What Happens When Ants Take Over Your Garden?
There is little more relaxing than sitting outside at the end of a hard day at work. As someone who takes great pride in their garden, it is understandable to be infuriated this time of year as you notice intensive ant activity on your plants. As autumn approaches, ants are busy eating everything in sight so they can hibernate over winter like a bear. Ants are quite the problem when they invade a garden, so it is timely to learn the reason why and understand what you can do about it.
Reasons Not to Ignore Garden Ants
The first reason not to ignore ants on plants is that they attract other pests such as beetles, flies, spiders and caterpillars. This is because an ant is a regular food source for these insects. The caterpillar, in particular, is a nuisance because after it has eaten the ant, it is going to start attacking the leaves of your plant. The next thing you know you have both ants and caterpillars which need to be controlled.
Secondly, ants attack other insects, such as worms, which disrupts the ecological cycle taking place out in your garden. Worms, for example, move through the dirt beneath your plants. These dirt holes distribute water and air to the roots of your plants. This keeps them healthy and actively growing, so it is important that ants remain in the soil.
How to Control Ants
There are a number of ways to keep the ants off your plants. Firstly, move potted plants to a bench, wall, or other elevated position and then surround the plant pot with a sticky insecticide purchased at the hardware store. Since ants cannot fly and they cannot get over the sticky barrier, your plants are protected.
Next, call pest control to come out and spray the back garden with an ant insecticide. The first step is to identify what type of ant is taking over your garden. Once the pest controller has done that, then they search for the ant colony. The ant colony is located by looking for small mounds of dirt either in your lawn or within your garden beds. An insecticide which is effective against your ant variant is poured into the colony to kill the ants within.
Don't allow ants to destroy your lovingly cared for garden. Give an ant pest controller a call now and arrange for them eliminate the ants so that your plants do not die over winter from damage inflicted by these annoying insects.