FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I have had a terrible time this year with ants making their homes in my pots and bogs. Fortunately, they seem to be sugar ants because they haven't bitten the tar out of me when I get them on my hands from picking up a pot. I typically drown the pot for a day or so to drive them out, but they are getting out of hand. Anyone have a good way of keeping them from my trays?

How are your trays situated? Elevated? On the ground/hard surface? And are the ants living in the media, or just visiting?

The trays are on an elevated table. The and are nesting with eggs in the pots.

I use these inside and outside my home. Seem to do the trick.
https://www.amazon.com/TERRO-T300B-2-Pa ... 9hdGY&th=1

For the ants in the pots, perhaps something with pyrethrin. It derived from chrysanthemums, so may be easier. I don't know how it will affect the TDS, you may have to monitor that. Or, if you can identify the exact species of ant, there are some parasitic nematodes you can introduce to the pot. Depending on the species of ant, the nematodes may attack the queen, the workers, the larvae, or all of the above.
For prevention, put something around the legs of the table. Chalk works well, use your kids sidewalk chalk, but you'll have to reapply it as it gets washed off in the Georgia rain. Maybe packing tape, wrapped several layers thick. Many insects have trouble finding a grip on the non-sticky side of the tape.

Mix borax and sugar water and place it where only ants can get to it, say under a pot. Borax takes two weeks to kill the ants so they will take it to the queen and feed the whole colony. Careful it will have the same effect on bee hives also.

I only kill fire ants the little back ants keep the yard clean so unwanted ants are less likely move in.

Panman, they may be Argentine ants. I HATE them!!!’ They infest everything!!! Even our vehicles and house. They don’t have mounds, per se, but rather communities of connected kingdoms with many queens. They are actually “displacing” fire ants!!!! And, as you mentioned, they don’t really sting…every now and then one might bite (not sting) if you get it trapped under your shirt or trapped in the bend of your arm. Otherwise, they will just crawl all over your hand or whatever. Years ago we had lots of tall fire ants mounds, but only a few now. That trick with the foam pads has been my best defense so far. I would literally have to treat several acres to back them off enough to say I was ant-free. Did I say that I HATE these ants?

Honestly, I'll trade these for fire ants any day. I'll do the foam bit on my particularly troublesome table.

Do you know if the previous owner of the property had problems with these ants? The reason I ask is that they might just be moving into your property and an exterminator *might* could beat them back away from you if they haven't firmly entrenched themselves. When we first moved here 30 years ago we had plenty of fire ants. Then over a period of many years they started dwindling. I thought "Hey! That's cool!!!". I really didn't pay much attention to the little black ants that were crawling around in a few places...ants are good, within reason, ya know! Yeah, sure. Those "little black ants" were in the process of kicking the fire ants butts out of here. I don't know if it's possible, but there is *another* ant that seems to be a cross between the argentine and fire ant. They usually make low-lying, grayish-colored mounds, and they *will* sting...but, thankfully, I find few of those. Do an experiment...take a piece of wood, maybe a foot square piece of plywood and toss it out in the yard and come back in 2-3 days...see if ants are underneath it. I guarantee that if I pick a limb up off the ground down here there is a 90% chance there will be ants beneath it. Shoot, we have an old stray cat, George, that comes around all along to see if we put him something tasty out to eat. I set a dish on top of an upside down plant tray that I've sprayed *heavily* with ant poison...otherwise the food would be covered with ants before he ever makes it by...if I don't spray his "table" the ants will be on the food within an hour!!!! Did I mention that I HATE those ants!!!????

That sounds like the ant's that I'm dealing with. We do have fire ants, but their hills are confined to the pasture. These ants seem to make a next under whatever is available. I moved one of my trays and there was a nest of ants and eggs between it and the table. Annoying and frustrating, but at least they don't bite. After my battle with them yesterday I was picking ants off of me the rest of the evening.

Panman wrote: ↑Fri Aug 25, 2023 1:00 pm Honestly, I'll trade these for fire ants any day. I'll do the foam bit on my particularly troublesome table.

I’d have to agree. No contest.

A little ant trivia…. Ants are believed to be the dominant insects on Earth with a conservative estimate of 20 quadrillion individuals. (By contrast, our galaxy is estimated to have 100 billion stars.).

Panman wrote: ↑Fri Aug 25, 2023 1:20 pm That sounds like the ant's that I'm dealing with. We do have fire ants, but their hills are confined to the pasture. These ants seem to make a next under whatever is available. I moved one of my trays and there was a nest of ants and eggs between it and the table. Annoying and frustrating, but at least they don't bite. After my battle with them yesterday I was picking ants off of me the rest of the evening.

That sounds like the Argentines. They'll make a new nest at the drop of a hat...actually beneath the hat if you leave it there long enough!

When I was keeping honey bees I had to keep poison put out for the ants. They would invade the hives (what ant doesn't like honey, right?). Besides making a mess of things this would make the bees turn mean because they were being invaded and they had no ability to battle the ants. I would make bait stations out of small food containers, punch holes in them big enough for ants but too small for the bees to enter. I used the boric acid and sugar mix mentioned earlier and put it inside a smaller container that was placed inside the one with the holes in it. I set one of these beneath the hive and usually put some in beetle traps that would fit between the frames. Ain't nothing like walking up to a hive going to inspect it and hear a loud, angry buzz coming from it...the day just took a bad turn as those bees aren't going to be happy to see you.

I was sitting in my recliner last night when I caught something out of the corner of my eye (I do have two eyes, but it seemed awkward to say "the corner of one of my eyes" ). Anyhow, I had to glance down a couple of times and finally caught sight of an ant cruising around on my shoulder.<sigh>

I caught one cruising along the top of my glasses ... while I was wearing them!

Panman wrote: ↑Fri Aug 25, 2023 2:25 pm I caught one cruising along the top of my glasses ... while I was wearing them!

yup, been there... *very* distracting!!!!

Ugh I feel your pain regarding ants. We live on a giant ant farm so they invade every few weeks from somewhere new like clockwork. Currently working on getting rid of them from the car they decided to invade it during our recent storm.

I don't have an edible garden outdoors so I'm fine with using chemicals. I was initially concerned about the ladybug and lacewings but they generally stay clear from where I treat. These are the chemicals I use.. I use intice gel because it's not runny like terro. Advance 375A granular bait for the ones that want protein. I place the baits on a old plastic food dish lid and around the baits I spray a full perimeter of fipronil based pesticide or chlorfenapyr based pesticide. All things I use work by taking back to the colony. The sprays are non detectable by the ants so they have no issues crossing the line.

I've had some ants that have gone into the drosera pots and never come back out with no ill effect but when it come to colony amounts I have no idea if there would be any side effects.