How to prevent your pot from becoming an ant farm?

[Meditator]

I have recently re-potted a plant into a larger pot and am worried about the ants.

The last thing i grew (it was a prickly pear of types, not the usual green with yellow hairs but green with white. It was large and ugly af) in it ended up dying from dehydration and becoming A FUCKING ANT FARM. There was almost no soil.. there was more ant than soil when i tipped it. Now that ive got thee pot back and the ants out.. they want to come back?! What do I do guys?

I mean circling the pot with ant sand doesnt sound the best..

Any help would be greatly appreciated.. this plant is just too precious to let die.

[incognito]

Kill the ants

[incognito]

Water more frequently when u notice ant activity in pot add some pyrethrum to water in a watering can and blast them

[rigger]

Guess you could try ant rid if the nothing else works. seems to work better than dust if I have ant problems

[2XB]

i put plants that i specifically dont want ants in on top of a upside down pot inside a bucket of shallow water. ie create a moat.

works but not practical for doing all of your pots...

Also adding Cinnamon powder to your water / liquid fert will discourage them too... not the most cost effective way but maybe you could create a liquid concentrate from cinnamon to make it go further, something im on the cusp of trying.

[LokStok]

ive been having ant problems in my pots as well, the main issue being that they insist on farming meally bugs.

I'm just beginning trialling Diatomaceous Earth, using both fine & course in the bottoms of the pots and on the soil surface.

I'll post here how effective it turns out to be in few weeks.

[Meditator]

Ok thanks for the replies.

The moat idea actually sounds quite genius lol. When you say cinnamon do you mean true cinnamon or cassia? They have similar chemical makeup but cassia is more spicey due to something being many times more present than in cinnamon. I would actually think too much cassia may be bad for a plant, cinnamon on the other hand probably wouldnt i would think.

[Meditator]

I think im gonna put both cassia and cinnamon along with catnip and a bit of brandy into a bottle and spray them at their hiding place then bomb them with garlic and cinnamon.. that should do it.

[bullit]

surface flyspray

[coolname]

Ant sand underneath all of your pots works well. I was losing the war against ants for a while before I used ant sand

[quarterflesh]

You stoll my idea

[coolname]

Quarterflesh I did indeed

[Sallubrious]

I've tried cinnamon, ant sand and borax and none of them did anything. I used that much cinnamon one time that hundreds of ants were coated in cinnamon, it didn't discourage them in any way whatsoever. After a while the ants started to collect the cinnamon and take it down into the potting mix, I'm sure they use it as a food source. I think using cinnamon to stop ants is one of those regurgitated bullshit internet tips that gets circulated by people who have never tried it - like the one about using crushed eggs shells to stop snails.

I never tried sitting the pots directly on ant sand as suggested above but the way I water my plants I reckon it would be gone after one or two waterings.

Before I put the floor down for my greenhouse I sprinkled heaps of borax around the entire area and even mixed it into the concrete and as far as I can see it did nothing. I've been sprinkling diatomaceous earth mixed with borax around lately and I seem to have fewer ants but that could just be a seasonal change.

The only way I can stop the bastards is when I grow a plant in a passive hydroponic setup very similar to what Doublebenno suggested with the moat idea.

[2XB]

Ive had success with cinnamon, I dont directly place powder on the soil or ants but brew it up in water ie let it sit in water for a few days stirring it up etc.. I water it in and it works. But regular re apply is needed. Also try spraying them with a spray bottle of it and watch them scatter.

Never tried cassia meditator.

[AndyAmine.]

What about a good dose of H202?
I imagine it would kill them, at the least it would make them very unhappy.....

Or how about steam?
If you have one of those steamer things for shirts, pump some of that through the soil/

[CLICKHEREx]

Get a larger, waterproof container.

Put the plant in it, and fill with water to the top of the pot for at least 15 mns to drown the ants.

You may have to do this regularly.

Alternatively, make a torus (doughnut) out of 2cm or thicker plastic hose, large enough to fit the rim, and slice off the top. Seal to the rim with silicone, etc. and fill with oil, creating a barrier the ants can't cross (I had to invent this for outdoor growing in Darwin, for Mastotermes Darwiniensis, a large termite species).

If they can enter from drainage holes, repot, covering holes with stainless steel, or fine plastic mesh, or finely crushed gravel.

Ants either excavate, or bulldoze soil, but can't cope with gravel of a certain size, specific to the species of ant.

[CLICKHEREx]

Or use commercial ant poison, or make your own from borax and honey with a little hot water, first, to dissolve the borax.

They feed the queen; it dies, and the other ants as well, but it can take a few days.