Ants in my container(s)

I recently bought a "Carmine Bells" plant (I'm sorry, I can't remember the botanical name) and put it in a glazed pot on the top rail of a 5 foot privacy fence to make sure it got enough sun. Over the weekend I realized that a long thread of ants was climbing up and down the side of the pot. I have check thoroughly for aphids or anything else that might attract the ants and can't find anything.

Will they hurt they plant? Should I try to get rid of them? Or are they beneficial in some way?

Thanks!

Oh no one responded. I wouldn't fix it if it isn't broken.

This is going to sound really silly but I have this strange premonition you placed that pot directly in a path they all took laden with pheromones. Have you ever seen any comics on ants? I recall one where an entire line of ants all ended up in a pile because a sheer piece of glass was put in their path. Ants lay a chemical substance down which attracts other ants. This is how they all seem to be able to get from nest to food source and back again. I suspect in time they will begin going around your plant but for now they are just going up and over it in an attempt to stay on track.

My guess is that by now they have already begun going around your plant.

Oh oh oh, I did a little searching on the Internet and found this-
http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~mdorigo/ACO/RealAnts.html

This explains what I was trying to say perfectly.

Thank you - I suspect that I probably did. They're not going around it, though - although we've had a fair amount of rain, I did water it during a recent dry spell and hordes of ants went scurrying up out of the dirt onto the plant.

Plant still looks happy - but I think I'll move it and see what happens.

Thanks for the link, and the response!

Well, what happened when you moved the plant? Inquiring minds want to know ;)

GL I'm an ants in your plants expert. I have been fighting pharoh ants in my plants in the greenhouse for 2 years. In my experience, you really can't get rid of them. You kill one queen & colony and their are 10 to take it's place. All you can do is keep the numbers down.

Here is what I do. for individual pots, I put a drainage dish under it and spoon granulated ant killer around the bottom of the pot and sprinkle a spoonfull on the plant itself and water it in. For larger plants I get combat ant baits with fipronil. I hide 1 per pot in amongst the leaves. If it is a terra cotta pot, get some cheap lavender oil and swab the top edge of the pot with it. The ants won't cross it. I also swab the cracks and crevices in my greenhouse with lavender oil once a month along with the ant baits and other stuff. I no longer have pharoh ants making nests where I've swabbed lavender oil and they are contained to 2 pots in the greenhouse.

Hope this helps!

Xeramtheum

ps Equilibrium, you have some of the best links ever!

I go to a lot of seminars and such. I may not remember all the details of everything discussed but I recall enough words to put into a Google search and generally something pops up in the first few hits that is along the lines of what I was trying to say. This time I got a direct hit which is always so cool!

I had ants last year in one of my big indoor pots, and I'm talking millions of them. That was the only plant they went to, so I bought some self-adhering ant traps and put them around the inside edge of the big pot. The ants were gone in a few days and have never come back. I got them at Home Depot, but I don't remember the name. They are small little black box-looking things and I used three of them. They were cheap, too.

I am most interested in the product you bought at HD. If you see that again, would you please share the name of it?

Yes, I certainly will. It wasn't in the gardening section. Just happened to spot it as I was walking down an aisle -- you know how they sometimes stick something at the end of the aisles. I'll be at HD in a day or two and will look for it.

Thank you. I shop at Home Depot a lot and never saw anything like what you were mentioning. I want to use your tape in one particular area where I've had some problems with aphids.

Well, I went to Home Depot today, but they did not carry that particular kind of ant trap. I needed to check something out at Lowe's so looked through their bug section and found what I was looking for.

They are called "MaxAttrax Ant Bait" and are made by Hot Shot. There are four of the traps in the box and they only cost $1.95. They were in the same section with all of the other ant poisons. The box is red with black and yellow printing. It doesn't say anything about killing anything other than ants, though.

If you can't find them at either of those stores in your area, please let me know and I will ship you some. I have found here several times that Home Depot will stop carrying some item or another and then Lowe's starts.

Diane

Thank you Diane. My Mother In Law buys roses for me and other plants. The plants like that are all in one area here and I don't want to end up with more problems on my hands using insecticides in that area. I have a brand new Lowes not all that far from me so I'm going to pick some up. Some darn ants "farm" aphids. I like ants, don't get me wrong... I don't want them creating problems for me though. Thanks so much for the brand name. I really appreciate it. I'm going to try to create a barrier around a few plants just for kicks. Maybe it will help, and maybe it won't.

Equilibrium, Xerantheum and 1gardengram, thank you for the suggestions!

I have moved the pot further down the fence on which it is perched (there is an 8-inch rail along the top). I don't think it's made a difference; I will look for some of those traps and then move the pot to another sunny location (which is why it's on the fence around my shady patio).

Also, I love the lavender oil idea. It's a miracle cure for almost everything.

Sue

PS - Equilibrium, I bought a RatZapper. After tempting the odious vermin for a few days with it baited but not "armed," I got the Rat King the first night. Since then I've attracted nothing but slugs, but haven't seen any other rats, either. Because of the slugs, I had to move the RZ, which may be why I haven't zapped any other rats. But I'm going to put some copper tape around the lip this weekend and move it back to its original spot.

That's the short version of the story - it's been the subject of much hilarity among family and friends. Thanks again for the suggestion!

Ah, you've been lurking in the deterring cats thread. Congratulations on zapping your Rat King the first night. I don't hate feral rats, I just don't want them hanging around and multiplying for obvious reasons.

In addition to placing your device where rats are known to frequent, you can really attract them if you choose your bait wisely. I seem to get the best results when I provide them with a combo platter. I place small quantities of milk, American cheese, left over chicken, and other delicacies for them in the bottle tops of 1 liter plastic soda pop bottles which are slightly larger than the tops of 2 liter plastic soda pop bottles. I place those inside the RatZapper and if I don't catch anything, I replace it with fresh the next day. Critters such as chipmunks are not attracted to these types of offerings. Of course rats love fruits, grains, nuts, and vegetables but then so do most of the indigenous species of fauna which we don't want attracted to the RZ. I've never gotten a chipmunk yet but I did have a few raccoons turning the Rat Zapper over on its side to try to get at the contents. Raccoons will mess with anything so all you have to do if that happens is add more bait and set the device upright again.

I think when I very first began using the RZ, I strategically placed 1 liter pop tops filled with goodies around the outside of the trap to sort of lull them into a false sense of security as well as to give them a chance to develop a taste for some of the bait. I have no idea if this increased my success or not but now I don't bother in favor of just placing the bait inside the RZ and arming it.

You do need to remove any rats zapped right away so if you can't check the RZ every 12 hours or so, don't bait it and leave it out. If you leave a dead rat in there too long, other rats will not go in to attempt to get a free meal. One thing that is interesting is that it is such a clean kill that it is not uncommon to find two dead rats in a RZ. Reason being is the newcomer will climb right over the "sleeping" rat to get to the free meal and then that rat gets humanely destroyed.

Hint, if you are going for rats that are in and around barns, try baiting with raisins and peanut butter. My chippies don't go in the barns and the rats really like the pb and raisins. My pet rats loved pb and raisins too which is why I thought of trying it. I think I even tried tuna fish and left over cocktail shrimp once. That worked too.

What did you bait with that attracted slugs?

Equilibrium--
I'm with you on the ants. I don't want them in my house and I don't want them where they could bother the small children my daughter cares for here every day. Other than that, I leave them alone. I try not to sit in their nests when I'm pulling weeds, though. I tell them the same thing I tell the bees "If you don't bother me, I won't bother you."

I used these on a big houseplant and the ants never have come back. I've not tried them outside.

Let me know if you can't find them.
Diane

We have fire ants here. Frequently, they will make their nest inside a potted plant, especially one that is placed outside on the ground. I have had good success driving them out and or drowning them by submerging the entire container under water for several hours. Some of them will try to climb up on the plant. I either knock them off into the water or spray them while they are all colected in one spot. In my experience, any that survive usually don't come back to the pot.

I've never seen any fire ants around our yard, but they are in the area. Hope they stay away. I hear those guys are nasty!!

Ummm, fire ants- eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek! Those I would find a way to nuke. Sorry, all ants are not created equal in my estimation. Poor scutler for having to deal with those.

I try to leave them alone as long as they leave me alone. (They seem to be nuke proof anyhow) Once I was putting down pine straw mulch. I was not wearing gloves. The fire ants had built a nest INSIDE the bale of straw. I didn't realize they were on my hands until they all started stinging me at once. My hands were covered with bites, including many between the finges. I usually don't react negetively to ant bites, but the large number of bites in such a small area caused my hands to swell so much that I could not close/open them - the skin was stretched to capacity. They hurt and burned fiercely but on the inside. It took weeks for my hands to return to normal. I learned a lesson from that. Now I wear gloves and watch out for the little menaces. Glad you guys don't have problems with them. They are insidious. I think our high temps and lack of hard winter freezing add to their proliferation.

I've heard their bite is far worse than that of chiggers. I'm so sorry. You really want to just leave them alone? Please check into parasitic flies and consider nuking those fire ants (Solenopsis wagneri aka S. invicta), no chemicals at all involved in the process. Phorid flies might ultimately be our salvation in fighting off these fire ants. Fight fire with fire.

Check out this site that I bookmarked and read quite a while ago. I think it may put a smile on your face. Help is on the way-
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~gilbert/research/fireants/faqans.html#chemical

Aren't biological controls wonderful!

Oh, my gosh, scutler. I've heard about fire ants doing that to people. I can't even imagine how much that must have hurt. I'm glad you are more careful now. Those guys sneak up on you.

I don't want ANY ant to sting me, so I do try to be careful outside. The only ones I've seen around our yard are the little black ones. They bite if you bother them, but it's not at all like what you went through. I hear a lot about fire ants, though. Like you said, it just doesn't get cold enough most winters to kill off the bugs.

I sat in a bunch of ants one day without realizing it and by the time I did they were all over me. One of my granddaughters was the only person home and I came yelling into the house for help. I was dancing around knocking them off and stripping off my clothes and she was trying to check my hair because they were also in my gardening hat. It was a Kodak moment, to be sure. Then we vacuumed all those little guys up and I took a shower and gave up yard work for THAT day. But even with all that, I think I only had 3 or 4 bites and we just put insect stuff on them.

This might not really be the time of the year for this, but

BUMP

Thanks for the BUMP.

Education about our insect friends and foes is very important to those of us trying to gave a productive garden and yard.