Annuals: De-Anting/De-Bugging Cut Flowers, 1 by egiap

egiap wrote:
It's a bit late in the year for this question, but while I'm thinking of it . . .

I love delivering bouquets to my friends and otherwise sharing my annuals in any creative way I can imagine. I usually figure an ant or two left on the flowers won't offend anyone. But a few weeks ago I decided to decorate a friend's birthday cake with sunflowers, and thought I should make a better effort to remove any lingering critters. What a pain! I'm sure I ended up missing some (though I imagine they died sugar-sated and happy!). German-chocolate ants---YUM!

Any ideas for de-anting/de-bugging cut flowers?