Ants in my Plants!

[Orchid Bear]

Hi,
I watered my orchids today giving them a good long drink, and suddenly out of a 6" pot ... hundreds of tiny little ants where escaping the flood. The orchid seems to be doing ok, but I really am creeped out by the tiny ants all over the shelf... suggestions please? I dumped ground red pepper all over the plant shelf thinking it would at least contain the ants, but they marched right through it as if they were wearing tiny combat boots!

I found your forum using a google search for ants in orchids.. PLEASE advise... I've got the willies from the ants!
Thanks,
Orchid Bear

[fred]

hi and welcome to the forum

i hope that you enjoy your stay here with us

how many orchids do you own ?

what sort of orchids do you have ?

we would love to see some pics

[robb]

hello, welcome to orchidgeeks!

do you know what kind of ants they are? common ant controls are basically just poisons, are those safe to use on your orchids, pets won't get into them, etc?

[sandra]

OB: I just, a moment ago re-posted from an old thread the same exact problem here with my orchids. I'm on my way out today to buy Bayer Advance Rose and Flower Spray. I've noticed that the humidity and rain bring them back. Look for my post "Being Invaded....." You'll find solutions there. Unfortunately, this is something you need to always stay on top of. It's not a one-time solution but maintainence that you'll need to continuously give.

[janet_a]

someone on here (mike?) suggested terro ant traps--they seem to be doing it for me.

http://www.terro.com/liquidbait.php

however, the ants don't seem to deliver much--they seem to crawl in and die.

but that's ok by me, since there are far fewer of them than there have been in the past.

[fred]

Being invaded by pests....lots of pests

ask and you will recive

[Orchid Bear]

Wow, so friendly and so quick to reply. Aren't you all so nice! Well, I have only about a half dozen orchids, I thought I'd try a new as of yet unexplored branch of horticulture. It was a rough start as my mail-ordered plants arrived in sub-zero temps. I lost one, but the others seem to be muddling through. I have attached several photos although hardly competition quality!
Unfortunately I couldn't figure out the whole photo attachment thing, so here's the link if you want to go look at the pictures on the web album:....

ok I understand the anti spam rule so no link, but if you went to Picasaweb dot google dot com forward slash Black.Brook.Bungalow you could find the orchid geeks request album and see the photos there.

As for the ants... Tiny... is all I can say, but I photographed them for your entomological pleasure.

I prefer to use organic pest control methods... (I don't want to lose any remaining neuro-transmitters!)

Thanks for being so pleasant

[sandra]

OB, I just finished spraying my plants with the Bayer that I mentioned previously. Whenever you keep plants, especially outdoors, it's just part of the maintenance in preventing a host of potential problems. I looked on your site and those are not what invaded my plants. Just spray and keep your puppy and Emma away while you do so!

P.S. They're both very cute especially, Emma!

[palito]

a change of location and more frequent watering is all that's needed to force the ants to relocate. hanging the pot high and watering it frequently should do the trick.

[flaorchidfan]

moving the plants wont help. i built a nice shelf and moved all my orchids across the porch. the little suckers are using it like a giant antfarm-they are crawling on the PVC, the fencing, the plants, pots, and screen. water...not so much in the helping department either. flood my vandas and related several times daily-and nothing. they are still there. they are about 1 to 1 1/2 mm in length with darker heads than bodies. and OB is right, they dont appear to be doing any harm, but i still dont like them. might try a few traps high enough from the dogs and give the rest ot the area a good spray. I am not using all my neurotransmitters anyway.