Ahhh...fireantsss.

Serapis said:

Ants can be beneficial...

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, more often than not they are {expletive deleted} G.D. F'ing APHID RANCHERS..... Works out brilliant for the aphids.... and yes they do more tunneling and aerating than worms spun out on coffee grounds could ever accomplish.... I still dont like them. Thank God I dont have fire ants.

Fight Fire with FIRE. Ants do not like capsaicin. The active ingredient in Hot Peppers. Put some Habeneros in a blender with vinegar. OR use up a bottle of 10++ Hot sauce that isnt fit for human consumption anyway.. Add some black pepper corns, cinnamon etc {clean out your spice collection of old stuff thats past its shelf life anyway}. Spread your Pepper & vinegar mixture in a circle around the plant, past the drip line {a couple or three ft. past the base}.

If you can find the ant hill, pour some of the vinegar pepper mixture in.... let it soak in real good... then hammer it with a mixture of water + baking soda.... it will foam up. It looks pretty cool... but obviously you don't want the PH nightmare to occur to close your plants. The Ants will move to somewhere else that doesnt suck.

Hot pepper wax might work too. And Diatamacous Earth ... a unique form of silica dioxide, a 200 - 300 mesh powder. {available at garden centers} to crawly bugs its like crawling over broken glass.... It also dehydrates the bugs.

I've just discovered that my fire ants are farming white aphids! That explains why only two plants had ants and the other 28 were untouched. At least I know they are not tearing up my plants like they did my sunflower. I imagine if I get rid of the aphids, then the ants will be gone as well. My two praying mantises are going to have to find something else to eat now.

I've also been using Amdro on the surrounding ant mounds and they love this stuff. What Serapis said about pouring it into the mound hole is true. They treat it like they're clearing debris. I can put it three inches out from the hole and they take it just fine. Yesterday I poured this stuff around one of the holes to see how a different variety of ants received it, and this morning there are no more ants coming out of the hole. That's pretty fast in my book.

Now I get to look up how to get rid of aphids.

Do you think that ladybugs are doomed with existing ants on the plant?