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Produce => Pests & Diseases => Topic started by: plotstoeat on July 25, 2012, 22:06:38
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I seem to have an ants nest in my sweet potato plant in the greenhouse. They don't seem to be damaging the plant but should I try to kill them?
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They can move soil away from tubers and leave them struggling to find moisture .
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They seem to encourage blackfly. Not sure if these are a problem with sweet potato.
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They have made homes / nests in my greenhouse - been there for ages but it was a
wilderness jungle before I took it over.
So far I've let them stay but one bite and they're for it!! I react really badly to ant bites especially from red ones.
I wonder if ants are in anyway advantageous to the gardener. I imagine they are not.
Nibbling away at stems and roots, farming aphids and generally digging all over the place. I have been considering giving them a dusting of ant powder but I'm not that keen on having it floating around where I grow food plants so I'm a bit undecided on that one. ???
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I'd be inclined to leave them be, or you could try giving the nest a little prod and leaving a largish pot of dryish compost on top of the site. They may well move the whole nest if it is not too established and you can just lift them off in the pot and relocate them somewhere less troublesome.
Ants are a bit of a nuisances, I seem to have loads of nests of red ones in the polytunnel, bit of a hazard and have to wear wellies to keep them from my clothes and me. No joke in this heat, but otherwise I can't stop do something or chances are I'm in a nest :o
They do seem to be a problem farming aphids, but if you put a saucer of sugar syrup out for the ants they don't then seem to use them for harvesting, but eat them for protein instead.
Edit, spell.
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I'll give the little blighters a saucer of sugar solution >:(
I'm sat sitting here with three ant bites on one foot and two on the other. They itch worse than a wasp sting and my skin is reacting - hot, hard, infected, itching and generally painful.
I've tried Anthisan and now I'm dolloping on antiseptic cream. :(
Whenever I get bitten (once at least most years) it is really a long lasting and quite painful experience.
Does anyone else react badly to the blighters?
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Thanks for the replies guys. The ants seem to be more of a nuisance to me than to the plants. Nevertheless I have decided to attack them on two fronts. I have heavily watered the sweet potato and then sprayed ant powder on the surrounding area. They just give me the creeps swarming around. It may be the cooler weather but so far they have disappeared.
Talking of sweet potato: just had a great bbq of tuna steaks, sweet potato and mixed veg. 3 veg were my own: courgette, mange tout and cherry tomatoes.
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Hi everyone, if you mix some borax (can be bought from Boots & possibly other Chemists) with honey or jam & leave out for the ants they will take it back to the nest & I believe it kills the Queen so they won't nest there again...this could be an old wives tail about the Queen/them not coming back ..... but I have successfully used it to clear ants from raised beds & they were mega huge nests :o xJane
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Hi everyone, if you mix some borax (can be bought from Boots & possibly other Chemists) with honey or jam & leave out for the ants they will take it back to the nest & I believe it kills the Queen so they won't nest there again...this could be an old wives tail about the Queen/them not coming back ..... but I have successfully used it to clear ants from raised beds & they were mega huge nests :o xJane
Sounds an interesting solution but presently I feel like using dynamite!
Doctor prescribed antibiotics today as my foot is swollen and very painful. The little s*ds are everywhere. >:(
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Borax does work; it's a slow poison they take back to the nest. It doesn't necessarily get them all, but it does minimise the problem.
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A non chemical solution for ants' nests in veggies and fruit is to give them a soaking from 10 litres of water mixed with one small bottle of oil of cloves (available from pharmacies and health stores). They can't stand the smell and move on. i've done this to save rhubarb plants and blackcurrants from being ruined by their tunnels and holes depriving the roots of access to water.
I use ant powder on nests they build in the brick work around my door frames as I don't want them in the house.
However, in the garden, I usually find them in pots which get a thorough soaking with a hose pipe to move them on, or in old mole tunnels in the lawn which I leave alone.
This year, despite all the rain, has been dreadful for ants' nests and I do react badly when bitten by the blighters but horsefly bites are worse and we have cows next door and horses over the road.
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Thanks for those tips Obbelix - useful to many people I should think
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I found Anthisan a waste of time, tet to find anything to take the swelling down. Bit of relief with cammomile lotion
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I found Anthisan a waste of time, tet to find anything to take the swelling down. Bit of relief with cammomile lotion
If nothing else cammomile lotion has a lovely smell - commonly used when I was a kid and still a good stand by. Thanks for the reminder.
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I also have to be very careful not to get ant bites. Each one swells up to between 3 and 6 inches across and is itchy and painful for days. I managed a couple of year ago to get just the one in bed and I was totally covered in lumps.
Also very allergic to sratches from blackberry and tayberry etc.
I will also try giving cammomile lotion a go.
I wonder if scattering a few cloves of clove around the broadbeans would keep the ants and hence the blackfly under control. I only had a few plants with a problem but might still give ita try. Also have a black currant very badly affected.
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Yeah cammomile lotion reminds me of been a kid, my mam dabbing it on my sunburnt back. Re Ants - Majority of mine in greenhouse now have wings so i'm hoping they are off somewhere.
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I also have to be very careful not to get ant bites. Each one swells up to between 3 and 6 inches across and is itchy and painful for days. I managed a couple of year ago to get just the one in bed and I was totally covered in lumps.
Also very allergic to sratches from blackberry and tayberry etc.
I will also try giving cammomile lotion a go.
I wonder if scattering a few cloves of clove around the broadbeans would keep the ants and hence the blackfly under control. I only had a few plants with a problem but might still give ita try. Also have a black currant very badly affected.
I have read recently that they don't like mint leaves; so I put some on the greenhouse floor. Not sure if it did any good!