Question about ants in my plants

[Martha15]

I had to re-pot some of my plants. They had gotten too big for the container they were in. As I was breaking the plants apart, I noticed these small black ants coming out of the planter, not a lot but some. I also notice these small white things, possible ant eggs close to the roots of each plant. I washed them off & cleaned out some of the soil around the roots. And then put them in new containers.

The plants were sitting on rocks & I could see more ants when I went to put the plants back in the same location. So I put the plants in a different location in the same area. I also noticed that some of the new growth on the Bunny Ears were dying & the Parodia Concinna was showing yellow areas between the a couple of the ribs, which is why I decided to re-pot them in separate containers. I thought maybe they didn't have enough room.

My question is, will those ants kill or harm my plants? I do have other plants in the same area as well.

Sorry, I didn't think to take any pictures before rinsing them away.

Thanks in advance.

Plants & container where ants were found.

BrainPlanter.jpg (44.71 KiB) Viewed 1716 times

Area where plants are.

Bike Planters.jpg (75.07 KiB) Viewed 1716 times

[DaveW]

Generally speaking ants do not directly harm the plants unless as in your case they make a nest in the pot. In that case they often chew off the feeding roots if they enter the nest or remove soil from around them to construct the nest and the plant does not thrive. I had the same thing happen with an Echinocereus stramineus in my centre bed when ants decided to move in under it, they also kept burying it with the soil they excavated from under it's roots, therefore it never thrived. When I potted it up it immediately grew and flowered. I was then able to kill the ants nest in the bed.

Though ants normally do not harm the plants they do "farm" mealy bugs and aphids on the plants for their honeydew therefore protecting them and so are undesirable for this reason. However ants taking honeydew from the gland spines on Ferocactus etc probably do no damage, providing they re not farming mealy bugs on the plant at the same time.

http://blog.wildaboutants.com/2009/10/1 ... -and-ants/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkmguqZrBpI" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Martha15]

Just checked the plants, the Brain & the Bunny Ears are ant free but the Parodia Concinna has ants on it. Any way to discourage them from invading my plant? I know ants are beneficial but not when they might damage my plants. Oh one of the new buds did open today so I guess that is a good sign that it didn't go into too much shock when re-potting it.

thanks,

[DaveW]

You can usually get ant killer powders to sprinkle in a circle around the base of the pots and other liquid ant killers from garden centres or DIY stores. Don't put them on the plants themselves though or the soil in the pots. Just read the instructions on how to use. Many work on ants ingesting them and carrying them back to the nest to feed the others and kill the colony:-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keyw ... 9qmjtbjv_e" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Martha15]

Alright.

Thanks

[MrPintxo]

Put the pot in a bucket and fill the bucket with water until it covers the whole pot (up to the base of the plants) and leave it there for 1-2 hours.

[Martha15]

I didn't see any ants today when I watered the plants but some if the Rib edges are still yellowish.