Ants in my plants?

[Aubrey]

Kids say they're swarming the veggie garden. What to do?

[Brigitte]

Better there than in your pants... :-)

 

I can't help in any constructive way. Sorry.

[CroppinIt]

Do you have any peonies around? Apparently ants love them.

[MSNative]

Here are a few suggestions. I've tried baking soda and cayenne and they help. Haven't tried the vinegar suggestion, but I'd try it on a non-precious plant first to make sure it doesn't hurt the plant.

 

10 Ways To Kill Ants… Organically

1. Baking soda is poisonous to ants, spinkle it around your plants to ensure ants will stay away.

2. Flour & Baby Powder will keep ants from reaching your plants, ants will not cross the powder – so circle your plants with it.

3. You can use coffee grounds, chili powder, cinnamon, peppermint or black pepper. All deter ants and if you pour coffee grounds directly on an anthill, they will eat the coffee grounds and implode.

4. Grits, instant rice & cream of wheat can be sprinkled around plants. The ant will eat a piece of whichever you sprinkle, drink water and the grain expands and kills the ant.

5. Fill a spray bottle with 1 part vinegar and 1 part water and spray on plants. The acid in vinegar will kills ants.

6. Mix together one-third cup of molasses, six tablespoons of sugar, and six tablespoons of active dry yeast into a smooth paste. Use the mixture to coat strips of cardboard. Keep out of reach of pets and small children. You can leave mixture on a saucer outside anthill and they’ll eat it and die!

7. Fold contact paper in half, with the sticky side out and make a circle around base of plant. The ants get stuck on the paper – problem solved.

8. Cut off the bottom of a paper cup and cut a slit up the side of the cup and coat outside with vaseline and place around base of plant. You can also use packing tape.

9. Mix one cup of borax, two-thirds a cup sugar and one cup water. Dip cotton balls in the solution and place in areas near your anthill Ants will leave the plants alone and ingest the sweet mixture. The borax kills the ants.

10. Diatomaceous Earth is a commonly sold organic pesticide that will destroy the insects outer skeletons, causing the pests to die from dehydration.

[Liz CA]

Better there than in your pants... :-)

 

I can't help in any constructive way. Sorry.

 

:lol: I read your title "Ants in my Pants."

[Liz CA]

Do you have any peonies around? Apparently ants love them.

 

Yes! I posted here in a panic when my peonies were overrun with ants and was told it would not harm them - and it has not. They are about to bloom.

 

If someone dropped a wrapper with candy or other sweet stuff, they will congregate there as well. I have them in my veggie garden off and on (not where the peonies are) but they don't seem to eat anything.

[Saille]

Yes! I posted here in a panic when my peonies were overrun with ants and was told it would not harm them - and it has not. They are about to bloom.

 

Yeah, but if your peonies are too close to your house, the ants will swarm the house, too. Learned that the hard way, and I hate hate hate them. We had them at a rental in Ohio. Once I learned (and they had me in tears...they were all over my kitchen, and BIG), here's what I did: as soon as I saw the first ant, I put garlic powder and cornmeal in the windowsills and across thresholds and shut the house. All the windows, everything, until the peonies were done blooming. Ugh. They were nasty, and I'm not someone who really minds bugs.

[Aubrey]

Here are a few suggestions. I've tried baking soda and cayenne and they help. Haven't tried the vinegar suggestion, but I'd try it on a non-precious plant first to make sure it doesn't hurt the plant.

 

10 Ways To Kill Ants… Organically

1. Baking soda is poisonous to ants, spinkle it around your plants to ensure ants will stay away.

2. Flour & Baby Powder will keep ants from reaching your plants, ants will not cross the powder – so circle your plants with it.

3. You can use coffee grounds, chili powder, cinnamon, peppermint or black pepper. All deter ants and if you pour coffee grounds directly on an anthill, they will eat the coffee grounds and implode.

4. Grits, instant rice & cream of wheat can be sprinkled around plants. The ant will eat a piece of whichever you sprinkle, drink water and the grain expands and kills the ant.

5. Fill a spray bottle with 1 part vinegar and 1 part water and spray on plants. The acid in vinegar will kills ants.

6. Mix together one-third cup of molasses, six tablespoons of sugar, and six tablespoons of active dry yeast into a smooth paste. Use the mixture to coat strips of cardboard. Keep out of reach of pets and small children. You can leave mixture on a saucer outside anthill and they’ll eat it and die!

7. Fold contact paper in half, with the sticky side out and make a circle around base of plant. The ants get stuck on the paper – problem solved.

8. Cut off the bottom of a paper cup and cut a slit up the side of the cup and coat outside with vaseline and place around base of plant. You can also use packing tape.

9. Mix one cup of borax, two-thirds a cup sugar and one cup water. Dip cotton balls in the solution and place in areas near your anthill Ants will leave the plants alone and ingest the sweet mixture. The borax kills the ants.

10. Diatomaceous Earth is a commonly sold organic pesticide that will destroy the insects outer skeletons, causing the pests to die from dehydration.

 

Brilliant. Will try it tomorrow. I guess I'll work down the list...looks like the easiest solutions are at the top! :001_smile:

[Rosie_0801]

The ants in our backyard swarm every now and then. We just stay out of their way until they're over it, which seems to be three or four hours.

 

Rosie

[OrganicAnn]

For the most part, ants do not harm vegetables.

[Ailaena]

:lol: I read your title "Ants in my Pants."

 

So did I...:lol:

 

 

When we bought strawberries, the people at the garden store told us to plant them with sage because ants love strawberries but hate sage. I scoffed, but then it got warm here and apparently, this house had a problem with ants in the kitchen before I moved in :glare: Desperate for a non-chemical solution, I literally threw down a couple of sprigs of sage on the floor near them (thank goodness I never have company) and within a couple of days there were NO ants to be seen!

 

If you try the coffee grounds, will you PLEASE observe this alleged implosion??? I am so curious, but just cannot bring myself to kill any ants simply for the sake of research!

[keptwoman]

We always seem to have them in the Vege garden. They do no harm so I leave them alone, better they live there than in the garage.

[jenn-]

Those that don't mind them in the garden must not have biting fire ants in their garden. True they may not hurt the plant, but if you aren't careful when you step into the garden your foot/leg is going to pay the price (or in my case my fingers right now care of weeding). In the garden their beds don't look like a traditional ant hill in the grass, they blend in much much better.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I have a couple of hills out there that will probably be getting some of these treatments.