ants in strawberry patch

Does anyone have a way to rid the strawberry patch of ants without spraying with poisons? They are eating the berries and I don't want to spray with ant killer, for fear it would get on the berries. Thanks

There are several companies that make ant traps for out doors. I used them last year and they seemed to work well. They're a little plastic disc that you pin to the ground. The ants carry the poison back to their nest.

Hmmmmmmmmm. That's a tough one. I do know that ants absolutely _hate_ mints and pennyroyal but mints are _very_ invasive plants and need to be contained somehow or they'll spread like wildfire. You could plant some pots of mint in the ground among your strawberries. You might even try making your own homemade mint leaf spray and spray all of your strawberry plants. You knows! It might work like a charm and you will have made a remarkable and maybe even marketable ($$$) discovery. :)

Terri

I have a bunny garden, planted specifically for bunny food, and it is full of pennyroyal. Full. Ok, overflowing. Watercress can be just as invasive, so its a darn good thing I can rip, tear and feed the bunnies, lol..anyway, until I saw your post, Pete, I never realized that it the one area we dont have ants. I have seen posts about Tansy tea as a deterent for ants but I would hate to disturb the ants covering the tansy in order to pull it up. Sigh.....

Terri, Hey I sure like the idea of making my own mint spray for the strawberries. I totally didn't think our my garden well when I put my peony RIGHT in front of my strawberries. The ants are what open up the peony blooms. I'm sure they went from there STRAIGHT for the strawberry patch. Darn!! I'll be starting over with strawberries next year as a result.

Ladyanne, would Penny Royal help to get the bunnies away from my prized plants?

Cajun, I just answered to the bunny list on another posting, and then ran into this one. I am wondering the same thing. Our bunny died (insert very unhappy face here) due to his ability to roam the entire property and he got into something he should not have. There are many, many dangerous plants in our yard. Now, a neighbor has bunnies who refuse to stay contained, so they have become neighborhood rabbits. There are now a few more, due to two having litters, and the possibility of ow many there will be in a few month is downright terrifying. Communication with this neighbor is zilch as they do not speak English. Anyway, they love the Mexican Primrose and Lamb's Ears and frankly, we cheer them on. My coleus being eaten to the ground hurt, so I am investigating what we can do to keep them safe yet away from the plants we treasure.

The pennyroyal was started in the bunny garden and has literally taken over, along with the watercress. I rip and tear without mercy to feed the bunnies in the front, so while I am not worried about them being invasive back there, I am not sure I want to plant it in the front. I am truly contemplating it but one thing comes up first, the fact that too much of any food (outside of grain and alfalfa) is not good for bunnies. They really will eat themselves into oblivion. I have played with the thought of growing most of the bunny foods in a pot, taking the pots out in the front and trade them every day so they get to eat them, trade pots, then let the plant regrow. This is theory, they might very well kill the plants.

Didn't mean to go on this long. Let's keep in touch with ideas and progress? I know what did not work with our bunny (garlic spray, etc) but I am going to try it again in case our bunny had a liking for it while others do not.

Sounds good to me! And I've definitely got to try that mint spray for the ants on the strawberries (well, once I get them planted in a DIFFERENT location from the peonies (duh!!!))