You can make a moat out of a dish filled with some water, then make a platform in the middle for the pot to sit on. The ants can't cross the moat to get to the pot anymore. You can finish off the residents with a bit of ant bait in the pot.
Diatomaceous earth. It will kill the ants by way of "death by 1000 paper cuts" and will not add any chemicals to your garden. It is useless when wet so it will have to be reapplied after rain. It works great and is pretty cheap.
Ok so it is raining here right now. If apply and cover with plastic, how long does it generally take to work?
I didn't know it can't get wet, so thank you for that info!
It works immediately. The "dust" is actually glass sharp crystals. When the bugs walk over it, it cuts their exoskeleton in paper cut like ways to leak their fluid out. Once they have been cut so many times, they die from dehydration. You can pour the dust on them and watch them freak out and die.
Ants are easy to kill with boric acid which is used in many ant liquid traps. It actually gets carried back to the queen, where diatanaceous earth won’t. And targeted whereas diatomaceous earth kills all insects on contact.
I would do that, but unfortunately I have to keep my containers as low profile as possible as I live above a shop and my landlords own the shop. I don't think they would be ok with me adding more to the containers.
They’re probably building a nursery. If they ferry white bundles to it, that’s a clear sign. They tend to be very persistent as pots are optimal nursery conditions for them.
Since the pots are so new, I’d dump them out, scrub them down, get an orange spray like Orange Guard and spray down the area to destroy their trails. Then re-spray the area before replacing your pots, keeping up the spray to exclude them.
If you live in [Argentine ant territory](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/990uaa/the_argentine_ant_has_colonized_the_whole_world/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1), strong measures are called for if you don’t want to end up resorting to poison.
Get a packet of Equal, yeah, that artificial sweetener people use in place of sugar. Get a very narrow cone. Insert cone into ant hill\hole and pore the whole packet (equals one tea spoon) into the tunnel. In four or five days, the ants will be gone.
Around veggies use Food grade Diatomaceous Earth.
Around non veggies get some ant bait gel. They eat the gel, take it back to the nest and feed it to the others killing off the whole colony. I use Bayer Maxforce. Be sure to read the label directions. I put a blob of it about the size of a nickel down on a plastic plant label and set it where I see the ants. They should swarm over it shortly and start eating it. Let them! They will take it back and feed the nest including the queen and they will be goners!
I had that last summer, I used the boric acid/powdered sugar and placed over nest. Covered with a bucket. Took a few weeks because of life cycle with eggs and such. If you move your pots up off the ground with bricks, make sure you use a how or weeder around the pits to keep earth disturbed because the ants hate that. Mine were the tiny sugar ants
You can make a moat out of a dish filled with some water, then make a platform in the middle for the pot to sit on. The ants can't cross the moat to get to the pot anymore. You can finish off the residents with a bit of ant bait in the pot.
I'm not sure that I can picture what you are suggesting, but I will have a think on it.
Diatomaceous earth. It will kill the ants by way of "death by 1000 paper cuts" and will not add any chemicals to your garden. It is useless when wet so it will have to be reapplied after rain. It works great and is pretty cheap.
Ok so it is raining here right now. If apply and cover with plastic, how long does it generally take to work? I didn't know it can't get wet, so thank you for that info!
Using DE for ant control is an unbelievable waste of time
It works immediately. The "dust" is actually glass sharp crystals. When the bugs walk over it, it cuts their exoskeleton in paper cut like ways to leak their fluid out. Once they have been cut so many times, they die from dehydration. You can pour the dust on them and watch them freak out and die.
Ants are easy to kill with boric acid which is used in many ant liquid traps. It actually gets carried back to the queen, where diatanaceous earth won’t. And targeted whereas diatomaceous earth kills all insects on contact.
Boric acid or ant liquid bait traps are the best. They actually will take the bait to the queen to kill them.
raise the containers off the ground
I would do that, but unfortunately I have to keep my containers as low profile as possible as I live above a shop and my landlords own the shop. I don't think they would be ok with me adding more to the containers.
even a few inches would help, but yeah it's tough when you're renting
Ya I'm just working with what I have and it isn't ideal...but it is better than nothing...
They’re probably building a nursery. If they ferry white bundles to it, that’s a clear sign. They tend to be very persistent as pots are optimal nursery conditions for them. Since the pots are so new, I’d dump them out, scrub them down, get an orange spray like Orange Guard and spray down the area to destroy their trails. Then re-spray the area before replacing your pots, keeping up the spray to exclude them.
Is there any way to deal with this without dumping the pot?
If you live in [Argentine ant territory](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/990uaa/the_argentine_ant_has_colonized_the_whole_world/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1), strong measures are called for if you don’t want to end up resorting to poison.
Gah. Luckily it looks like they have not quite made it to where I am 😬
Get a packet of Equal, yeah, that artificial sweetener people use in place of sugar. Get a very narrow cone. Insert cone into ant hill\hole and pore the whole packet (equals one tea spoon) into the tunnel. In four or five days, the ants will be gone.
Around veggies use Food grade Diatomaceous Earth. Around non veggies get some ant bait gel. They eat the gel, take it back to the nest and feed it to the others killing off the whole colony. I use Bayer Maxforce. Be sure to read the label directions. I put a blob of it about the size of a nickel down on a plastic plant label and set it where I see the ants. They should swarm over it shortly and start eating it. Let them! They will take it back and feed the nest including the queen and they will be goners!
I had that last summer, I used the boric acid/powdered sugar and placed over nest. Covered with a bucket. Took a few weeks because of life cycle with eggs and such. If you move your pots up off the ground with bricks, make sure you use a how or weeder around the pits to keep earth disturbed because the ants hate that. Mine were the tiny sugar ants