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The Corroboree
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Salvia and ants..

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Hi im looking for advice,

Periodically i watch a salvia plant slowly die to ants making nests in the hollow stalk. The tip dies and slowly works its way back. The inside full of ants and eggs.

Any suggestions on how to stop this happening??

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why does it die?

i think if you can make it stop dying the ants won't have any place to lay their eggs in

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Sorry, if i was vague, but the plants dies because of the ants...

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Do they appear to be a different ant type to what you usually find about the place DB?

 

 

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I've never seen this! How do they get into the stalk? 

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I've waged a similar war, not with a salvia but another fast growing ethno genus that can be hollow. Its was terrible, it ended up destroying the plants... I used a combination of pyrethrum spray (which i mixed from the oil, not a bought spray and i sprayed every other day) and diatomaceous earth. The D.E  is only effective until it gets wet though so its not so useful on plants that require a lot of watering/humidity... 

I think the preventative method is better then a curative though.... If its the only one you've got, spray with pyrethrum, wait a day then bare-root it and re pot it into fresh soil (hopefully its in a pot), and create a moat around the bottom of the pot with water (like stand the pot up on a brick inside a container of water so that they can't get to the pot...)....

 

Good luck, it did my head in for a few months... 

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I've never seen this! How do they get into the stalk? 

 

They eat and climb their way in through a node point, where the leaves or branches shoot from.....

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Are they potted or in the ground? I would be thinking about a border to keep them out. Maybe diatomaceous earth or citrus essential oil?

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db i reckon go scifi on it.

cut the whole bit that is ant infected and stick the length in a pot or ground(depending where it lives) right next to the mother salvia.

scifi man, do a control group setting.

take more cuts, do a chant or two.

 

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