Ants eating my stalks at the soil line - HELP

[doug bland]

When watering yesterday I noticed a couple ants on the stems of my 3' girls and then saw they are eating groves in the side of the stalks. Anyone had this before? So, if I kill off all the ants will the plants recover even though the stalks are 20% missing material?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[MonsterOG]

Ive used grits with a lot of success before. I try not to use chemicals to spray on the plants. Sprinkle grits around your stalks and see how effective that is. Im sure it works different for different types of ants. But they should eat it and take it back to the queen ant. Which the srits should in turn swell up inside of her killing her and thus the colony. But you should be spraying neem oil throughout the plants life to help conbat this.

Have a great season!

 

[doug bland]

Ive used grits with a lot of success before. I try not to use chemicals to spray on the plants. Sprinkle grits around your stalks and see how effective that is. Im sure it works different for different types of ants. But they should eat it and take it back to the queen ant. Which the srits should in turn swell up inside of her killing her and thus the colony. But you should be spraying neem oil throughout the plants life to help conbat this.

Have a great season!

Thank you sir,

We tried cayenne pepper and nem oil mix and brushed it on the affected areas on the stalk. We also took ajax and lined a ring of it around each 100 gallon smart pot.

Anyone know if the plants will be able to regenerate itself where these little bastards chewed the stalk?

Thanks

 

[nuggs]

I use borax and sugar. 50/50 mix along the foundation of my house and it takes care of the ants in my kitchen. don't think the stalk will regenerate but if the limbs don't show any problems you should be ok after you deal with the ants. get tree tar and cover the damaged areas.

the ants like the sugar and they take the borax along with the sugar to the nest and it kills them. make a solid thick line around the planter, works right away. they love it and its deadly.

 

[dirtsurfr]

Draw a heavy circle around your pots using chalk the ants won't cross over it.

 

[carsick]

Damn that sucks, effin ants.....good luck bro, pot plants are pretty hardy so I think u should be fine once u kill all them little bastards...

 

[MonsterOG]

Thank you sir,

We tried cayenne pepper and nem oil mix and brushed it on the affected areas on the stalk. We also took ajax and lined a ring of it around each 100 gallon smart pot.

Anyone know if the plants will be able to regenerate itself where these little bastards chewed the stalk?

Thanks

The Ajax seems pretty harsh... I have never heard of that before. I think i wozld try to remove the Ajax somehow. The residue that it will leave CANT be good for plants! There are alternatives that will not damage the earth that will surley take care of those pesky ants!
The Borax and sugar would probably be a easy safe alternative.

And keep spraying your neem. Dont get lazy with it! Your plants will build up a natural defense with the neem to fight off most bug that could potentialy be life threatning to the plant. Neem is really liquid gold! I love the Einstien Oil brand. Ive been using it forever now. Really good stuff.

Your plants stalk will kind of rengenerate itself. It will grow a calus skmilar to scar tissue (or exactly like scar tissue) and will be tougher tham before. Just make sure you get rid of the Ants before they start to do enough damage to slow growth or even kill the plants.

Good luck!

 

[jamboss]

I use sevins with good results.

 

[ricky1lung]

Cornstarch kills ants.

 

[azryda420]

I'd get some malathion or triazicide and spray the top of the soil. Bye bye ants.

 

[azryda420]

I think you can put "Tanglefoot" around the bottom of the stem. It's sticky as hell and ants wont cross it. If they do they become stuck. You should be able to get Tanglefoot at home depot. It comes in a dish the size of sour creme. Keep it away from kids.