sugar ants

[hinmo24t]

ive done some research that says they can lead to aphid-farming. most say they arent a problem unless they burrow in potting soil.
strangely for the course of a month, i have healthy plants considering a hot summer drought, no apparent aphid damage.
yet i have sugar ants infesting a good portion of my pots out on my patio.
i bought the little ant traps and laid them out everywhere, maybe the borax in them will eventually kill the ants
but so far after 3 days with the poison out, theres as many as ever in the pots. i heard they can take care of aphid larva really well,
i dont see these ants up on the trees eating aphid excrement, they are more in my soil - hopefully not burrowing because it affects
soil/root bound. they dont eat the soil per se.

in a few mos i hope this isnt an issue because a good 5 of them are going in my house...

ive heard of drowning them submerging pots in water but then again someone was convinved they can withstand submersion.

kind of weird, my plants are healthy it seems too. other theory is it has been damn hot, 90* and drought, and they are taking to the pots
for moisture or staying cool. 90* and full humidity it feels worse than heat out west 100* + AZ thin heat ive been in

thanks

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Root aphids can be farmed too. Treat those with a pesticide drench.
Raising your pots off the floor could help.

Ants don't like being drowned, so they float, a dash of dishwashing detergent will stop them from being hydrophobic. A few hours in a bucket should send most of them to the afterlife. Treat for aphids afterwards.

 

[hinmo24t]

Root aphids can be farmed too. Treat those with a pesticide drench.
Raising your pots off the floor could help.

Ants don't like being drowned, so they float, a dash of dishwashing detergent will stop them from being hydrophobic. A few hours in a bucket should send most of them to the afterlife. Treat for aphids afterwards.

if theyre still there in the next few mos i will look to do that.
wont root aphids be drowned too?
was hoping maybe the ants would rid the ahphid larva? people say to make sure they ants dont burrow there though, and it
looks like the might be considering they all run up in the mornings from the pots...
weird issue, lots of sugar ants. maybe froma crack in my patio i need to seal better.

will look into flex seal haha the infomercial , bet that stuff kicks ass

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Root aphids live in soil, they don't burrow tunnels and whatnot for air. They can live quite long without oxygen.
I had a praying mantis once, it was dying and I wanted to pin it to a nice frame like they do in musea. It lived after being suffocated in pure butane and CO2 for three consecutive days, and being frozen, and an ethanol bath.

Ants generally make a run for it if they are submerged. They can survive if they float. I'm not a 100% sure if they will drown in a few hours, but at least they'll get out of the soil if they can.

 

[Shibui]

Just because there are ants does not mean there are aphids. Ants can live on other food as well. Ants may mean aphids though and if some aphids do come to your trees the ants will protect and farm them and aggravate the problem. If ants are nesting in the pots they create chambers to live in which reduces room for the roots and can make the soil dry out quicker. They do not care about your trees.
Borax may take some time to work. If they are still around in a couple of weeks try drowning them as suggested but that can take some persistence in my experience.

 

[just.wing.it]

I saw ants on my bench this year.... followed them to my Boxwood.....and the tiny little new shoots had green aphids, perfectly camouflaged....surprisingly hard to see.

I doused all the trees with Horticultural Oil.

 

[Mike Corazzi]

NO aphids ....not even one. AND no scale. Not even one.

 

[hinmo24t]

figured id update: glad to have narrowed the ants to just my agave (outside) and now i noticed medium sized (large sugar ants) in my new porcelain berry i just brought home recently.

the small ant traps might have worked for a lot of my other soils they were in, now i just have them bad in the agave and PB.

i dunked the agave in water for 10 mins yesterday and it didnt solve the issue, they survived, so kudos to person who mentioned they could.
i heard 20 mins is a better idea. today i am dunking them both again but i am using hydrogen peroxide in the water this time. prob a cup of it in a small/medium sized dunk-cooler im using (old coleman)...the hydrogen peroxide might do the trick i read and ill go 10-20 minutes this time.

if the agave still has ants after thisi might take a couple cuttings and then trash the rest of it or ill buy something stronger for application and for the porcelain berry

in general, i like using soap and hydrogen peroxide for treating plant ailments. 1 teaspoon or tablespoon to a cup of water therabouts of the 3%


love thta stuff - i use it as mouthwash too

 

[StarGazer]

Hi @hinmo24t,
Out of curiosity, have you identified the ant species in your plants? https://www.antwiki.org/wiki/New_England_Ant_Identification

If you had a hot and dry summer and are seen healthy trees, maybe ants have a role on it. Ants can be very beneficial to soil, help with aeration and maintain soil moisture. It would actually be good to keep them if you have trees in development in pots, and even more if the trees are on the ground, as long as they do not damage the roots or foster aphids.

You would also want to remove fire ants as they are aggressive stingers.

For show trees, it would certainly no be convenient to have an ant colony.

This paper is not on a new england ant species but it illustrates the effect of ants on soil quality. https://www.sciencedirect.com/scien...soil moisture,vegetation on the Loess Plateau.

Symbiosis between ants, fungus and plants have also been documented, so ant are often a friend not a foe. Same goes for other beneficial insects such as ladybugs and praying mantis. I like to keep those three in my garden.

 

[John P.]

They like to farm scale, too. Happens on my willow leaf ficus. Could always hit em with a systemic ... once the aphids or scale are goners, the ants will go away.

 

[hinmo24t]

Hi @hinmo24t,
Out of curiosity, have you identified the ant species in your plants? https://www.antwiki.org/wiki/New_England_Ant_Identification

If you had a hot and dry summer and are seen healthy trees, maybe ants have a role on it. Ants can be very beneficial to soil, help with aeration and maintain soil moisture. It would actually be good to keep them if you have trees in development in pots, and even more if the trees are on the ground, as long as they do not damage the roots or foster aphids.

You would also want to remove fire ants as they are aggressive stingers.

For show trees, it would certainly no be convenient to have an ant colony.

This paper is not on a new england ant species but it illustrates the effect of ants on soil quality. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167880917300348#:~:text=Ant activities improved soil moisture,vegetation on the Loess Plateau.

Symbiosis between ants, fungus and plants have also been documented, so ant are often a friend not a foe. Same goes for other beneficial insects such as ladybugs and praying mantis. I like to keep those three in my garden.

thats good to know and i did know some of that. i think the ants colonized the agave soil which i heard can be damaging to soil, loosens roots.

my trees are healthy and its been very hot for awhile.

the ant that came with my PB seem a bit sketchy, like mid sized ants...large sugars. i didnt ever have to deal with or see a fire ant in MA/RI

i guess my bigger concern is that i want to bring that agave back in my living room and kitchen windowsill, which doesnt correlate well with an insect colony.

i have seen a few yellow/goldish hue, clear/transparent, bugs in my soil a couple times but didnt give them a lot of thought...my trees are strong.
these almost looked like baby crickets or something, and were fast. maybe baby aphids. i had trouble with reading that ants keep those aphids alive sometimes, farm them, protect them. so maybe i should treat the few plants i notice the ants in as if they have aphids. leaning towards my hydro peroxide still, in a few hrs

 

[hinmo24t]

They like to farm scale, too. Happens on my willow leaf ficus. Could always hit em with a systemic ... once the aphids or scale are goners, the ants will go away.

between your post and the person before, i think i have some ahpids...the ants are less in general for me now, but i put out little borax traps a week ago.
so the poison got the ants and left ahpids, or the ants got the aphids or w.e. and left...

kind of a PIA, id be down to just let it run its course but i want the agave inside.

the porcelain berry ants look a bit sketchy but maybe theyre doing some good on that tree as well.

ugh lol