Ewwwwwwww. Ants!

[mollycart1]

One of my largest Vanda ( leaf span ~3') is in spike and is getting really closer to the HID light. So I decided to move to a bit shader area. As I pulled the lowest/dead leaf off, I found the tons of ant eggs.

I grabbed my home-made bug-killer and sprayed all over the plant. I heard them screaming.

[Gin]

Oh yes spring is almost here I had to put out ant bait the other day

[mollycart1]

I always thought the ants create their nest under the ground.

[Discus]

Their nest is usually underground, but they often carry eggs/larvae/pupae to a warmer spot so they develop faster. It's quite cold underground. This is why you'll often find a bunch of ants with white eggs/larvae/pupae under big flat rocks (and paving slabs) you happen to turn over. Guess these ants found the vanda leaf handy.

I've also experienced them using diving equipment for this purpose. A rather unpleasant surprise when your first mouthful of air underwater is 70% ants. The fish enjoy them after you're done spitting them out...

[mollycart1]

Originally Posted by Discus

I've also experienced them using diving equipment for this purpose. A rather unpleasant surprise when your first mouthful of air underwater is 70% ants. The fish enjoy them after you're done spitting them out...

[Gin]

Yuck !

[Discus]

Yeah... We soon learnt to rinse those suckers out and use the purge function to reduce the ant percentage in our air supply. They also quite liked using BCDs, and every time you let some air out when adjusting your buoyancy, you'd send out a little cloud of ants. Cue fish feeding frenzy...!

We also wound up putting 6" / 15cm wide bands of an insecticide called "blue death" all around the poles that the diving gear was hung over. And around our tents, because sleeping in ants is no fun. One of my friends got so gatvol of ants that she dusted the inside of her tent and came out looking pale and ghostly in the morning, covered in white powder.

Sometimes when you roll down your tent door instead of a living carpet of black ants, you're greeted with baboon spiders the size of side plates (think tarantulas). Once it was even a mamba (a highly venomous snake) - can't remember if it was green or black now. And you have vervet monkeys trying to steal your food all the time. Turn your back for one second and your fruit/bread/whatever is gone!

Ah, the joys of camping in Africa!

[beezermommy]

Hi - living in Florida we have ant, ants, ants and more ants. I find them in my orchids. I sometimes shake ground cinnamon onto the plant medium. Ants hate cinnamon. But, be sure to use pure ground cinnamon and not cinnamon sugar. I also drown them first and repot if I have to and then put cinnamon into the mix. Doesn't hurt the plants at all. Hope this helps.

[Call_Me_Bob]

i just found a colony in my encyclia tampensis. is there anything i can flush the pot with, so i dont have to repot. its in sheath now....

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I have a colony living in the pot of my Oeceoclades calcarata. Makes watering it an itchy ordeal. My least favorite orchid to water because of this.