How do you keep ants out of your containers and once they're in there how do you get them out. I have a container with a few plants that are already coming up and I went in to take out some of the soil and refresh it with some osmocote and new soil and ANTS - UGH!!! I put some poison in there that gets rid of my fire ants and they're still there, then I sprayed it with a liquid concentrate bug killer for plants and still there - any ideas??? Thanks
Ants in Containers??
Hi mjfulgham ~ This is not an easy solution, I am sorry for you. I have had a few problems as I grow most of my stuff in pots. If I see signs of ants at all, I sprinkle a dry ant poison under the base of the pot. I have pulled a few out of pots and sprinkled the same in the bottom of the pot before putting plants back in.
The worst one was a large sword fern that a friend was going to throw out. I said no! I wanted it. Went to repot and found it full of ants. That one I sprinkled the dry poison in the bottom of, underneath the pot and on top of the plant. Then I went away and ignored it for a while. I don't know where they went but it took care of the ants and didn't kill the fern. I have always been scared to treat from the top of plant as I am afraid the poison being washed thru the plant roots could damage or kill it.
I have noticed this problem to be worse when it is dry. They seem to come to the moisture. I think they also look to the potted plants for a winter haven.
Good luck ! I will watch this thread and hope to see some good ideas. pod
If it's a smaller container, you can generally drive them out by submerging the pot in a bucket of water... try to spot and smoosh the queen if you can. Spraying the rims and bottoms of the container with Ortho "Home Defense Max" (which I prefer to other sprays because it's low odor) can also be helpful. Right now, my lime and lemon tree have such bad scale (happens every spring, it just gets bad over winter no matter how often and with what I spray therm) that they are dripping sugar, so the little ants are all over my morning room... there's really no getting rid of them entirely probably until the plants go outside, but I'm hoping to keep them from taking up residence!
I have sprayed this container with Ortho Max, but down a powder form of another ant killer ( I can't think of the name right now, but it ALWAYS kills my fire ant beds!) in the dirt and around the bottom of the container and those little suckers are still there! They are not fire ants, they look like there sort of greyish black and the size of fire ants. They container is quite large and it's on my deck. I finally decided I was going to have to just empty the container but I can't hardly get in there to dig out the perennials that have come up beautifully in the container and remove the soil because of all the ants. HELP!