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Help me get rid of these damn ants!

16 years ago

A colony of small ants has taken up living quarters in the pot of my babby king. I've tried diazinon (I know that spelling is wrong) as well as another type of insect killing granuals. The ants are not bothering the plant. In fact it's doing quite well but eventually it will have to be moved back inside. I'll use anything that won't harm the plant. Help please

thanx,

Andy

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Comments (10)

scaldude
16 years ago
Dude, I hate ants!

They've tried to make a home in every potted plant I have.

Make sure the pot is on pavement and not on your lawn. The colony could be in the ground under the pot. Stir-up the soil...poke a stick through the root ball to destroy their colony...water frequently. Flood those SOB's out.
andyandy
Original Author
16 years ago
Scaldude-
Long time no post. Actually I have it on the soil of my potted roebi. It's a giant pot and it holds all my palm seedlings. How is your coconut doing? Mine croaked back in April. I think I damaged the connection between the trunk and roots. It was fine all winter and then after moving it outside for a couple of days in March when we hit 80 the trunk became very loose. I hope all is well. Rumor has it that USC will be #1 in the preseason polls and Michigan 2nd.
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Living in Texas, I don't know of a permanent solution other than living with them, or constantly using a bait or other ant killer. Last year, just about every one of my containers had ants. As a short term solution, I would combine two of the methods listed above. Bare-root the tree and spray the ants with a sharp stream of water. You may damage a few roots, but your tree won't miss them. Afterwards, soak the root mass in a bucket of water. The second step will flush out the ants (and more specifically, the queen, if they have bored into the trunk under the basal flare (yes, they sometimes do that). You will want to soak for a couple of hours. To prevent the ants from infesting your containers to begin with, you can set your container on something and treat whatever it's sitting on. For example, my containers were on two strips of treated wood to keep them off the ground. One could soak the wood in an ant killer, or smear it with Tanglefoot or petroleum jelly to prevent the ants from crossing into the container. In order for something like this to be successful,however, you would have to make sure the top of the tree doesn't touch anything else and that grass around the container doesn't come in contact with it. Those ants will find anything they can to use as a bridge. Or you would have to effectively control the entire yard. Whatever you do... do NOT plunge your hand into the growing medium without checking for ants. It's been two weeks since I forgot that rule and my right hand is still swollen. ~james
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watergal
16 years ago
I have a coworker who uses ammonia water (one capful per gallon of water) poured on the soil of plants to get rid of ants or fungus gnats.

I've tried sitting ant traps around in my grow room, and I sprayed the area where I saw a few ants with Raid. Stank like heck, but no more ants. Maybe you could spray the pavement around the pot with Raid?

Years ago, I had an ant colony hatch out of a large potted ficus indoors in February and make a huge trail across the dining room. EEEEWWW! For years after, I wouldn't put houseplants outside. I finally got over it, though, and rarely have problems with ants.
scaldude
16 years ago
Seriously, I've had ants carrying eggs from pots to escape the water. Try it before resorting to chemicals.

I am pushing the boundaries of my Coco Palm's drought tolerence. LOL I'm pretty much on the road 4 or 5 weeks and home for 1. It wintered just fine outside with the heat cable experiment. No surprise, it is not as green as it should be, but the new growth appears healthy. To be honest, I'm surprised it's not dead. I'm a bad Dad.

My 4 Plumerias (one is flowering) and 5 Pineapples are remarkably great too. No credit to me.

Go Trojans!
garyfla_gw
16 years ago
Hi
I thought all the ants in the world lived in florida lol. There are an unbelieveable variety of ants as well as termites here and of course they're active all year long.
The only ones that really concern me are Fire and Carpenter ants,mainly because they bite and the termites for obvious reasons. I was convinced that the entire population of the world lived in fl until I went to Costa Rica. Those Leaf cutter and Army ants are downright scary !!lol There is a discussion on the orchids forum for using aspartame. Yes the artificial sweetener. I guess it works by bulimia lol Neighbor once told me to "Move to Mi in Dec. " guess that doesn't work lol gary
oppalm
16 years ago
flood them out. Get the pot (container) off the ground so the water drains freely and flood the plant with water for a few minutes. Most ants are not good swimmers and they dislike being flooded. Also as they are running from the pot take a blow torch and set it in "high" and fry them as they are making their escape.

You can also buy "plant caddies" at your favorite discount store which helps to keep the plant off the ground a couple of inches and helps in reducing ant problems.
andyandy
Original Author
16 years ago
Thank you all for the suggestions. I will give them all a shot until these stupid theings are gone.
david_
16 years ago
malathion works great and there dead. Diazinon liquid usually works also.
melinda27858
16 years ago
I have used instant grits to get rid of fire ant colonies. They eat it, it expands, they die. Fun!
birdsnblooms
16 years ago
Andy, when I hear the phrase, 'ants on plants' it makes me think of other bugs..like aphids and scale..Please check palms and neighboring plants.Do u know how to detect scale? Look for lumps on leaves/trumk..For scale, I treat w/Fish Emulsion..works like a charm..aphids are another problem but not as dangerous as those darn scale..Toni

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