anti ant thread
 

literally anti ant thread.. I see all the ants working over the sap off my buds. The lizards are stalking them around the tops of the plants. They havnt broken anything yet but it bothers me some...

Idea :candle..hmm yes thats suppose to be a light bulb but Im old and burn slow.

I soaked a piece of garden twine in my amdro fire ant powder and water solution. tied the twine to the plant stake and then tied it around the cane...we let you know if it stops the ant flow to the top of the cane of flowers. If it does then the lizards will stop waltzing all over my buds and they can still be my friends. The twine will dry out and leave an impenetrable ant free zone behind it in theory.

how about putting a cinnamon line around the plant container ..ants will not cross that..they hate cinnamon smell or if you find where their conga line starts I would spray windex :biggrin: but do not spray on your plant ;)

Try the Terro brand liquid ant baits. The bait is sugar water & borax. They are highly effective.

I tried the coffee grinds thing which was recommended in an earlier thread. It seemed to work. Not completely gotten rid of ants but quite reduced.


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I was just looking at wiki how and saw they had a ton of ant deterrents or killers made with natural home products. Many unfortunately would effect the velamin of orchid roots. I am wondering about diotomacious earth. I have a feeling it would scratch the velamin. Okay, how about the scents? The camphor just sitting in a jar on a shelf. And what about planting mint in tubs around your growing area or greenhouse? The scent based deterrents do not kill ants, but it keeps them from entering the neighborhood. I expect you would have to use a combination of different deterrents. Some easy ones seem to be washing with vinegar, planting mint, dumping coffee grounds on ant hills, dry farina. I am having a lot of the critters myself and need to figure out how to repatriate the orchids inside when winter comes. I am thinking of putting them in a quarentiene fishtank with maybe a big open jar of vicks vapo rub in it. It could be a good time to spray with listerine, because it has eucalyptus, menthol, and camphore in it. It needs to be real gold style listerine. We already know that listerine does not hurt orchid roots and is good for avoiding mildue and such.
Always research what you put on orchids though.

The best way to get rid of ants safely is by mixing honey with baking soda into a paste. You can put it in a small jar with holes in the top so ants can get in, or what I did, which works like magic, is spread it (about the size of a nickel is sufficient) around where the ants are present. They take to it like fish take to water. Once ingested the baking soda expands in their stomachs and they literally explode. :waving

You will have to do this a handful of times over several weeks to kill them all. It works!

lots of good ideas there I hope we all find one that works for us.. after one day of the the Anti Ant thread.................................no ants and no lizards on the buds walking across them. :)

I was trying not to globally treat anything. Ants arent a bad thing if you can control their activity and limit the area in which they forage for food. I dont want to poison the lizards with a lot of insectsicidal bugs either. I havent had too much trouble with anything and why I would rather treat it gently for now..

I totally do not like just outright killing things. We are in their world, not they in ours. They are majestic creatures who do their jobs well. Just keep out of my plants, okay ants? Kthks.

We have some tips for you in this article:

Ants on your orchids?

The presence of ants on your orchids can be the indicator of a much serious and dangerous pest such as scale, mealybugs or aphids! Ants don't damage your orchids per se, they don't eat it. However, they bring along infections and pathogens, fungus and...

Hope it helps!!

How does there myrmectophilia type orchid weigh in on this conversation. As a past owner of peonies, I know that ants are needed for opening the flowers. I don't mind ants as long as they stay out of the house.