceous earth is reported to be effective against ants and other pests and contains no poisons or insecticides. The large surface area of the DE particle makes it highly absorbant and acts to dessicate and kill the insects. You would want to apply it on/around the ant nests on a dry day.
tclynx
15 years ago
Yes, diatomaceous earth does seem to be somewhat effective against ants. They make some with bait mixed in that seems more effective than the plain food grade fossil shell flower against ants. I mix the food grade stuff with the pet food to help keep ants out of the feed bins. It is safe enough for us to eat (and we likely do since they use it in grain storage to discourage pests.) Only drawbacks I've experienced with DE is the dust, it isn't really good to breath it or get it in your eyes and it will have a drying effect on your skin which only makes sense as that it how it kills the bugs, by cutting their cuticle and drying them out. DE is safe even for the earth worms but avoid dusting it on any flowers since it would be bad for the bees.

I've also used sticky stuff around the stems of some plants (like Okra) to stop the ants farming aphids or chewing on the pods and that worked well.

We are in Florida and the ants seem to rule here. The other half has a steadily worsening allergy to ant bites so we have had to resort to to using some stuff against them. In the garden area we are trying some spinosad product and hopefully that will help.

Here is a link that might be useful: www.TCLynx.com
joyful_garden
15 years ago
I would also suggest getting Ortho ant stop and putting a circle around your bed. Not in it of course but when I had those aphid farming ants on one of my hedges, I just sprinkled the stuff directly on the plant itself and they were gone the next day. I haven't had any success with DE but I have seen many people rave about it. I must be using the wrong kind. I use the stuff I put in my pool but I think there are different kinds of DE.
Joy

Treating raised bed for ants

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rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7

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Treating raised bed for ants

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rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7

money_man

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