I used some egg shells on my potted cayenne plant. Looks like the ants have laid eggs or something on the undersides of the leaves. I read somewhere about Egg shells and they've seemed to disappear. Though that could be because they are done messing up my plant.

I think someone also mentioned setting it next to Mint plants. I have my Arabian Jasmin next to my mint plants and the ants no longer hang around.

Sprinkle Amdro fire ant bait around the pots. The fire ants will take the bait and return to the colony and feed it to the queen. Once the queen dies, the colony will die.

I wouldn't put it in the pots, just around the pots.

Fire ants are often on plants because the plants are infected with aphids. The aphids suck the sap out of the leaves of a plant but cannot digest all the sugar in the sap so their excrement, called honeydew, is high in sugar. The ants eat the honeydew.

So if you can control the aphids, you can control the ants. Neem oil and insecticidal soap sprays, including spraying the undersides of the leaves, will work.

There wasn't any aphids on the eggplant, so that wasn't the problem. The nest is huge, and was under the pot in the ground as well. I don't want to use pestisides since even trace amounts in the soil will get in my veggie. I guess I'll just have to loose this eggplant and dump the soil. :o(

Can you repot it? Usually when I put an ant-infested plant's rootball in water, the ants evacuate immediately. Sometimes moving the pot or putting it on some type of riser, like a cinderblock, can eliminate the attractiveness of it as a home for ants. What about pouring boiling water on the nest in the ground?

Fot those of you who dont like amdro an Orange oil drench will get rid of the ants and is organic
You will need:
1 Gallon of water
1/4 Cup orange oil
1/4 Cup Blackstrap Molasses
I also add neem I think it keeps them from returning

Simply mix together all of the ingredients. Just pour it on the bed or pot in your case

Note: makes enough for one ant bed.

Good luck Robert

I don't know how you can get rid of the colony in the ground without using something to kill the fire ants.

Spray and flush the pot with a strong stream of water. They usually relocate and then you can kill them with the Amdro. Spinosad can be another option, but I haven't tried it for this use yet.

FWIW, I've seen 'natural' fire ant killer (granules) @ the stores - Ecosense brand, I think. Less toxic if you want to put it around/in edibles, I believe.

& also FWIW, ants do not lay eggs on(or under) leaves. Only the queen ant lays eggs & she's hidden away safely.

A tip I got from an exterminator friend was to use a bucketful of soapy water & a long stick; pour the soapy water into the mound & use the stick to break it open so that the water will get down deep into the nest. I'm guessing the stick might be optional if it could harm your plants' roots. Castile or insecticidal soap will kill ants, but shouldn't bother the plants.

We moved the pot and my hubby torched the ground where the nest was after he kept stiring it up. I soaked the pot in water for hours and did kill off some of those but there is still 1000's in the pot. I'll have to try the soap.

Thanks all. :o)

With all the rain, the ants seem to be moving up in the world. Most of my pots outside have fire ants either in them or next to them. Even the ones in the pool cage. I sprinkle amdro and that seems to work, and doesn't harm the plant. Even raising the plants off the ground didn't work. I have some on those concrete pedestals, and the ants just climbed up to the pots. I did try some organic solutions, but they only seemed to get the nest to move a foot to the side.

I soaked the pot in water for hours and did kill off some of those but there is still 1000's in the pot. Was the entire soil mass under water?

Diatomaceous Earth with bait. It's sold with the organic products at Lowes. It works great. The fire ants were nesting in the mulch in my veggie garden and pots. I tried everything else including borax sugar mixture in plastic containers. The racoons stole them all!

Yes, the entire pot was under water. When the ants came to the surface of the water my hubby torched them. But far too many are still alive. I don't want to use insecticedes because I'll be eating the eggplant, if it lives through all this. lol

Wow, that's frustrating. I don't use chems, either. Submersion has always worked for me.

I'm guessing there may be air pockets in that pot (maybe the ants' tunnels?) - wouldn't it have to be pretty dry for the ants to move in in the 1st place?

wouldn't it have to be pretty dry for the ants to move in in the 1st place?

You would think, but I've noticed that here fire ants have moved into the bed beside the front door that collects all the roof runoff, although they ignored that area completely during the dry season.

there are plenty of chemicals you can use to kill them that won't effect the eggplant. It would need to be systemic to get into the plant. You don't need to spray it on the plant to kill the ants. I always prefer a fire ant killing dust. It doesn't take much and does a great job eradicating them Unless you want to be totally organic, then you have limited options.

I just sprayed a rose with water that I had soaked hot peppers in and they scattered pretty good. I'll have to wait and see.
You have your troubles don't you. First the poison ivy and now the fire ants? Sometimes it is darn painful to try to garden in FL. I hope you find a good solution.

Nancy, you are forgetting the lubbers I've got by the 1000's. It's a wonder I garden at all. And I got poison ivy for the third time this year.

For some reason PSL seems to be very bad with fire ants. Maybe because it's so low, they call it Pit St Lucie. We had to get special anntenias for the radio to get all the stations.