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Ants in pots


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Anyone have any ideas how to get rid of ants in my soil.

Pot was outside for a while and ants nested in dry potting mix.

 

Once i got my clone inside i noticed small black ants.

I have tried submerging pot in a bucket of water for 1 hour and that has done nothing.

 

Then i changed the potting mix and used the new pot but there must of been some eggs left around the roots because this new potting mix few days after is again full of them

 

Any suggestions?post-65007-158573269181_thumb.jpeg

 

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might sound dumb but make sure there ants your seeing 

 

on plants , ants can farm other bugs like aphid for the honey dew they excrete so check for bugs on your plant 

 

in soil , generally ants like a warm dry soil to setup shop so mulch & organic matter will help with 

moisture retention , that pot looks on the smaller side so guessing it might dry out quicker & stay warm 

 

pretty much always a good idea to add compost or castings to bagged potting mix mainly for the biology

it will add to a most likely low biology potting soil , also helps to retain moisture 

 

do you still have some potting mix left in the bag ? check that , they might of been in the potting mix 

once again in a bag warm & dry 

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might sound dumb but make sure there ants your seeing

 

on plants , ants can farm other bugs like aphid for the honey dew they excrete so check for bugs on your plant

 

in soil , generally ants like a warm dry soil to setup shop so mulch & organic matter will help with

moisture retention , that pot looks on the smaller side so guessing it might dry out quicker & stay warm

 

pretty much always a good idea to add compost or castings to bagged potting mix mainly for the biology

it will add to a most likely low biology potting soil , also helps to retain moisture

 

do you still have some potting mix left in the bag ? check that , they might of been in the potting mix

once again in a bag warm & dry

might sound dumb but make sure there ants your seeing

 

on plants , ants can farm other bugs like aphid for the honey dew they excrete so check for bugs on your plant

 

in soil , generally ants like a warm dry soil to setup shop so mulch & organic matter will help with

moisture retention , that pot looks on the smaller side so guessing it might dry out quicker & stay warm

 

pretty much always a good idea to add compost or castings to bagged potting mix mainly for the biology

it will add to a most likely low biology potting soil , also helps to retain moisture

 

do you still have some potting mix left in the bag ? check that , they might of been in the potting mix

once again in a bag warm & dry

Hey itchi

 

Pot is 250mm

 

Yes definitely small black ants. Had magnifying glass on them

 

The original pot i had outside and it was dry so ants made nest there.

 

I repoted in my own mix of 50/50 worm castings and compost which im sure didnt contain any ants

 

I can see small black ants feeding on biology of worm castings.

 

If i spray them with neem oil would neem oil effect good biology that worm castings contain?

 

 

 

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because the ants are in soil & not farming aphid on the plant , i'd prob go with a top dressing of neem meal 

&/or making a neem kelp tea as a soil drench , that's made with neem meal not oil although you will find a little oil 

in the tea from the crushed neem seed that is neem meal or neem cake as known in some parts  

 

keep in mind ants although annoying shouldn't harm your plant however they could farm bugs

that will harm your plant 

 

when i get the hose out in the backyard , i find spots that i've watered to see a mass exodus of ants 

with little white eggs on there back , they def don't like water 

 

you could def use neem oil as a soil drench , might help , but it will have an effect on soil biology & not always a positive effect 

so good idea the next watering try adding some biology back in to the system , keeping in mind it's def harder to keep

life thriving in small pots  

 

Neem / Kelp Tea:

1/2 cup neem seem meal
1/4 cup kelp meal
In 5 gal water for 24hrs

*(you can use either kelp or neem or both depending on what tea you want)


*(Scooby note: Original post says to bubble but since we are not making microbial tea here it is really sufficient to

   just agitate the water a few times during the steep without requiring a pump and airstone)

I keep the cloth bags worms are shipped in and use those to put whatever I'm bubbling in so it stays contained.
To this finished tea before watering I'll add powdered aloe at 1/4tsp per gal and fulpower fulvic acid at 10ml per gal.

For new soils or soils that are lacking this can and should be used at half to full strength and as often as once weekly,

maybe alternating with an alfalfa/kelp tea at the same amount. I dilute the 5gal tea to whatever I need and that's more

often than not 20gal water.


 

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once you've gotten rid of the ants out of the pots with the neem meal or neem/kelp tea drench ... to keep them from returning, you can also put a circle of food grade diatomaceous earth around the bottom of the saucer - they will not cross it ... reminds a bit of watching supernatural and the ring of salt ... lol. if you are watering from the bottom ... just put it around the outside of the pot. the diatomaceous earth is quite heavy and will not blow away easily.

 

whatever you do ... don't squeeze or squash the ants ... this will just mean more will be returning. you'll know when you have dissuaded them, when some bigger ants with big pincers (less in number) come to check things out around the outside of the d.e. circle and also when the normal ants stay stationary around the outside of the d.e. circle - crazy little things, they will just stop moving in a cluster. once they decide it's not worth their time ... that should be the end of new ants coming in.

 

at least that's what happened in my case ... :)

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once you've gotten rid of the ants out of the pots with the neem meal or neem/kelp tea drench ... to keep them from returning, you can also put a circle of food grade diatomaceous earth around the bottom of the saucer - they will not cross it ... reminds a bit of watching supernatural and the ring of salt ... lol. if you are watering from the bottom ... just put it around the outside of the pot. the diatomaceous earth is quite heavy and will not blow away easily.

 

whatever you do ... don't squeeze or squash the ants ... this will just mean more will be returning. you'll know when you have dissuaded them, when some bigger ants with big pincers (less in number) come to check things out around the outside of the d.e. circle and also when the normal ants stay stationary around the outside of the d.e. circle - crazy little things, they will just stop moving in a cluster. once they decide it's not worth their time ... that should be the end of new ants coming in.

 

at least that's what happened in my case ... :)

Tx pug for letting me know

 

I was squashing them and leaving their bodies on display for all the other ants to see.

In my mind i was sending them a message but i dont think i got my point across clear enough [emoji2357]

I will try neem/kelp tea drench next

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Also with soil mix i got the clone in 250mm pot with 50/50 my own worm castings and compost.

 

Just wondering to keep the good bugs thriving if i repot in bigger pot and maybe add few ingredients i have laying around

 

aged horse manure and bokashi grains and some peat moss would that improve my current 50/50 castings compost mix?

After that maybe a feed of gogo juice?

 

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