Will little piss ants hurt my geranium?
Question:I came home and there were piss ants all over my zonal geranium. I know a few ants wouldn't hurt it but there were TONS of them. Will it hurt the plant or do I need to get some of the spray to keep them away? HELP!!
Answers:
Although "piss ant" is not the real name of these common ants it describes them well. lol If you want to get rid of them without using poison that you buy for about a 100th of the cost here's how. Ants don't like being sprayed with water so fill a sprayer with water but add a few drops of dish soap they like that even less. After a couple times of getting doused they will pack up and move. And the soapy water is actually good for your plants I use this on all my plants and bushes and it works! Even for other bugs on vegtables. If you want them to stay out of your yard altogether put bone meal on the edges of your property they don't like the scratchiness of the bone meal and won't cross it.
I know or no cases of ants killing plants, although I'm sure that some place in the world it occurs.
It really depends on the ant. I am sorry but I have never heard of the "Piss Ant". Some ants can cause major damage to plants and some don't cause really any.
But a rule of thumb, ants are not beneficial to plants, so I would kill them.
Buy the good stuff here: http://www.PestProJoe.com
Baits will not harm your plant. Some products may contain oils so spraying your plants could hurt them.
Bifen was made for agriculture use. If you are spraying plants then go with Bifen.
By the way, the last guy needs to do a little research. Start with Carpenter Ants.
Check your Geranium for aphids - some ant species "herd" them like cattle. You can spray the plant with a little dish soap or murphy's oil soap and water. Also, if the plant is in a pot, pick it up to be sure no ants are building a nest in the pot. If you find they are, flush with water mixed with lemon juice.
You can try the soap thing, but that will not kill them so they will just move somewhere else, or come back in a few days. I have heard that rice cereal works. Supposedly the rice expands when they eat it and it kills them off.
In reality I think that professional baits are still the best. According to my bug guy, they have a delayed reaction so that they transfer to other ants, and to the queen and her eggs. Not sure how this works, but thats the bug guys story.
You can buy Maxforce (professional bait) for about $14, which I think is a good deal since the bug guy wants $40 a visit. Plus, you will probablly never run out of that, so $14 to be ant free is worth it in my book.
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