greenhouse Ants in greenhouse - is this a problem?

Daniel92 · Apr 22, 2015

I've working on building a greenhouse with rasiedbeds, I layed down some old roofing shingles for a weed barrier, came back a week later and I have a ant colony starting to come in under the shingles. Will the ants disturb peppers in the beds? I take it I will not want to leave these guys right? They have nested right under where my 20" deep bed will go.

hogleg · Apr 22, 2015

Ants are bad, they bring aphids. I would start throwing D.E. all over and around the perimeter

romy6 · Apr 22, 2015

Ants are the root of all evil :flamethrower:

juanitos · Apr 22, 2015

yeah ants themselves aren't bad but they form symbiotic relationship with aphids, gotta get rid of em.

http://insects.about.com/od/coolandunusualinsects/f/antsandaphids.htm

Hybrid Mode 01 · Apr 22, 2015

Ants are good. They break down organic matter and help aerate soil. They only start becoming a problem when they start farming aphids on your plants.
Deal with aphids if you see them. Until then, don't sweat it.

moruga welder · Apr 22, 2015

are those shingles asphalt ? :onfire:

hogleg · Apr 22, 2015

Awesome greenhouse BTW :clap:

Lovepeppers · Apr 22, 2015

Nice green house!

Scorched · Apr 22, 2015

Another problem with ants is if they are farming aphids they will protect them from ladybugs and other predators. So if these ants did start farming aphids on your plants and you bought ladybugs or other beneficials to get rid of the aphids you'd have to get rid of the ants first.

I don't like to kill insects if I don't need to but every time I've had a problem outdoors with aphids there have been ants farming them. I just put down some of the dual food (protein/sugar) bait stations around my containers and it clears them out in a couple weeks. You could do a wait and see to find out if your ants are farming aphids or you can just rid yourself of them. If you want a no kill approach ants don't like citrus. Grind up citrus peels with some water and spread around.

Roguejim · Apr 22, 2015

It's my understanding that ants are attracted to the aphids already present. They don't bring the aphids in. They want the nectar aphids produce.

Spicy Mushroom · Apr 22, 2015

Ants are good. They break down organic matter and help aerate soil. They only start becoming a problem when they start farming aphids on your plants.

So then wouldn't it be more ideal to address the ants as an issue, and replace them with worms for the purpose of soil aeration and breaking down organic matter?

Daniel92 · Apr 24, 2015

Thank you everyone, I did not know the relationship between ants and aphids. I sprayed the ants that were trying to colonize under the shingles, every last one of them is dead. I decided to remove the shingles, and use some spare roll roofing I had. Today I moved in fresh dirt.