# Ants - harmful or just a nuisance?



## ALToronto (May 7, 2013)

A bunch of ants have just discovered my orchid shelf - literally in the last couple of days. The first one or two brave explorers told their friends, and now they're busy staking their claims in my pots. I don't have any aphids or scales (yet), so I know they're not farming anything.

About half of my plants are in either bark or chc with sphag, perlite and charcoal. The other half are in inert media - lava rock and/or LECA. The ants seem to have no preference, I think they just like the sweet sap that my catts secrete.

So - should I worry? Or are they at worst a nuisance, and at best a way to get rid of fungus gnats, of which I have plenty? I put out fruit scraps covered in boric acid powder, but it's not a quick remedy. And I'm not as diligent as I should be in making sure that the food scraps are fresh. I'm not willing to use anything more harsh than boric acid, as this is inside my house, and we have kids and pets.

These are small ants with black heads and butts, and brown torsos. Not fire ants, and not carpenter ants.


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## NYEric (May 7, 2013)

Kill them quickly before they set up a nest, drowning works.


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## Trithor (May 8, 2013)

In my experience with ants, when they arrive, trouble is not far behind. I would advise you get rid of them as quickly as possible


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## lepetitmartien (May 8, 2013)

A lot or orchids are myrmecophile. So to have ants is normal as long as they are not raising aphids.

One thing to look after is their regimen, are they after the sugared liquid from the nectaries like cells on the orchids? Or after insects and others in the pots? If it's the second, you have at least a repotting to make.

There are organic ways to make them go, sliced peppers, bits of lemon, it works. And to prevent them from coming back (diatoms powder).


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## Rick (May 8, 2013)

Trithor said:


> In my experience with ants, when they arrive, trouble is not far behind. I would advise you get rid of them as quickly as possible



Me too.

For some reason when I see ants, mealies and scale seem to pop up all over.


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## Trithor (May 8, 2013)

Rick said:


> Me too.
> 
> For some reason when I see ants, mealies and scale seem to pop up all over.



Aint that the truth! I dont know how they arrive, one day there are a couple of ants and the next it is chemical warefare combating thousands of unwanted pests.


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## couscous74 (May 8, 2013)

I've recently started using Terro Liquid Ant Bait, and it works really well for me. I think it's basically ant poison dissolved in sugar water, kind of like what attracts them to our orchids. I lay a drop right in the middle of the ant tracks where they are coming in. It turns into an big ant party for a few hours, they bring the poison back to the nest. And within a day or two, it wipes them all out.


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## Trithor (May 8, 2013)

We get a product which is poisoned silkworm eggs, king of works the same, the ants carry the eggs back to the nest and, ....... whamo! nest gone! (Still think chorpyriphos works better)


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## NYEric (May 8, 2013)

couscous74 said:


> I've recently started using Terro Liquid Ant Bait, and it works really well for me. I think it's basically ant poison dissolved in sugar water, kind of like what attracts them to our orchids. I lay a drop right in the middle of the ant tracks where they are coming in. It turns into an big ant party for a few hours, they bring the poison back to the nest. And within a day or two, it wipes them all out.



I made the same thing once in college, with the stomach-clearing results of 17 Rum and cokes and a container of carpet cleaning crystals!


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## ALToronto (May 8, 2013)

Well, I have a 20 litre pail of boric acid powder at work, so I guess I'll mix some with cheap honey and leave them some treats to take home.

So I take it that the ants themselves aren't harmful, it's their farming practices that are the problem?


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## likespaphs (May 9, 2013)

ALToronto said:


> ...So I take it that the ants themselves aren't harmful, it's their farming practices that are the problem?



often, but i've heard stories of some leaf cutting ants too

some ants eat fat instead of sugar so you may want to make a small batch first to make sure that will indeed be suitable for them


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## Trithor (May 9, 2013)

[QUOTE

So I take it that the ants themselves aren't harmful, it's their farming practices that are the problem?[/QUOTE]

A bit like our politicians, they are not harmful in themselves, it is just their policies that cause damage


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## couscous74 (May 9, 2013)

Trithor said:


> A bit like our politicians, they are not harmful in themselves, it is just their policies that cause damage



A bit like our religions, they are not harmful in themselves, it's just the nutjobs that cause damage. :rollhappy:


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## ALToronto (May 9, 2013)

likespaphs said:


> often, but i've heard stories of some leaf cutting ants too
> 
> some ants eat fat instead of sugar so you may want to make a small batch first to make sure that will indeed be suitable for them



In that case, it will be boric acid with honey and peanut butter. Better cover all the bases.


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## busypotter (May 17, 2013)

By watching the ants on my paphs is what lead me to find the mealies that I would have bet ya they weren't there. Also found thrips on my catt. buds when I thought they were just going for the nectar. I spray just the plant in question with Bayers Rose and Garden whenever I see ants, seems to take care of everything.


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## ZWUM (May 17, 2013)

Terro works well for me too, especially the gel. Put it on a small piece of paper or cardboard and they'll be gone soon. All it is, is Borax.


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## busypotter (May 22, 2013)

Let the ants be your watchdogs, follow them and find the mealies, thrips, or scale. They are eating something and that something just might be eating your plants.


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## cnycharles (May 22, 2013)

also anything that is making a nest in your pots is probably depositing material that could end up clogging or poisoning the media slowly


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## ALToronto (May 23, 2013)

They seem to be congregating around the catts - I think they're just eating the sweet sap. Slippers taste very bitter (yes, I tasted them), so they're not interested in them at all.

Just in case, I sprayed all my plants and their media with SucraShield, and it didn't affect the ants at all. I'm hoping that if I did have any other tenants, the SucraShield has killed them. Certainly, the number of fungus gnats has gone down significantly.


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