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A question about ants

WickedMojo

WickedMojo

ok I know others have asked about ants before but I just wanna know if I should do anything about them, I dont have any aphids on the plants in my beds however several of the plants have ants crawling all over them while others dont , these are the little tiny ant type do I spray them or let them be? I'm just paranoid cause I lost alot of young plants already to aphids earlier in the year but these werent in the ground and the ones now with lots of ants are my best plants and are mature and starting to set pods, one tiny pod fell off today it was only the size of a bb but the stem turned yellow and it dropped.
 
Silver_Surfer said:
If by "tiny ant type", you mean fire ants; I don't trust them and am in a never ending war with the buggers.
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I hear that, I am constantly killing mounds in my yard, but no I dont think the ones on my plants are fire ants, they look a little smaller then the little buggers that Im combating in the lovely sand / bahia grass mix that I call a lawn lol
 
charlesNYC said:
if you see aphids, kill them.
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no aphids yet, but the damn ants are scurry up and down the plants constantly since they flowered. I check my plants early in the morn before work, and its the first thing I do when I get home from work..
 
The way I see it, if they're not supposed to be there, KILL 'EM ALL!!! lol. Seriously, I had some that were on JUST my hot banana plant. I sprayed them once, it killed them all, and there are no more.
 
Seems like ants and aphids are pretty good buddies. Ants sometimes transport aphids from plant to palnt. Ants eat the sugary excretions from aphids.

From a University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources site:

Ants are often associated with aphid populations, especially on trees and shrubs, and often are a tip-off that an aphid infestation is present. If you see large numbers of ants climbing up your tree trunks, check for aphids (or other honeydew-producing insects) on limbs and leaves above. To protect their food source, ants ward off many predators and parasites of aphids. Management of ants is a key component of aphid management and is discussed under cultural controls.

Here's a link to the full article
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7404.html
 
Got the same thing going on it seems there all in the flowers of my Trinidad Scorpion plant,but i have notice a lot more pod's setting since there presence.
 
This guy seems to have loads of ant control vids on the web:cool:
[video=youtube;wO5Yf43rO4E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO5Yf43rO4E[/video]
 
I too had ants on some of my plants. I sprayed them with insecticide soap and also ivory liquid. I sprayed the plant and also the soil. That was about a month ago and I have not seen any since.
 
If your plants are just for personal use I wouldn't worry about them... unless they are "leaf cutter ants"(then kill them).
I see the occasional ant on my plants, they will attack other little bugs and yes they farm aphids but I don't beleive ants will scare away a hungry ladybug but an ant hill versus the visiting ant on your patio may be different.
 
HawaiiAl said:
I cut up orange and lemon peels into little pieces spread around plants = no ants, works for me.
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Silver_Surfer said:
Orange oil will kill them, so I guess the oil present in the peel is enough to repel them.
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Cool thanks for the info I will have to give that a shot first since it is definatley a very low impact approach.
 
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