Ants

[Rosalind]

OK, I just cleaned up a whole friggin' swarm of ants out of the kitchen--DH left some food out, and hadn't done any dishes in a couple of days. This shall not happen again, and I am going to put boric acid and/or DE in the floorboard cracks on Saturday when I can get to the hardware store.

These were a LOT of ants. We're talking, I sprayed the countertop with disinfectant, wiped it with a wad of papertowels, and got a whole handful of ants, which proceeded to leap off the papertowels in outrage and bite me.

They appear to be the ubiquitous Little Black Ants, about 2-3mm long. Not carpenter ants. We don't get fire ants here, and anyway, these were black.

Will these horrible things kill my plants? I heard that ants can do that, if they are especially hungry. I think they are living mostly in the patio and coming in the house for dinner. Also, just about every insecticide that kills ants also kills bees, which obviously I don't want.

Help!

 

[silkiechicken]

I've never had ants kill a plant, however, I do have little black ants with red heads that come up and tend their aphid farms on my roses. I just squirt down the aphids with soap water and it goes away, and any residual I put on any lady bug I find out in the field on the plant.

 

[patandchickens]

I find that ants (outdoors) do a good job against mealybugs, when you put your houseplants outdoors for the summer, if that makes you feel any better

I cannot think how ants could kill a houseplant without actually making their nest in its pot, which you would notice and could deal with. I suppose leafcutter ants would be a problem but I think you're probably safe there

Clove oil does a reasonable job of repelling ants from a small specific area, if you are extra concerned. Put a 'barrier' of it around your plants. Has to be renewed regularly of course.

House ants in a northern winter is a little weird - I wonder if you have a bag o' grass seed in the garage, or a dead mouse or three in the walls, that they've been living on?

Good luck,

Pat

 

[Rosalind]

Pat, there are any number of places and things the ants can be living on in my house. My only comfort is that nothing smells bad, just somewhat attic-y, therefore it's probably not a dead animal. The house was built in 1719, out of the original old growth hardwood forest that once stood here. Most of it stands on a 12" crawlspace over clay. Innumerable nests of chipmunks and shrews reside in the crawlspace; when they periodically invade the living quarters, our cats lay the smackdown. There is very little insulation in the house, so we are effectively heating the house, the crawlspace, the patio and half of Massachusetts. There are 1/4" gaps between every beautiful 12-18" wide floorboard, which could feasibly contain entire ant farms.

I think they've mostly been eating leftover dry cat food, actually--we didn't have this mad overpopulation until we switched to a new cat food and DH went on a dishwashing strike. It's either that or birdseed spilled from the feeder by the patio.

I read that ants can eat new plant roots if they are extra-voracious or something, thereby killing seedlings. Don't want to start my precious tomato seedlings and then get them all killed by Them!