ANTS!

PegMc

Appealing here to ask experienced growers if you've experienced this battle and how you best resolved it. I converted our "dog room" in this old farmhouse into a grow room for dahlia tubers, cuttings, seedlings a few months back. Now I have an ant problem. They initially seemed to be coming out of the electrical outlets, first one and then the other, more recently it looks like the trail starts around the window moldings. We've sprayed outside. We've sprayed inside. I've laid those little ant traps along the baseboards. When I find a trail of them, I kill them off by wiping down with paper towel soaked in alcohol. I've also wiped the shelving unit framework down when I find a trail of them crawling up. I wipe the edges of the trays and domes the same way, killing them off one by one when I spot them. Now I've received shipment of Borax and Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth. If you've had to fight this battle, what has worked best for you? This morning I've started sprinkling the Diatomaceous Earth in the bottom of trays underneath the pots. Should I also sprinkle it on top of the pots' soil? Then do I reapply after it has been dampened by misting and watering or is that over kill. It seems to be that all of the efforts thus far should have resolved the issue. It has definitely slowed, but they sure aren't fully eradicated. Yet. It's absolutely maddening! Also, does anyone know if dahlia greenery does emit a sweet smell? What the heck is actually attracting them? They don't seem to be going after the 50-cell for cuttings... yet.. but are definitely attracted to the pots. I've already destroyed/tossed two 1020 trays'-worth... 36 plant starts. :-(

Dahlia53

PegMc I just saw a really good youtube video about ants in the garden. If your room has a dirt floor and the soil is sandy, ants are drawn to this soil structure because it holds their tunnels well. The trick is to find out where they get in and stop them by stopping the scout ants. If you catch and kill the scouts, they can't go back to the colony to report a good site for setting up colonies. Putting the borax or traps just outside of entry points rather than in your room is also a good strategy. Borax works wonders but you have to watch it if you have pets.

todgor

Ants will seek out aphids and farm them for honeydew. I believe that includes placing aphids and maybe eggs (larvae?) on dahlia leaves as they will have a food supply. I use liquid borate traps placed where ants are running so maybe borax will work.

PegMc

Thanks for the knowledge share and reply. The room was cleaned to start, brand new supplies, aka trays and pots, except ones priorly used which were all carefully sterilized before being put back into use. Initial plant matter was only tubers which had been washed months prior. I would go to thinking they were in the soil (fresh bales of pro-mix) as unhatched eggs, except there is no ant problem in the 1020 50-cell trays being used for cuttings - same soil. Plus 2 times seeing a trail of ants on the baseboard with the trail starting at electrical outlet in the baseboard and 1x around the window framing. I wouldnt think I would have had any aphids finding their way in under the above circumstance, right? Or no? Bobby just went out and sprayed around the foundation outside again. He says there is no indication out there of ants, aka no detectable ant hills nor any sign of ants crawling on the siding.

So since I wrote my initial post, I've started sprinkling the DE into a new tray, picking each pot up to see if anything is crawling around the outside or bottom of the pot, placing it down into the fresh DE tray. I found two ants that were in a tray that I'd missed in my inspection before sprinkling the DE into the tray, and lol, took pleasure in watching them die - roughly five minutes. All of this is painstaking procedure to solve this problem when I really need to be outside attending to all of THOSE pre-planting chores. Soooo very frustrated here!!! Rant over... but if anyone can shed further light on this problem, please by all means, share!

Flowernut

PegMc I have used both Diatomaceous Earth and the liquid ant traps. They both worked for me, but Diatomaceous Earth cannot get wet/damp or you need to reapply. I believe the liquid ant traps work by having the contents taken back to the nest by the worker ants and the queen eventually consumes. Good luck!🤞

calico20hill

Ants also hate the scent of peppermint. A friend had good luck with spraying peppermint oil in the area and laying branches cut from a mint plant around her work area.

PegMc

calico20hill Wonderful! I'll be purchasing some :-)

NCDahlia

Terro works good you can get at walmart or on amazon its like liquid gel bait traps for inside just keep away from cats and dogs. Also if you have them outside like in hills and such the 1 thing that instantly will kill them is pyrethrin.

Here is a fact sheet on it. http://npic.orst.edu/factsheets/pyrethrins.html

Only thing I found that will kill them bc I had lots of fire ants in my lavender hills. you can also get on amazon or do my own pest control.

SteveM

NCDahlia 1 thing that instantly will kill them is pyrethrin.

Pyrethrin and pyrethroids (synthetic pyrethrin) are extremely toxic to cats.

blown_dry

Optigard gel works extremely well. Ants will come inside when the weather is wet in this area because the ground gets thoroughly saturated. They will come in even if there is no food source inside and nest in walls and attics. I can't blame them, but I can't live with them either. After years of struggle, we finally tried bait. We put a tiny amount the size of a small pea where they are coming in and they consume it and carry it off. It is a game changer. Interestingly we still have robust colonies very close by outside, but very rarely have a colony attempt to establish itself inside.

KitCMC

SteveM this is good to know, thanks for sharing.

PegMc

So appreciative of everyone's input and experience shares. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Krista

We have had ants indoors year-round (summer more so) since the beginning of time in our very old old house and we’d always had numbers low’ish enough that little barriers of Diatomaceous Earth placed strategically with the occasional massacre using bleach water seemed to keep their numbers low enough where we could co-exist. Until the year before last and it was unreal. We felt like we were under siege! We tried what felt like everything non-toxic but the invasion seemed to keep intensifying. My partner would follow the single file lines of troops back to where they were centralized, bleach down the area and re-caulk or paint, or plug the hole but they’d just find another. Ian (lost his poor mind) finally hunted down the two entryways outdoors that they were using. Instead of blocking, now continually keeps little jars (those tall skinny caper jars work really well) no lid, laying on their sides with a mix of sugar and borax inside right at the entry spots (one in front of the house and the other is in back). We still see an occasional ant traipsing down the edge of a counter or up a wall, but our experience keeping the bait outdoors has been a game-changer and a mind, soul and life-saver!

blown_dry

Krista We have had ants indoors year-round (summer more so) since the beginning of time in our very old old house

This. Our house is over a century old. We tried everything for years before doing bait. The invasions can be really disheartening.

PegMc

.... and suddenly I don't feel so alone anymore. Haha? This has been so disheartening and overwhelming -- absolutely maddening.

Krista

PegMc Agreed, it feels awful when they’re everywhere, getting into everything - and nothing is working to get them under control. I hope you’re able to find a method soon!

AKWindWatcher

I have a love/hate relationship with ants. I appreciate their role as decomposers and am somewhat fascinated by their social structures. But, ever since my dad tried to eradicate a carpenter ant nest in the outside wall of my bedroom and I woke up in the middle of the night with ants crawling all over me (they must have had a hole on the inside wall too and my bed was against that wall), I cannot stand them anywhere on or in the house. I've found that a multi-pronged approach is best. Use several different control methods. But, as Steve mentioned, be very careful with anything that is toxic to pets or wildlife. I try to avoid those in general for pest control.

JessieC

I also use the liquid Terra baits. I used to mix up borax with powdered sugar and it works just the same, but it’s messy. I’m in central VA and they will just appear in the kitchen one day like a creepy invasion. We leave the baits out for a day or two, and like magic they are gone.
I tried another kind of bait that’s easy to find in stores. One of my dogs managed to turn one into a chew-treat almost immediately. I read that the bait had peanut butter in it 😳
The Terra things don’t appear to have anything attractive to dogs, at least. Good luck and thanks for the reminder. They’ll be arriving soon, I suspect.

calico20hill

Ants also hate peppermint. You can use a peppermint scented organic garden spray, and/or lay branches of mint around your house or greenhouse. Mint planted in your garden can become invasive too, but its pretty easy to pull. I had a problem with ants in my greenhouse at my previous place and the peppermint spray helped to get rid of them.

SteveM

KitCMC A friend's daughters shampooed their kittens with a dog shampoo that contained Pyrethrin. Safe for humans and dogs but deadly when used on kittens. Since them I make sure any spray is completely dry before I let the Kats roam.