I noticed ants in my mater plants that I planted in 5 Gal. buckets last week. Will they harm my plants and what is the safest way to get rid of them ?
Thanx in advance.
Ants will bring aphids to your plants.
If you are lucky they are not fire ants.
The best way to kill ants is to find the nest and kill the queen. You can use boric acid on the ant mound, but it works best to put out ant bait and let the workers take the bait inside the colony and feed it to the queen. It takes a while for bait to work, but in the long run it is the only way to kill the whole colony and not just a few workers.
Terro is a brand of ant bait that comes in containers that can be used outdoors.
Here's a recipe for a homemade ant bait. Don't add to much boric acid, if the ants get wise, they will reject the bait.
https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/uhmg/WestHI ... t-Ants.pdf
If you are lucky they are not fire ants.
The best way to kill ants is to find the nest and kill the queen. You can use boric acid on the ant mound, but it works best to put out ant bait and let the workers take the bait inside the colony and feed it to the queen. It takes a while for bait to work, but in the long run it is the only way to kill the whole colony and not just a few workers.
Terro is a brand of ant bait that comes in containers that can be used outdoors.
Here's a recipe for a homemade ant bait. Don't add to much boric acid, if the ants get wise, they will reject the bait.
https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/uhmg/WestHI ... t-Ants.pdf