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Ants in pot help guide

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Hello. Recently I have found out that I have a ant problem in my dwarf nectarine pot. I did some research and I successfully got rid of them. I thought I would like to share what I found out and ways to get rid of them.
As you may know ants in pots can be a nightmare. They will chew through roots and make the soils hard and sandy. The main problem is though that unlike a patio ant problem you can’t pour boiling water down the pot as this would kill the plant. My first idea was to drench the plant with ordinary water and ants poured out but alive. I also felt stupid when I looked on the net and found out they can live in water for several days! So a fail.
One of the techniques you can use is to put the pot up-to it’s rim in water in a tray to drown the nest. This was not an option fro me though as nectarines hate standing in water.
So again I did more research. To kill ants you must kill the queen it said so I looked on a web page about mixing water with ant powder and watering the base of the plant with it. This was a recommended technique but still I couldn’t help thinking about poisoning the plant.
Finally, I found out about bait stations. I had one in the shed and put it on the gravel in the pot. Ants were all over it Immediately.e
The point of this is for the ants to share the poisoned bait with other ants and eventually the queen. The next day I
have not spotted a single ant. You must keep these bait stations dry though as if wet it won’t work. So move it while watering. Leave it out for three weeks depending on activity. As inn three days the queen will be dead but it will take two to three weeks to eliminate the colony. Good luck and hope this helps.

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Comments

 

Thats useful info thanks for sharing it.

21 May, 2011

 

Good idea! I hate ants!

- regular use of ant spray around pots and bases of plants works too but possibly not as effectively!

22 May, 2011

 

Right aswell it does help. Thanks for the comments.

22 May, 2011

 

Thanks for this blog. I have had problems with ants in tubs in the past. I will know what to do now if it happens again :o)

23 May, 2011

 

My friend was telling me she had to get rid of a plant yesterday because of ants, I will let her know your advice for the future:)

23 May, 2011

 

Glad the blog helped

28 May, 2011

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