ants!
Caz28
Posts: 3
just starting out on my first garden so not very knowledgable. Can anyone tell me why i've got ants crawling all over my redcurrant plant, its in a pot. no other potted plants seem to be affected. and what can i do about it?
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It also must be said that ants don't really do any harm to anything - I read once that there are 41/2 tons of ants oer person on the planet - and when I lived in Africa they were all in my kitchen!!! They can loosen roots in a potted plant, just give it a really good soak and they will move on - all slabs and walls are full of them, let 'em be tends to be my way of dealing with them.
Everytime I've found ants on my redcurrents I've also had aphids on them. The ants farm them as Verdun says - they harvest their waste (a sugar rich liquid called honeydew).
The ants shouldn't cause a problem. The aphids can cause blistering and distortion of your leaves which might look unpleasant but doesn't really affect the crop so I have never worried about them.
I heard on gardeners question time that someone put oats down for the ants to eat,it expands in their stomach and kills them.apparently!?
Must have misheard-that is for slugs-dont think ants are that keen on porridge
Ants are more of a problem than a pest-learn to live with them-not going round killing everything just because they are a nuisance
Last year my husband accidently dug into an ants nest they were up his arms and legs in no time. He was poisoned by bites ... so do beware they can nip
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thanks everyone - i'll take the kind approach and not kill them, general consensus is they won't do the plant any harm, and probably doing some good!
I advise you reading this blog post if you really want to get rid of ants anywhere in your house or in your garden:
http://blog.hygienesuppliesdirect.com/pest-control/ant-infestation/