Help! Ants are in my baby larch I just dug up

[MartyB]

I went to dig up my conifers I had buried the pots in the ground for the winter. I had wrapped the pots in a geo textile material and when I put them on my bench, I noted some antennas moving from the drainage holes. Some annoying ants have decided it was a good place to spend winter I suppose. I have no idea on how many are in there......

Any tips to share on how to deal with this? I don’t want to go ballistic with pesticides and kill this tree as I am quite fond of it..... any tips please, most welcome!

 

[Orion_metalhead]

Drench it in water to run the ants out? I expect they will leave on their own as long as the queen isnt in a pot.

 

[sorce]

Soak.

Sorce

 

[rockm]

Soaking really isn't all that effective at removing ants. Think about it. Ants live UNDER the ground. Have lived there for literally billions of years. They evolved to cope with inundation and I think I've read that ground dwelling species can survive for days to a week underwater--if you soak your tree for that long, you might have a dead tree.

Best way to get rid of ant in a bonsai pot is to repot the tree and remove the soil thus disturbing the colony. If you're lucky, the ants may have built their colony on the outside of the rootball against the interior of the pot. That could mean all you have to do is lift the tree up out of the pot and pressure wash the tunnels away without disturbing the main root mass. Mostly that doesn't happen though...You can also keep flushing water THROUGH the pot to destroy tunnels, etc. A thorough flush of water that passes through the soil done at sporadic intervals can make things inhospitable enough for the ants to move elsewhere....they're tenacious little bastards though.

Repot i

 

[MartyB]

Cool thx. How long is too long for the roots?? Thx again

 

[MartyB]

At least larchs dont mind wetness. I will try flushing them out for now I suppose. My googling shows that some ants can sit there without air for a looong time. Crap

 

[A. Gorilla]

Oh man...this is bad. THIS...IS....BAD.

Just kidding.

Kill the ants.

 

[0soyoung]

You can also keep flushing water THROUGH the pot to destroy tunnels, etc. A thorough flush of water that passes through the soil done at sporadic intervals can make things inhospitable enough for the ants to move elsewhere.

So maybe also poke around with your chopstick/root-hook?

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

My grandma used to deal with this problem in a pretty simple way: put the pot on top of another pot.
The ants will expand their colony to the lowest pot and settle there because it has more favorable conditions; moisture on top and below, good insulation, perfect for farming fungi. They'll abandon the upper pot within a week or so.
Unless... Unless they're farming root aphids. But regular insecticides could take care of that.

 

[sparklemotion]

Dry diatomaceous earth powder will kill ants. If this wasn't a larch, I'd say dust the surface and let it dry out a bit. You could also just spring some around the pot on the bench (and/or put out some ant traps).

Ants in and of themselves won't harm the tree. I would check for root aphids though (pull the root ball out of the pot).

 

[penumbra]

I use powder boric acid to kill ants around the house and sheds. Has anyone used this on plants?

 

[AJL]

o

I use powder boric acid to kill ants around the house and sheds. Has anyone used this on plants?

 

[MartyB]

Dry diatomaceous earth powder will kill ants. If this wasn't a larch, I'd say dust the surface and let it dry out a bit. You could also just spring some around the pot on the bench (and/or put out some ant traps).

Ants in and of themselves won't harm the tree. I would check for root aphids though (pull the root ball out of the pot).

Thx for the tip ill have a peek. They seem to be dispersing and more few and far between, it hopefully was not a colony and simply a few overwintering buggers

 

[Orion_metalhead]

My grandma used to deal with this problem in a pretty simple way: put the pot on top of another pot.
The ants will expand their colony to the lowest pot and settle there because it has more favorable conditions; moisture on top and below, good insulation, perfect for farming fungi. They'll abandon the upper pot within a week or so.
Unless... Unless they're farming root aphids. But regular insecticides could take care of that.

Love this idea. Natural, inexpensive, no potential adverse reactions to the tree... worth trying for sure! It literally cant hurt.

 

[BubblePopScott]

Do ants hurt bonsai?

 

[JoeH]

I had some in a few pots and have been using grits elsewhere to control the same type of ants so I tried it and it worked.

 

[JoeH]

Do ants hurt bonsai?

the ones I had were removing soil to make tunnels and building up around the trunks so I put a stop to it. Some ants also farm scale and aphids, so they may introduce other pests.

 

[BonsaiNaga13]

They dont like cinnamon. I've used it in my garden but never had ants in my bonsai

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

I just set one of these Terro ant baits on the soil surface and they’re gone in a couple days.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E4GACB8/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_NMyWCbZPJ1AK4

 

[penumbra]

They dont like cinnamon. I've used it in my garden but never had ants in my bonsai

Cinnamon is also very effective for controlling fungus gnats and fungus and mildew.