Are Ants Harmful to Plants In Containers?

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Shaigirl Auburntown, TN(Zone 7a) Jun 13, 2011

I recently noticed several of my containers are now housing ants farms. The bigger the pot, the bigger the mounds. I started using my Garden Safe insect killer to get rid of them, but hate spraying unless I absolutely have to. I'm wondering... are ants at all harmful to my plants (dahlias, iris, peony, etc)? Or can I just let them be?

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Jun 13, 2011

Most ants won't hurt plants (I think fire ants will munch on roots, but the black ants that like sweet stuff won't). However...if the ants are crawling all over your plants, I would take a close look and see if you have aphids or scale on the plants. Ants like the honeydew that aphids, scale, mealybugs, etc secrete so they will "farm" them. 99% of the time when I've found ants crawling on the plants, there's been a pest there too. The exception to this would be your peonies--ants will crawl up them even if there aren't any bugs, I think they like the nectar or something from the flowers (they aren't hurting anything).

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SoTX Karnes City, TX Jun 20, 2011

Sprinkle the soil with diatomaceous earth and they'll move on. Also, sometimes orange peels will deter them.

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