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Help! Ants in my pants!

Baylorguy

"Oh, now he's a philosophizer"
So one of my giant mini bogs is infested with very small black ants. I think I already lost my judith hindle and my 2 Sarracenia alata Sam Rayburn Resevoir, TX clones :(

I noticed they would be growing fine and then the growth would just flop over similar to if the plants were drying out. Eventually I dug up the rhizome and saw ants swarming underneath and inside the rhizome... with freaggin ant eggs to boot! I've tried washing the rhizomes, replacing most of the dirt, and even have some Torro traps on the surface.

For anyone that has gone through this... is there anything I can do? It is really frustrating watching part of your collection waste away. Never knew ants could do this!

Phil
 
Quick! plant a million sundews!

Have you tried conventional ant killer? I think with something like ants, traps and stuff that target individual ones won't work. You have to slaughter them at once. I don't know how that effects sarrecenia, but maybe if you use something organic?

Good luck though, hope your plants survive!
 
I did put down some Torro ant traps but it really does seem to be out of control. They are everywhere. Ironically the hunter becomes the hunted... or something like that.
 
If they're the kind of traps I'm thinking of, they won't work instantly. You have to wait for them to take the bait and share it with all their buddies to kill off the colony.

Is it possible for you to dig everything up and put it somewhere else for the time being?

Edit: Just searched those traps. They're not the ones I was describing, which are these.
Give those a shot, they've always worked really well for me.

Edit 2: Actually, I'm not sure if those would be Sarr safe. Maybe someone else knows.
 
Hiya yellow -

I did some research and it seems other people have used them ok with Sarrs and even Neps. I did relocate some of the plants.
 
Have you tried a simple flooding of the pots? Assuming you want to get rid of the ants without chemicals, making it to wet is the next best way. If you place the pots with colonies in so that they water level forces them to the surface you can even kill the queen(s) if you wanted.

Just curious but do ants actually harm the cps? I have never seen local ants kill any plant and some even need ants to pollinate/plant their seeds.
 
Well I can't prove it 100%, but there is a strong chance the ants were the reason for decline. There is nothing else that would have made brand new growth from my Stone Co, MS alata simply flop over. When I dug the rhizome up and saw ant eggs embedded in the rhizome... I was pretty sure I knew what I was dealing with.
 
Ah okay. I was curious because here most ants are harmless, down south they are extremely invasive pests in many cases. Sounds like you may even be dealing with Argentine ants.
 
yikes, sounds bad.
 
  • #10
Well I can't prove it 100%, but there is a strong chance the ants were the reason for decline. There is nothing else that would have made brand new growth from my Stone Co, MS alata simply flop over. When I dug the rhizome up and saw ant eggs embedded in the rhizome... I was pretty sure I knew what I was dealing with.

i would check the "eggs". Perhaps they were not ant eggs and were mealybugs or some other sucking insect that they would be farming. I have not tried flooding to control ants. i have ant problems all over the place but not in my CPs. But then I do keep them on the wet side and flood occasionally.
 
  • #11
I've had ants make their nests in pots. It's a real pain. Flooding as others have suggested works the best for me. Initially it's not too bad as they keep the plants fed but they tend to accumulate their refuse in little volcano piles that can drown out smaller specimens. For me, they also seem to stratify the medium - they like digging up the sand and all that ends up at the top of the pot.
 
  • #12
Thanks everyone. I think I will try to flood them out. Unfortuantely it'll be expensive because I'll have to do so with just distilled water. The water here is harder than concrete.
 
  • #13
Well, as far as I can tell problem solved thanks to mother nature. We have been getting lots of rain and when I came home today all of my minibogs were literally overflowing with water. I don't think an ant colony would be able to survive that. We'll see.
 
  • #14
a little late but...
i have not had problems with ants in my cps but i will mix liquid dish soap with water and drench my veggies pots and it really does the trick nicely, im guessing it makes them all stick together and immobile? who knows...i know after about 10-20 minutes, i dont see ants anymore when i dig in to look for them. they just kind of disappear.

~billy
 
  • #15
I wish you the best Baylor!

I'm really sad to hear you lost a plant with location data. :down:
 
  • #16
Thanks everyone -

Hopefully the others pull through, but they are definitely set back this season. My other 3 minibogs are doing great though.
 
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