Outdoor ANTS!!!

[GanjiBC]

Lady bugs are awesome! And not very expensive either. A friend of mine uses them to control spider mites in his indoor grow rooms. They are highly sensitive to insecticides so if anyone plans on using them its best that no insecticides have ever been sprayed on those plants! On a side note, lady bugs (also know as ladybird beetles) are beetles and not a true bug. True bugs have a very visible triangle on their back. Just thought people might find that interesting!

 

[BUSHDOKTER]

No prob...
Forgot to say they don't like peppermint either...either put leaves around your plants or live plants..I use to use the essential oil..either by puttin it on caps with other oil and the smell of it they go somewhere else...

Now for the lady bug route...I would say NO IME....I had a infestation of ants making a aphid n white fly farm on a couple of my plants..and they were killing them...so I ordered 3000 lady bugs...put them on 3 of the plants at night so they could eat the aphids and not fly away as its dark...Mind I didn't really notice it was infested with ants at the time just the other bugs..placed them on the plants and the lady bugs went to work..great...went inside to put some LB's that was left in the fridge came back on the porch hmm 5min later to see how their. Doing....and my plants were Black....covered with ants...Someone on those bastards rang the alarm and all the ants came out to defend their aphid,white fly colony...and they were attacking the lady bugs...as it was at night and they don't fly to much then and the tens of thousands of ants they had no chance. They killed just about all of the LB in no time dragging them by the legs gang style..horrible to see..I've also seen the same thing with praying mantis seeds that I had on another plants after they hatched...ants came out to attack them I was able to save some but they killed the most of em...long story short...NO to lady bugs and ants...

I would maybe try Nematodes I think this is what their called think they don't kill the reg ant but kill the babies that after effect the colony...ants won't eat them as there smaller etc...

 

[MaGiKaL]

Ahhhh, ok... I was hoping to nip in the bud so to speak before they pop up out of the ground.. If I get them in there now, they should alleviate the problem before any problem arises, no?

Great info about the peppermint also! I had no idea and will be using that one also methinks

 

[X]

Don't use Borax. It kills ants and plants.

Peppermint oil is good. My first suggestion would be to stick bay leaves about halfway into the mix, surrounding the plant. Ants don't like them either.

I have used lady bugs. They are definitely predators but, if you release a couple thousand outside, you won't be able to find more than a dozen or two a couple days later and, if you had have a sever infestation, your problem remains unsolved, based on my experience with them. Indoors, you can control that better. Ladybugs will stay in a live dormant state in the fridge for at least a couple weeks... mine have.

DE is effective controlling ants, but only when in a dry, dusty state, based on my experience.

 

[skrewg314]

You could always circle the ant hill or wherever tbey are entering with ground cinnamon, ants hate it and wont cross it. Also cream of wheat is a nice viscious way to stop the lil beasts, they eat it and explode. Both have worked well for me

 

[GoAuto6]

And white, try a white powder ring around it they wont cross it...