Ants living in 5gal buckets? Removal?

[TacoMac]

Sprinkle a healthy dose of cayenne pepper on the soil. They'll move out in a quick hurry. Black pepper works, but not nearly as well as cayenne does.

After a couple days, mix up some vinegar and water 50/50 and spray all around your plants and pots and growing area. That'll keep them away. It stinks (both do, really) but it's the only truly natural way to get rid of them that I'm aware of that actually works.

You want to sprinkle the pepper first and give them a day or two to move out before you spray the vinegar all over the place, otherwise they'll hole up as best they can if you do it all at one time because they hate both badly.

 

[JSB99]

Sprinkle a healthy dose of cayenne pepper on the soil. They'll move out in a quick hurry. Black pepper works, but not nearly as well as cayenne does.

After a couple days, mix up some vinegar and water 50/50 and spray all around your plants and pots and growing area. That'll keep them away. It stinks (both do, really) but it's the only truly natural way to get rid of them that I'm aware of that actually works.

You want to sprinkle the pepper first and give them a day or two to move out before you spray the vinegar all over the place, otherwise they'll hole up as best they can if you do it all at one time because they hate both badly.

Great advice! I'd rather do that then wait to see if the ants are beneficial or destructive to my garden. Sorry @cannabineer, no offense. It just seems to make more sense, regardless of scientific data

 

[cannabineer]

Great advice! I'd rather do that then wait to see if the ants are beneficial or destructive to my garden. Sorry @cannabineer, no offense. It just seems to make more sense, regardless of scientific data

No worries. With so many species of ant out there, there is simply no saying if they help or hurt.

 

[Kushash]

I was thinking of it like @Odin*
I would look to see if the ants are climbing the trunk of the plant when the trunk is the only access they have to the leaves of the plant.
If they are climbing the trunk in good #'s they are likely farming aphids.

 

[TacoMac]

No worries. With so many species of ant out there, there is simply no saying if they help or hurt.

And that's it in a nutshell.

Ants are great for irrigation because when it rains their tunnels funnel water all over the place very effectively and they are by far the greatest aerators on the planet.

But if they happen to like the taste of whatever it is you're growing, well...yeah. Nuke 'em.

 

[conor c]

Idk about them directly but if the ants start farming aphids on your plants you will know all about it so yeah ants are bad in this case

 

[ErnieBlues]

Hey there i have a few plants out door in 5gal buckets and prob 3 feet tall looking nice and i had labels stuck in the dirt and the watering of rain etc pushed em down in the dirt so i was digging about 3-4 inches into dirty of the bucket to get the label back to the top so i know what plant im working with and i scooped my hand into a ant colony it freaked me out at first as there was crap load of ants all over my hand lol but they where tiny black ants.. what way is there to get rid of them if they come back or in the another buckets i have? I scooped them out of the one i found them in so there gone out of that one. Any help will be good!! Thanks!

Edit:
Also would they kill the plant or be a danger to my grow?

acid peeing ants on defence, you need ph up or down bro

may fuck shit up if there's 1000's of them

 

[ErnieBlues]

"Tunneling ants turn over as much soil as earthworms do, aerating the soil and redistributing nutrients. Ants are also part of the world recycling crew: acting as scavengers, collecting dead insects and turning them into fertilizer for your soil."

https://www.finegardening.com/article/ants-arent-your-enemy

"Ants collect seeds with elaiosomes, take them back to the nest, feed the elaiosomes to their larvae, and discard the undamaged seed on the nest’s waste heap."


watch your seeds

 

[DustyDuke]

I have ants in some of my plants pots. It’s all good apart from soil aerating ants eat insect eggs, good out ways the bad IMO. Of course there some ants that are bad but easy to tell good from bad.
The circled plants have had ants for 6 weeks. Probably my healthiest plants, about 4-5 weeks of flower to go btw.

 

[mannurse801]

Ants destroyed a few of my plants, but I got rid of them with mixing cinnamon and water and give a good soak. I saw no negative. They eat any and all carbs they find, along with organisms that produce sugar as byproducts. I am going by observation and self learning. They are aggressive home builders and roots needs stability... letting ants dig and burrow, build and excrete acidic byproducts on a colonial level MAY be harmful if they form their colony near or in your root system, but can be beneficial if they are just scavenging and eating other insects... like has been posted, honeydew is a love of theirs, so ants can indicate infestation or "food". From my experience 2 years ago, they destroyed my root system (colonized and damaged) It was a large colony, but it was rough.

Good luck with what you chose. If you want to rid them, cinnamon works.

 

[ChocoKush]

Ants destroyed a few of my plants, but I got rid of them with mixing cinnamon and water and give a good soak. I saw no negative. They eat any and all carbs they find, along with organisms that produce sugar as byproducts. I am going by observation and self learning. They are aggressive home builders and roots needs stability... letting ants dig and burrow, build and excrete acidic byproducts on a colonial level MAY be harmful if they form their colony near or in your root system, but can be beneficial if they are just scavenging and eating other insects... like has been posted, honeydew is a love of theirs, so ants can indicate infestation or "food". From my experience 2 years ago, they destroyed my root system (colonized and damaged) It was a large colony, but it was rough.

Good luck with what you chose. If you want to rid them, cinnamon works.

Yeah i put some on top of the dirt of all my plants outdoors and it rained the next day and looked to sowked it into the dirt. I dont see any anys running around on my plants before i found them, they all look healthy and fine but they where just living few inches in the dirty and found them living under the buckets aswell so hopefully this works!

 

[hotrodharley]

Hey there i have a few plants out door in 5gal buckets and prob 3 feet tall looking nice and i had labels stuck in the dirt and the watering of rain etc pushed em down in the dirt so i was digging about 3-4 inches into dirty of the bucket to get the label back to the top so i know what plant im working with and i scooped my hand into a ant colony it freaked me out at first as there was crap load of ants all over my hand lol but they where tiny black ants.. what way is there to get rid of them if they come back or in the another buckets i have? I scooped them out of the one i found them in so there gone out of that one. Any help will be good!! Thanks!

Edit:
Also would they kill the plant or be a danger to my grow?

Mix equal amounts of sugar with Borax. Non-toxic. They take it back to the colony where they share it and everyone explodes.

 

[mannurse801]

Mix equal amounts of sugar with Borax. Non-toxic. They take it back to the colony where they share it and everyone explodes.

Just not in the soil

 

[Aussieaceae]

My understanding is little black ants usually go where sweet things are. So if it's a rose bush, you'll more than likely have aphids. Can't comment on root aphids myself, haven't had them before.

Question might be, what's attracted them to your soil? Have you been supplementing sugar for your plants, such as molasses?

 

[hotrodharley]

Just not in the soil

No not in the soil. The plastic lids off coffee containers work great. Thanks for saying that. It’s not safe to assume. Tu eres enfermero?

 

[ChocoKush]

Question might be, what's attracted them to your soil? Have you been supplementing sugar for your plants, such as molasses?

Nope just old dirt from a hog pen that was in use over 10-15 years ago, really good looking dirt to use

 

[mannurse801]

No not in the soil. The plastic lids off coffee containers work great. Thanks for saying that. It’s not safe to assume. Tu eres enfermero?

Haha, nope... will change my location...

 

[jondamon]

Right. Meanwhile, the ants are “farming” root aphids and transporting them to “un-colonized” cannabis near by.

OP, I chimed in to suggest looking for the aphids that are likely there. If not, get rid of the ants because they will bring aphids (yes, literally carry aphids to your plants with the intent of aiding colonization). Aphids secrete a sweet substance (called “Honey Dew”) from their asses, ants love that shit.

Exactly this.

Ants farm Aphids.

They ants use the sweet sugary stuff that the aphids produce when feeding on plants.