What to Do About Ants in Your Bonsai? Simple and Effective Removal Methods

Gardeners may often run into ant damage on their flowers when growing plants, especially potted flowers. So how do you control ants in potted flowers? Below are several methods for controlling ant damage for gardening enthusiasts.

How to control ants in potted flowers? When gardening enthusiasts are growing flowers, they may often run into ant damage on their flowers, especially potted flowers. So how do you control ants in potted flowers?

1. Eliminate the source of ants

Keep potted flowers away from ant nests. If you find ants already in the potting soil, first follow the ants' crawling route, find the ant nest, and destroy it by flooding with water, burning with fire, spraying pesticide, and other methods. Then sprinkle some lime on the ant nest and along the ants' crawling route to prevent the ants from causing harm again.

2. Physical control

1. When applying decomposed fertilizer, base fertilizer, or organic fertilizer, you must use organic fertilizer that has been fully fermented and decomposed. Never use raw fertilizer or half-decomposed fertilizer, to avoid attracting ants to forage.

2. Cleaning off the excrement of flies, moths, aphids, mites, and other insects remaining on leaf surfaces can easily attract ants to forage, so frequently spray and wash the leaf surfaces with clean water to keep them clean. At the same time, frequently sweep the ground and keep the potted flower care area clean and sanitary, to avoid odorous substances attracting ants.

3. Soaking in water to remove pests: Slowly place potted flowers already harmed by ants into a bucket filled with water and soak for 30 to 60 minutes. Ants cannot withstand flooding and will all crawl out of the potting soil. At this point, you can eliminate the ants floating on the water surface and crawling on the stems and leaves of the potted flowers.

4. Garlic to repel pests: Peel garlic, mash it, and bury these fragments into the potting soil. Ants cannot withstand the fumigation of garlic odor and will flee on their own.

5. Repotting to eliminate: For plants that have already built nests at the roots, the most effective method is to repot them in a water tank and eliminate all the ants. Then wash the plant roots and cultivate the potted flowers with disinfected new potting soil.

3. Chemical control

1. Potting soil disinfection: Before potting or repotting, disinfect the potting soil with agents such as 40% formalin, 65% zineb powder, and 50% carbendazim powder to kill termites, ants, and their eggs in the potting soil.

2. Burying medicated soil: Mix 1 part of 50% trichlorfon wettable powder with 50 parts of sifted fine soil to make medicated soil, then bury the medicated soil into the potting soil at equal distances to eliminate ants.

3. Pouring medicinal liquid: For plants that should not be repotted due to hot weather, for which burying medicated soil has no obvious effect and which are severely damaged, or for plants where ants have already built nests in the potting soil, use 10 grams of 50% phoxim emulsifiable concentrate mixed with 500 to 1000 grams of water, or use 1000 grams of clean water mixed with 5 to 10 grams of 40% dimethoate emulsifiable concentrate to prepare a medicinal liquid. Pour the medicinal liquid into the potting soil and the places where there are ants, then seal the entire flower pot with a plastic bag for 12 hours, which can kill all the ants.

Termites and ants are very harmful to potted flowers. They not only bore into the stems, but also damage the plant's root system, causing the plant's ability to absorb and transport nutrients and water to weaken, ultimately leading to poor growth, wilting, and even death of the plant. So gardening enthusiasts must pay attention to prevention and control.

Beginner gardeners do not know the harm ants do to flower growing, and just think they should not hurt them. In fact, they are a major enemy of flower growing! Ants will tend aphids, scale insects, and others, and will carry pests from one plant to another (otherwise, did you think they could fly?)

Ants like the excrement of aphids and scale insects (it is honeydew to them), so they help pests harm plants. Therefore, friends who grow flowers should remove ants as soon as they see them. You can sprinkle some soaked citrus water (lemon is the most effective) beside the flower pot to prevent ants from invading.

Below are the 4 simplest methods:

1. Soaking in clean water

First prepare a large basin with clean water, then completely soak the potted plant in the water. The water must submerge the flower pot. Soak for 20 minutes, then lift out the flower pot. In this way, the ants will all drown.

2. Poisoning with pesticide

Pesticide shops and agricultural product stores sell some ant poisons (just like rat poison). Ants will die after eating it. Buy some and place it where ants appear or along the paths they travel.

3. Watering with soapy water

This method requires your plants to grow strong and be able to withstand the disturbance. Mix soapy water with water, dilute 500 times, then pour it into the soil. Leave the flower pot for 30 minutes, then water with clean water. Repeat several times, and you can clean the ants in the flower pot thoroughly. It is also very effective against other small crawling insects in the soil.

Be careful to control the amount. If the plant grows weakly, do not do this.

4. Spraying with pesticide

Go to a pesticide shop and directly buy household pyrethroid insecticides for killing insects, such as the common Miehailing. Spray it directly where ants appear and in the flower pot. The advantage is that it is simple and quick; the disadvantage is that it cannot completely eliminate them, and it cannot kill the ones in the soil either.

Household flower growing often causes ant damage. Ants not only affect the growth of flowers and trees, and even cause flowers and trees to die, but also damage furniture and contaminate food, bringing many troubles to flower growers. Below are several simple prevention and control methods:

1. Soil replacement method

If you grow only a small number of flowers and discover ant damage early, you can immediately carry out a thorough soil replacement to completely eliminate the ants. The method is to thoroughly replace the original soil containing ants and their eggs with fresh soil. The replacement soil must be thoroughly disinfected, and can only be used after checking that there are indeed no ant eggs. Before putting new soil into the flower pot, wash it carefully. The replaced soil should be treated promptly with insecticide. After replacing the soil, the place where the flower pot is placed should be sprayed with Miehailing or other insecticides.

2. Pesticide spraying method

If there are relatively many ants and their range of activity is relatively wide, during the peak activity period of ants in summer and autumn, you can use Miehailing to spray and kill ants on the surface of the potting soil and around the flower pot. Be careful that the medicinal liquid must not spill onto the flowers and leaves. Generally, once every 5 days, spraying continuously 5 times can control the harm of ants.

3. Medicine planting method

If ants are found in the flower pot soil, you can bury an appropriate amount of veterinary trichlorfon tablets into the soil in the ant nest and around the ant nest. According to the size of the flower pot, generally 5-8 tablets are suitable. Then water thoroughly every day, and after 7 days the ants in the pot can be killed.

4. Trap-killing method

At a place 20 cm beside the flower pot where ants are found, use a small piece of pig skin or chicken bone for trap-killing. Do not put any medicine into the trap bait. Generally, after the meat skin or chicken bone is placed for 2-3 hours, it will be discovered by ants. To carry the food, the ants will turn out in full force. At this time, use Miehailing to spray and kill them. Trap-kill once every 10 days, and the ants can gradually be eliminated.