How to get rid of ants without harming the plant?

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Quattro Pete

Quattro Pete

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Need some suggestions here... my roebellini palm and the bucket it sits in is crawling with ants. What can I use to get rid of them without harming the palm? I don't want to just use household Raid in fear of destroying the tree.

I guess I can run over to Home Depot and see what they have, but I first thought I'd check with the forum.

I've read about spraying the plant with a peppermint soap (BTW, which local stores carry this stuff?) solution and also spreading coffee grounds in the pot. Are these safe for the plant?
 
Feed them Splenda® ..they'll love the sugar taste ..with zero calories. They'll ignore other food stuffs and starve to death (I've really wanted to try this on ants to see if they would buy into it
grin.gif
)

I've just used hot water where I didn't want to use my current supply of Diazanon or Dursban. I don't know if your plant is hardy enough to handle it though.
 
grits. they eat it and the grit swells up inside of them and boom basically. how my mom got rid of fireants when we lived in SC.
 
Get a hoe. Limit laughter please. Disturb the nest by scraping it or leveling it several times a day. They really hate that. Think mechanical guys! With a little luck, they move the nest away from the desired plant and then hot water or even chemicals can be used. Worked for me on a muscadine vine and a crab apple tree. Hee Haw!!!
 
Amdro. Safe stuff and make sure when applied soil area is dried and weather wise no rain. Grit stuff...no need for insecticides.
 
Get you one of those syphon type fertilizer sprayers that you put on a garden hose. Fill it 50/50 with Dawn liquid dish soap and 409 all purpose cleaner. Spray them down with that. The ants will never ever want to come back to your house ever again.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Dark Jedi:
grits. they eat it and the grit swells up inside of them and boom basically. how my mom got rid of fireants when we lived in SC.
Click to expand...
For true???

Does it work for other ants?

At my parents weekend house, there are a lot of ants outside on the brick patio. None in the house, and none in the walls, or so we think... sure would be nice to kill them since we cant persuade them to go further from the house.

JMH
 
Gary Allan,
Be carefull with your stash of now banned chemicals. I was just reading the other day about a link between these chemicals - even in mild exposure - to Parkinsons' disease. I don't know if its just me but, this disease seems to be getting more attention all the time?
 
Thanks for the warnings. I would imagine that I'll just have to attach this as a rider to the list of behavioral and physical risk factors that I've accumulated. I've sensibly handled these agents for over 20 years. I can hope for some oddball/magical "resistive physiology", I guess.

I think Parkenson's disease is more apparent just due to the mass of baby boomers stacking up in age ..and the ability of our advances allowing us to live longer with higher levels of complications. Also its a condition that begs for research in politically sensitive areas.
 
We had little pesty ants in SoCal, but around here we have large, destructive carpenter ants so I don't mess around, and will use Raid on the trail and nest. I've also used Raid on yellow jacket nests in the ground, and then for good measure dropped a big rock on the hole. Lots of interruptions, running around and swatting.
 
Thanks all. I ended up picking up some Household & Garden spray from the local HD. I also spread some coffee grounds in the planter... let's see if the little critters return.
 
quote:
Originally posted by JHZR2:

quote:
Originally posted by Dark Jedi:
grits. they eat it and the grit swells up inside of them and boom basically. how my mom got rid of fireants when we lived in SC.
Click to expand...
For true???

Does it work for other ants?

At my parents weekend house, there are a lot of ants outside on the brick patio. None in the house, and none in the walls, or so we think... sure would be nice to kill them since we cant persuade them to go further from the house.

JMH
Click to expand...
yes it does work and guess it can work for all ants. I odnt know we just did it on fire ants as we always see their mounds. just do a circle around the ant hill and walk away. also make sure its not going to rain and the ground is dry. if no mound pour some on the ant trail. they will stop there and take that back to the mound. its not an instant fix but it will kill them in the end or they move off to greener pastures
lol.gif
 
I usually use 1 part honey, 1 part sugar, and 1 part yeast.

Mill the sugar and yeast to a flour in a mortar and pestle, and mix in the honey.

Ants eat it, there's enough moisture in their gut for it to ferment, and they can't burp.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Shannow:
I usually use 1 part honey, 1 part sugar, and 1 part yeast.

Mill the sugar and yeast to a flour in a mortar and pestle, and mix in the honey.

Ants eat it, there's enough moisture in their gut for it to ferment, and they can't burp.
Click to expand...
thats just plain wrong
lol.gif
 
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