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Ants all over my cantalope plant!

erikarose
July 26, 2010 11:52:22 AM PDT

My cantaloupe flowers are just producing cantaloupes that are still mostly really small, though one is the size of a baseball now. I noticed today ants all over the side of my raised bed and some of the branches of the cantaloupe plant that are near the edge. There are tons of ants. Any chance they will destroy the cantaloupes? Is it worth trying to get rid of the ants and if so, any suggestions how? Thank you!
JustinDervaes
- 30 posts
July 27, 2010 12:36:56 AM PDT

The real problem with ants is that they 'farm' aphids - moving and protecting aphids. Aphids are the ones that can damage plants. Sad to say it but you can never get rid of all of the ants. You can try using cinnamon as a barrier. Ants usually don't cross it.
erikarose
July 27, 2010 5:46:53 AM PDT

Thanks for your help- I will try that!
AlaskanDragonfly
July 30, 2010 12:11:39 PM PDT

Thanks Justin, for the cinnamon tip. I have been trying to find a way to keep them from crossing the front door threshold. I'll have to give it a try!
LeslieP
- 2 posts
August 1, 2010 5:12:44 AM PDT

I've had good luck using diatamaceous earth on the ants. It has to stay dry, though.
JamesNewton
- 15 posts
June 2, 2011 4:15:12 PM PDT

So what do you do for the Aphids that the ants are farming? My garden is suddenly over run with ants and covered in aphids.... it is truly shocking... I'm afraid I'm going to loose everything.
AndyPandy4
- 26 posts
June 7, 2011 1:05:59 PM PDT

James, I had the same problem a few years ago. I actually had so many ants, one of my beds looked like a beach from all the sand. I spread diatomaceous earth over the plants and soil, and outside the beds. I also put ant baits (the ones with liquid where they crawl inside) all around the box and areas of the yard. I started planting more flowers and herbs to attract good bugs, and haven't had an aphid problem since; although, we do have ants again this year, so I'm going to treat this week. Now, cucumber beetles - that's what I have a problem with! They destroy my squash every year.
JamesNewton
- 15 posts
June 7, 2011 6:20:29 PM PDT

Thanks Andy... I've got the liquid ant baits down now and they don't seem to be interested /at all/. I'm spraying neem oil like a mad man, and that seems to be helping a /little/. I'm going to try the diatomaceous earth, but I would love to know what you planted that attracted benificial bugs? We keep buying lady bugs, and letting a few go every night, but they don't seem to stay, and I NEVER see them on the aphid attacked plants, so I guess I need to find some other good bugs.
JamesNewton
- 15 posts
June 7, 2011 6:24:49 PM PDT

Not sure if this will work, but here is a link to a picture of one of my beds that is just being decimated by ants... the earth is damp, the plants in the background are drooping because they are /covered/ in aphids.

This post was edited by JamesNewton at June 7, 2011 6:28:13 PM PDT
AndyPandy4
- 26 posts
June 7, 2011 6:55:49 PM PDT

Hi James, I don't know if I can post a name here without a delete (got deleted once for "promoting", but if you go over to Little Homestead http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/ and scroll down to Justin's post "Pollen Nation", I posted info about my new bee mix flower bed, which also attracts beneficials. I also planted a ton of Nasturtium last year, which are said to deter aphids. Are you watering the garden before releasing your ladybugs? They will not stay if the garden is dry. I use ladybugs, too. For some reason, ladybugs seem to be laying their eggs in my young Rose of Sharon bushes, and my neighbors white pine, so I have lots of them that come naturally now. My sister swears by seaweed spray for both aphid and whitefly. I made some up last year and used it on my seedlings, but I cannot remember if I ended up using it as a foliar spray, as my sprayer was not working right last year, but that is worth a try, too. I noticed a lot of lacewing and wasps in my garden last year, so something I'm planting is attracting those - maybe it's the alyssum border?
AndyPandy4
- 26 posts
June 7, 2011 6:58:10 PM PDT

P.S. If your plants are drooping due to the aphids, I would water in the evening and release all the ladybugs at once. There is some type of "food" that will keep the ladybugs in the garden, too. Perhaps you could do a search and figure out a way of making a homemade concoction.
AndyPandy4
- 26 posts
June 7, 2011 7:03:35 PM PDT

P.S. Sorry - zinnia, evening sun sunflowers, marigolds, basil, and sage were part of my flower garden, too.
JamesNewton
- 15 posts
June 7, 2011 7:14:51 PM PDT

Thanks Andy. We have basil and sage, so I'll look into getting marigolds, zinnia, nasturtium, and maybe sunflowers... I'm not a fan of sunflowers, but what the heck huh? I really can't plant alyssum as the pollen just kills me... a gardener with hay fever... so sad. LOL...

I've heard on another forum that leaving banana peels in the garden drives aphids away? Sounds crazy but I'll try it.
AndyPandy4
- 26 posts
June 7, 2011 7:43:41 PM PDT

I'm not a fan of sunflower, either. The evening sunflowers are the medium head and they don't get as tall as the giants. They come in a mix of very pretty fall colors. I planted them in a grouping on both ends of my white picket fence, and had all the other flowers and herbs between them.

My nasturtium were planted on the ends of my raised beds, and I planted low nasturtum all the way around my raised bed of potatoes. The box that used to have all the ants had a HUGE flat-leaf parsley plant in it last year. Now that I'm thinking about it, I remember the plant attracted a ton of hoverfly (and black flies for some unknown reason). Check out this list.

http://www.dianeseeds.com/flowers/beneficial-insects.html

Good luck with the banana. I hope it doesn't attract anything you don't want! ;-)

This post was edited by AndyPandy4 at June 7, 2011 7:44:47 PM PDT
AndyPandy4
- 26 posts
June 9, 2011 6:53:26 AM PDT

James,
I just came across this video. The second half talks about ant control. http://www.5min.com/Video/Gardening--tomato-plants-4889
GreenThumbMama
- 7 posts
June 10, 2011 6:36:00 AM PDT

I've used cream of wheat type cereals on ants before. It sounds cruel, but they take it back down into their tunnels and feast on it, it expands inside their stomachs and they "explode". I have a huge ant problem in my watermelon bed this year. They even destroyed one of my plants at the root. I'm hoping the cereal will work this time!
JamesNewton
- 15 posts
June 14, 2011 1:29:04 PM PDT

Andy, that video is a hoot! Not sure if I'm going to try the vacuum cleaner bag thing, but I have put out borax and sugar both in the form of commercial liquid ant bait and now I will put it out in dry form as well. I'm trying to find something to put the dry stuff in that has a lid so it won't get all wet when I water or it rains. Thanks so much for sharing that!

The liquid ant bait seems to be reducing the ant population. I hate to kill the little beggars, but they can't be destroying my crops. I'm planning to plant some of the flowers you indicated in the future to see if that helps keep them away.

I also noticed that when I really deep water the raised beds, it seems to flood them out and they abandon ship, carrying their babies. I'm sure that doesn't help the population, so I'm doing it more often now.
AndyPandy4
- 26 posts
June 22, 2011 3:09:09 PM PDT

Hey GreenThumb, Exploding ants sounds like a fun science project to me! :-) lol jk, but hey if it works to keep they off the plants, I'm all for giving it a try. I have an old box that I'm going to use. Thanks for the suggestion.
AndyPandy4
- 26 posts
June 22, 2011 3:12:31 PM PDT

Hope things are shaping up for you, James. After spending more time in the garden the last two weeks, I see I'm going to have to get a bit more agressive with a new ant population. We have carpenter ants from an abandoned house behind, too. I keep seeing them on the fence. They have got to go!
JamesNewton
- 15 posts
June 22, 2011 5:22:13 PM PDT

So check this out: I had an old pallet in the garden that I was using to set pots and tools and things on so they wouldn't be down in the dirt, and it turns out the underside of the thing was a mega city of ants! Not as many in my garden now that I've pulled that out. I also used liquid ant baits, and power washed with the hose on a regular basis. They aren't /gone/ but they are under control again. I'm thinking about putting out dry borax and sugar in little covered containers to see if that does the job with less cost.

I wonder how far ants will go to get a meal? Are they coming all the way from that house or just living on some old wood closer to your garden?
AndyPandy4
- 26 posts
June 23, 2011 6:02:02 PM PDT

I'm not sure about regular ants, but carpenter ants will travel pretty far. I just got an email from Arbico. They are having a BOGO sale on beneficial nematodes. I'm going to order. They eat bad soil bugs, including ants. I used nematodes from a local store several weeks ago, but I'm still finding wire worm and some weird segmented thing I've never seen before, so I don't think they were any good. Hopefully, my next batch will be better.
Bull100
- 57 posts
December 21, 2011 7:51:37 PM PST

We use to worry about aphids and recently had a giant infestation of red spider mites. But I have found that if we interplant some herbs and plant our crop really intensivly the ladybugs will come to he rescue. I think that its a matter of planting enough so that you get something, the lady bugs get something and unfortunatly the bads may get some things. Last yearwe used nothing other than sprayfrom our waterhose to knock the aphida and spider mites off the plants but when the lady bugs came wehad no further troubles. For me its finding the strength to do very little

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