Ants!

[kerria]

Hi Everyone,

The past few days i've been noticing some ants around- and today when i watered the orchids a huge herd of ants ran out all the holes in the sides of the pot of one of my biggest Sherri Baby orchids. There are so many- a million+ . I quickly ran to get a large container and rinsed the orchids roots in running bathtub water, shaking the ants out. Hopefully this will get rid of them. Now i'm off to the store for some media to repot.
What could i do if the ants don't go away? Is there a non-toxic/ 'safe for the environment' cure for ants?

i've never had this problem before- can you believe ants want to live in orchid roots? We've seen them take up residence in plants in the greenhouses at work and the problem is so difficult to manage - that we usually throw away the plants. Ants don't leave easily, even after many soakings with water. I hope so much that my rinsing will eradicate them but i'm worried that it might not.

Thank you so much for reading and any answers to the ant dilemma,
kerria

[Ross]

Sounds like a colony/nest. You have to get the Queen and the eggs out. Only way is repot and carefully clean all the medium away to find both of these. You could use Diazinon if you could find it.

[kerria]

Thank you Ross. Yes- i think that i destroyed the nest and the ants- drowned and bleached in my tub. Only now what a mess - i can't believe this happened in so short a time- i haven't seen ants around the orchids until the past few days. It was a shock.

i hope that it's the total end of them.
Thank you- it's good to meet you, also.
kerria

[kerria]

Thank you Ross. Yes- i think that i drowned and bleached them in my bathtub. Hopefully it will be the end of them. what a mess to clean up. i was having a quiet day...
Now i must also divide the orchid- it's too big for any pots i have - fourteen pseudobulbs -and should have been divided anyways already. i wish i had extra media so i didn't have to go to the store.

It's good to meet you

kerria