Ants

[Trueshoe]

My site has 2 ant hills both about 30 feet away from it. They both are red ant hills, does anyone know if they will be problematic?... If so is there a known remedy for this? I hear some poison is bad to use near your plants as it will get into the rain runoff.

 

[SPEARCHUCKER]

The lesser of 2 evils.

I say keep them around. Black ants seem to be the ones that really burro into plants and trees. Reds are predators kinda arnt they? Let them keep all the other bugs away. Caterpillars, hardshell bugs, stuff like that away.

 

[Trueshoe]

Thank you for the reply. I really appreciate it. I am reading that these ants would be considered "fire ants". Which like you said fire ants eat mainly other insects, but they also eat seeds, grass, and sugars. So I am thinking plants might fall into this...

I don't want ants in my buds picking them apart, I think I'm just going to try to exterminate them. I won't be planting for another 2 weeks anyway.

Anyone know the most efficient way to exterminate red ant colonies?...

 

[Sir_Tokie]

If you plant near *fire ants* yes they will invade your plants I have had it happen before. Either kill the mound or just find a new place to grow. Here where I live fire ants are just as common as the air we breath, pesky little buggers. Just don't let them bite you they sting just a little..LOL...take care..

 

[ArtVandolay]

You can buy dry "mound killer" stuff that they take down into the mound to eat (and die).

 

[FlyingNatural]

That is interesting.I had my patch near numerous ant colonies last year.I'm not sure of the particular species,however they did not seem interested in my plants (as a nutritional supply).I did learn a trick from a veteran grower:certain ants "milk" aphids,using a pheromone that sedates them and they release a nectar-like fluid.Aphids are no good,obviously,if you feed the ants something sweet like jam,or honey,they will see the aphids as a threat to that food source,thereby triggering a seek and destroy mission.This worked very well in my case.Also,not long after,my plants were a summer home to a bunch of daddy long legs.These arachnids are great to have around,as they combat pests and do not make webs Stay safe everyone and good luck in this upcoming season

 

[tcbud]

diamat...something earth, works great on ants. I killed some last year near my grow area. Just sprinkled it around and wowie zowie they disapeared! I hate fire ants and so will you when you get a few up your pant leg and biting you!
When organic gardening a regular garden, in the past, I planted cabbage (near the possible problem ant nest) as a trap plant for ants farming aphids. They (ants and aphids) stayed right on that cabage area and left the rest of the garden alone. I found the same thing happening with the bock choy last year in my MJ garden (ants farming aphids), so traced their hill down and I killed the little buggers with that diamaticus? earth stuff. Presto, no more ants and I killed the aphids off by moving/killing the bockchoy they had infested. Im not as "organic" as I used to be, but I think the diamat...earth stuff is a natural substance, cant remember exactly what it is tho. Good luck to you.

 

[Sir_Tokie]

When they got my plant of course it was dead, so I broke the main stalk in half and 100s of ant came running out the end of the stalk. The inside of the stalk was hollowed out big time, there was no more white fiber left in the stalk. It was like they ate everything but the outer skin...take care..

 

[smokeytimes]

diamat...something earth, works great on ants. I killed some last year near my grow area. Just sprinkled it around and wowie zowie they disapeared! I hate fire ants and so will you when you get a few up your pant leg and biting you!
When organic gardening a regular garden, in the past, I planted cabbage (near the possible problem ant nest) as a trap plant for ants farming aphids. They (ants and aphids) stayed right on that cabage area and left the rest of the garden alone. I found the same thing happening with the bock choy last year in my MJ garden (ants farming aphids), so traced their hill down and I killed the little buggers with that diamaticus? earth stuff. Presto, no more ants and I killed the aphids off by moving/killing the bockchoy they had infested. Im not as "organic" as I used to be, but I think the diamat...earth stuff is a natural substance, cant remember exactly what it is tho. Good luck to you.

Demetrious earth it works by making there exo shell body crack open thus causing them to dehydrate and die. or so I was told.

 

[Trueshoe]

Demetrious earth it works by making there exo shell body crack open thus causing them to dehydrate and die. or so I was told.

I think it's actually called Dimetrious earth (at least that's what google tells me). But thank you I think I may use this.

 

[Marsrover1]

i fought fire ants alot in texas i would circle the nest with kerosine and drench the main mound this will kill em a bit harsh but them buggers are tough be very carefull when fighting them they will attack u lol

 

[Hick]

......"diatomaceous earth "..... try googling that...

 

[ArtVandolay]

i fought fire ants alot in texas i would circle the nest with kerosine and drench the main mound this will kill em a bit harsh but them buggers are tough be very carefull when fighting them they will attack u lol

The fire ants own Florida. They let you live here only if you stay out of their way . Even my dogs know to stay away from them (and my dogs are none too bright).

 

[leafminer]

It is a waste of time trying to burn out ants nests. They are usually up to 8 metres (26 feet) underground! I once tried 5 gallons of liquid nitrogen on a nest. It was spectacular but the next day they were still there. Use a "take it with you and kill the queen" poison.

 

[purplephazes]

down here we have stuff called ant sand it is just like sand.. i put a 2 metre radias ring around my plants and the on edges of home garden it seems to work well.. you may even put a line on one side of the nest to insure they go in the opposite direction good luck ...google ant sand.

 

[Moo]

Thanks for that idea, of the ant sand. I may go for this, as I have had a minor problem with them.

Though when I lived in Colorado they were worse. I had those tough little hairy monsters, the large red ones. I have seen those things climb blades of grass and jump onto grasshopper carcasses below them..... scary little fellas. And the pain they can cause to a human, so much greater than their size, is admirable.... intolerable for me, but admirable none the less. :hubba:

One way to get rid of them of course is to pour some flammable liquid onto their mound (as mentioned above) when they are all out and about..... but this is seen as cruel by me now days, and even regret doing this when I was first starting out. I should have picked a new spot....

.... or gotten some ant sand.

Any-who, I wanted to add one other piece of mind, and share something I experienced the other day:

I was out getting some dirt ready, and decided to check the dirt in a previous grow bucket from last season. I poured out the dirt into a wheelbarrow, and it came out in a big chunk shaped like the bucket. I busted it open and saw that the bucket and its dirt had become home to a thousand little tiny ants of the black color.

I decided to use this dirt to fill some holes my dogs had dug.....

But yep.... before using any old dirt you might have used before, keep in mind, it might not be spent of nutrients, but it might be crawling with critters. So make sure and dump those old pots and go through it first, just in case.

Okay then..... have I made an obvious enough post that many already knew of these ideas before? Good!

 

[purplephazes]

Australia have created a fire ant eradication program ! those who find a nest get paid from the govt if they are on crown land . this is a great help for (us) the growers.. yet i am sure if this program is successful other countries may follow these steps.