vicktrainer
Newly Registered
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Nov 30, 2013 12:55 pm

ants eating spinach

I am growing spinach but it has been devastated by ants. any suggestions as to how I get rid of them please?

weterman
Senior Member
Posts: 121
Joined: Thu Oct 10, 2013 10:55 pm

try putting ductape around the plant.

User avatar
rainbowgardener
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

Sticky side up you mean?

Diatomaceous earth on and around them works too, but has to be renewed after rain.

It is unusual for ants to eat living plants. What does the damage look like? Big round holes in the centers of leaves? Chewed leaf edges? Lots of teeny holes? Markings, discoloration, shrivelling, etc? Have you checked to see if there is anything else there, like aphids?

User avatar
jbest123
Full Member
Posts: 57
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:17 am
Location: Zone 5 WPA

I agree with RBG. The ants are your friend in the garden but not in the house.

DoubleDogFarm
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 6113
Joined: Sun Mar 28, 2010 11:43 pm

jbest123 wrote:I agree with RBG. The ants are your friend in the garden but not in the house.
I also like where Rainbow is heading. Aphids are usually moved around by ants. They are a colony of farmers. They could also be cutter ants. Hualing leafy bits back to the nest. Without knowing where you live, hard to know what type of ant.

Eric

User avatar
jbest123
Full Member
Posts: 57
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:17 am
Location: Zone 5 WPA

Never thought of the cutter ants in the south west. when the ants are farming the aphids, I never seen the aphid population large enough to harm the plants.

User avatar
rainbowgardener
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

I had a tree seedling volunteering in the wrong place at one point and thought I would move it. I touched the tree and felt like I got stung. So I looked closer. Much of the little tree was absolutely coated in aphids all lined up touching each other, packed in neatly and they were being very aggressively defended by ants.

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Ants can be quite aggressive especially fire ants.

User avatar
rainbowgardener
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 25279
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

We don't have fire ants, thanks to our freezing winters. These were just regular ants, which aren't usually so aggressive, except when defending their "livestock."

User avatar
Aida
Senior Member
Posts: 129
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2013 4:02 am
Location: Central Florida

Lucky you RainbowGardener, we get lots of scary stuff here-- including GIANT, fat fire ants which are absolutely vicious and aggressive; one sting hurts for a week.



Return to “Vegetable Gardening Forum”