THAT'S A LOT OF ANTS

[Skycat]

I was watering my currently-outside orchids just now, and my Phragmipedium just EXPLODED with ants!

[Plodde]

I have been seeing lots of ants in some of my orchid pots as well. Hopefully they are not harmful to the roots or the plants. I assumed they are eating bugs in the pots, hopefully the harmful ones. They are also attracted to the sap my orchids produce.

[Skycat]

Ants aren't directly harmful, but I'm worried about them bringing in harmful bugs. They are known to farm aphids (and we had SO MANY aphids last year; they didn't bother any of my stuff, but my mom's goldenrods were COVERED with them).

Plus I don't want to see a flood of drowning ants every time I water.

[ddivey36]

YES- I can relate I just had a battle with them this morning. I won, but my poor Egertonianum is now in three parts.

[bethmarie]

Gross! I had the same thing happen (in my house!) this winter with a Den. Your Phrag looks great. Which one is it?

[Skycat]

Originally Posted by bethmarie

Gross! I had the same thing happen (in my house!) this winter with a Den. Your Phrag looks great. Which one is it?

Dunno. The top part of the white tag was broken off before I got it (and I'm not sure if it was even named to begin with). The red tag just says "Phrag NDL".

After I made this topic, I went back outside to try to flush the ants out with the hose, but they JUST WOULDN'T LEAVE. A few of them went up into the leaves, so I tried to spray them off, but it wasn't enough of them to make any difference.

Ugh, I would be SO MAD if this happened in the house.

[ddivey36]

Originally Posted by Skycat

After I made this topic, I went back outside to try to flush the ants out with the hose, but they JUST WOULDN'T LEAVE. A few of them went up into the leaves, so I tried to spray them off, but it wasn't enough of them to make any difference.

Ugh, I would be SO MAD if this happened in the house.

My episode DID happen in the house. I had to unpot and flush the roots until all the ants were gone and then repotted in three new pots. That was the only way to kill the nest (oh yes- insecticidal soap) Then we sprayed the windows and baseboards. URGH!

[RosieC]

Urgh, hope you manage to get rid of them. I happily leave ants alone in the garden, but not in my orchid pots and definitely not in the house.

[Ray]

I have basically eliminated ants in the greenhouse by setting up homemade "bait stations" containing Amdro (hydramethylnon). They really like the stuff, so will go to great lengths to find it, then they take it back to the colonies where everyone eats it, and in a matter of a few weeks, there are no more ants.

[plucker]

I agree that ants colonise insects, but I don't believe that they bring them in. I suspect that the ants use what is there already.