How do I get rid of ants in my blueberry plants?
Question:I don't want the fruit to become toxic from ant poison. I also have lettuce planted near them. Will ant poison make my greens toxic?
Answers:
You can always add something around the base of the plants to slow or dissuade the ants... but they'll eat or bypass anything natural. Any chemicals will show-up in your fruits & veggies for sure. Maybe a little-plastic upside umbrella-like device (make one) around the base, so the ants can't grip and climb, then fall-off and give up?
My advice: Go inside and busy yourself, and you'll forget all about them... there's no problems or reason to fret because you saw ants on your blueberry bushes. Not only are the plants used to this - but there's nothing wrong or toxic about it. The ants will not take-away your blueberries -- if they could/did, there wouldn't be any blueberries in muffins or pancakes. There might be one/two berries broken or open -- and maybe that's your solution.. to remove those few. They're sipping the sweetness, as they would a peony bulb before it opens -- and there's little problem there. Any spray you ultimately consume. Stay cool; take it easy; relax.
Ants in the plants, that's a tough one.
You can put bait boxes around the base of the plants. The ants go in get some of the bait and take it back to the hill. This kills the whole colony. And it won't hurt the bluberries.
Also, ants hate cinnamon, you could prinkle cinnamon ground up around the blueberries and lettuce to keep the ants away.
I had major ant trail along the edge of my deck. I learned the natural way to kill them is to [cover well!] a dish of dry grits. The ants eat them in their homes and they expand in their stomachs and kill 'em. Seems to work, but in the NW the weather is so moist that it's hard to keep dry grits out. Good luck.
Soap is toxic to ants. So just mist with water with a little liquid dishsoap--not too much soap. Do it for 2 or three days--if you have ants, they are probably after something like honeydew which is caused by scale or aphids on your berry plant. Check the plant out for tiny little crusty patches on the back of the leaves. If that's the problem and you get rid of the ants, scale can't transport itself and they, too, will die.
leave the ants alone they are cross pollinating the blueberries
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