Ants and Irises

I did a search and didn't seem to find much information so I am hoping someone can help. I was out admiring my new irises (yes, I know they don't have flowers on them yet) and saw bunches of ants running all around my flower garden. They didn't seem to be disturbing the rhizomes or eating the foliage. Should I be concerned or do you think I should just leave them in peace? Anyone have knowledge about ants and irises or an opinion on if I should treat the garden for ants?

Yes, it's definitely ant season. Personally, I just let them run around in my garden. In all of the years they've been there, I've never had any problems with them harming my plants. I think they like to dig their tunnels underneath my freshly planted irises because the dirt is soft and it's probably really easy for them to get in there.

Anyone else have a different opinion/experience?

Ants themselves don't injure irises in my garden, but ants often tend populations of aphids, and aphids can damage irises. Check your iris foliage, esp. down at the base of the fans where aphids may hide and congregate in large numbers.

Laurie

I tend to leave the ants alone unless they are endangering the children my daughter cares for (we share a home). I've never had them damage any plants. They have been more pesty this year, building in everything I want to use it seems, but then I have more worms and toads and slugs this year too than ever before.

Laurie~

Interesting insight about the aphids. Forgot that ants have one of those symbiotic relationships with them. Fascinating...but not at all great for my plants. I have to rinse off and squish aphids here on a regular basis!

Laura,

The Merit I use for borer control also does a fine job of controlling aphids in my iris beds, I find. Something you might want to consider.

Laurie

Thanks for the info. Didn't know about the relationship between ants & aphids. Aphids are generally a problem earlier in the year but not in the summer. I will double check for them on my new irises...
Cindy

It's been so hot & dry here for the past month that the ants have been knocking on the back door and asking to use the shower...

LOL, Wanda!

My 5-year-old son was kind enough to leave a feast of crumbs between his wall and bed. We had a family of ants all moved in and having a picnic. I guess I'm a party pooper...because I had to go and spoil their fun!

I know the feeling. My daughter used to leave bread crumbs out on the deck so the ants wouldn't go hungry.... She would also rescue worms from the playground after a rain so the other kids wouldn't stomp them. She has an old soul.

Your daughter sounds very sweet. :0)

Oh, how sweet. You've taught her well by example.

hmm. As I've watched her grow up, she has taught me a few things too, or reminded me.
Amanda has never met a critter she doesn't love. When she was young, we would let her capture wild creatures & keep them in little cages for 3 days before she released them.
For years she would have a "zoo" of her lastest biological finds on the covered porch: clams. crawdaddies, tadpoles, frogs, various turtles, minnows, small fish, salamanders, praying mantis, grasshoppers, butterflies, cocoons, moths, moles, bunnies, bullfrogs--whatever. All the neighbor kids would visit our house to see the "zoo" up close.

In the house she also bred & raised rats, chamelons, pet turtles, saltwater inveterbrates & fish, freshwater fish. The other daughter had mice, hamsters & guinea pigs + ferrets & our family dogs.

We only have 2 ferrets and 2 dogs left. The house feels empty and the daughters are off to college. Less chaos from little running feet from all over the neighborhood & no water balloon fights in the yard. More civilized with bigger gardens, but sometimes I miss the pure unadulterated joy of 5 kids on a trampoline....

Wow. I have a 5-year-old and a 7-month-old. I love them to death, but sometimes they drive me a bit batty. Posts like yours remind me to appreciate the little things while I can~because sooner than not, it's all over.

Go on a walk in the woods with your 5 year old. She will point out things that are easier to see at her height and that you've forgotten to notice over the years. I remember my daughters encountering their first centipede & fascinated how it moved across the path.

My Girl Scout troops taught me alot too. Did you know you can catch a big fish with your hands if there are enough of you in the creek?

My 5-year-old is a boy, so, unfortunately, he's at a stage where he's trying to kill anything that's crawling at his level! LOL! I'm trying to teach him the softer side of life, and that all living creatures have a purpose. He's beginning to understand, I think. The other day, I must have accidently walked over an ant. He screamed, "Mom, you just squashed that ant..and he was my BEST friend!"

LOL! Love it! tell him lots of yucky things crawl on the ground--that should attract him.

We used to spend hours as kids dropping tiny bread crumbs near ant hills & watching them carry it home. You know, if you take a stick and cloe an anthill entrance, they will push it back out like a bunch of bulldozers?

I think kids miss alot these days staying inside with TV/Computer games instead of getting dirty outside like I did.

My kids are grown and becoming grandparents now, but we used to have cages and jars and crates and tubs of things all over the place. People would bring us wounded critters to "fix" and we did. The Fish and Game warden gave us a special permit to have rare birds in our "possession" on a temporary basis because one of my daughters was successfully nursing them back to health. For those things we could not "fix" we had a little graveyard at the side of the house with little carefully made stick crosses, lovingly put together by the same little hands. I miss those days, too. You just don't know how quickly they will fly so cherish every little happy smile at a new treasure, every little wiggly critter, every little muddy mess. Take a lot of pictures.

We have an animal graveyard right next to the house by the froint yard bushes. The ground is always soft there, even in the winter. It holds several nearly 3 year old rats, a still born puppy , 2 ferrets, hamsters and other critters. We always have a pet for it's entire life span. We bury them in boxes with food & maybe a favorite toy, even bedding.

This practice HAS made me wonder. I'm an archelogy buff.
All these creatures have passed away since the house was built 15 years ago. A thousand years in the future, it will look like they were buried at the same time we built the house. Will future archelogists see our pet burials as offerings to a god?

I had to just sit here and laugh. I have wondered the same thing. We had little "coffins" too, shoeboxes or some such. We did not add food, though. I don't know why none of us ever thought of that. But they always had their little blankets and sometimes a pillow. I've wondered what people would think if they ever dug up our little graveyards.

My German Shepherd is buried in the backyard of the house I owned just before this one. My daughter's German Shepherd (the dogs were best friends) is buried in the backyard of the house they owned just before this one. When we were getting ready to move everything in here, my granddaughters wanted to know if we could dig up the two dogs and bring them with us. They didn't think they should be left behind! My son-in-law convinced them that it would be best to leave them undisturbed. Thank goodness. They were only wrapped in their favorite blankets. No coffins.

It's funny. I had not thought of all that in years.

We never advised our daughters what to put in the little boxes. They just always chose something typical for that pet. We'd always have a little ceremonial over the grave. I think handling the "little deaths" have made it a bit easier as they've lost relatives.

My worst funeral stands out in my mind. When the girls were young, I had 2 Girl Scout troops for their two grades--14 per troop with meetings & sleepovers at our house.
Many of the girls spent whole weekends with us when the parents were gone or busy. it was nothing to have 2 groups of girls--maybe 8 every weekend. (My DH Bill worked nights at that point.) Several of the kids were around so much they became like daughters to our family.

The first weekend in July found the usual gang at our house and 10 year old Rian (Birthday was July10) was staying over an extra night since her Dad was out of town. We spent Saturday picinicing in a big wild State park, hiking thru the woods, rock climbing, picking up shells on a beach. The girls were a dirty mess afterward, but I got some glorious shots of each one windblown & happy in the setting sun. My oldest and Rian spent 1/2 of Sunday choosing music & putting together a "jazz dance show" complete with costume changes in the garage. We took the dogs down to the park for a walk & let my daughters & their 2 friends play in the fast moving stream. We had a barbeque that night.

The next morning, Rian waved good bye as her Mom picked her up for the July 4th visitation. That's the last time I saw her alive. She went across to a construction site near her Mom's and was practicing some gymnastic moves on a forklift bar that was setting by itself. the darn thing flipped over & crushed her chest. It took 3 men to lift the equipment off her chest. Her Mom called an ambulance instead of the helicopter to carry her 40 miles back into our town. Her Daddy said she was conscious and fought to live for over 2 hours. My DH Bill said the doctors could have saved her if she would have been airlifted to Iowa City University Hospitals. (Bill was a surgical Intensive Care Nurse at the time.)

I agonized how to handle it. After talking with parents of my other Girls Scouts, psychologists, teachers and pastor, I decided to take the troop to Rian's funeral with parents for support. I had been helping them grow as a troop for 5 years and could not let them down now. None of the girls had been to a funeral. Rian herself had never been to a funeral.

We went in as a group to see her. My picture of Rian, all windblown & dirty from hiking was blown up and sitting on her casket. THAT was Rian, not the poor bruised little girl we saw in the casket. All her teachers were there. The girls were a bit shocked , but curious. We went back outside so I could answer any questions they had about the casket, the funeral make-up, the visible bruises on her arms. I answered all their questions and then explained that this was the result of an accident that parents always feared. That we parents had reasons when we told them not to play in dangerous areas. Each girl attended the funeral sitting by her parents.

There are funerals that are a celebration of a long life lived and tragic funerals we never want to attend. I think letting children experience the death and burial of a pet is a good way to prepare them for the more difficult burials in their future. Hopefully, the difficult funerals will be along way off...

Sorry for being morose. Our English Setter Whitey passed away on Friday. He was born in our house 14 1/2 years ago. Our daughters can barely remember a time without him in our lives. He was my husband's hunting companion for 12 of those years & was an incredible dog. Bill's friends called him "His Whiteness" in honor of his pheasant/quail hunting skills. Big, loving, gentle and always willing to please. Our house is much emptier with his loss. We will have our own funeral with his ashes today.

My DH is having a rough time with it. Bill had yelled at Whitey that morning for peeing on the floor and did not get home in time from the Iowa State Trapshoot to be with Whitey as he died. Alot of guilt.

Even Walker the Wonderdog has been quiet this weekend and well behaved. Totally out of character.

Oh, I am so sorry Wanda. My love and blessings to you guys. I am sure Whitey has found his way over the rainbow bridge and will be there to greet you someday (a long time from now I hope). I have asked my recently passed over Peaches to welcome him and show him around. That may sound corny but I still talk to her when I catch a glimpse of her somewhere. We all miss her a lot. We were out buying a tv when she fell into her last sleep. We found her lying peacefully when we got home. All of us cried for hours, then laid her to rest under a new rose bush. Our oldest pup now is 10 1/2, so hopefully we will have her for several more years.
I lost my first human friend/family 11 months ago and I still cry when I see Lilo & Stitch or Little Mermaid, her favorite movies. When I see things I think she would have loved to see. Then I have to remind myself that she sees it, she just can't tell me how great it is anymore. I feel her smiling when each new plant blooms, especially purple ones. The day she passed on a patch of white daisies opened lavender. It was the weirdest thing. They stayed lavender the til frost, now are beginning to open white like normal.
Anyway, rambling, I am sorry for your loss .

Gwap, now I remember why I was even in this forum. Ants & Iris. Almost every Iris I have planted (not the new baby fans), but the 'grown' ones has an ant 'nest' at the base. None of them seem to be suffering. The ants probably help with drainage.? I also noticed ant mounds at the base of some daylilies too. But they also look healthy, so I guess it's okay.
Didn't see any aphids, just lots of ants. They like my Peonies too. And the Lady Banks Rose.