Ants in, under and around two plant containers on my patio

happycottontail · July 2020

Last summer I had ants in one of these containers and tried several different ways to get rid of them humanely, but nothing seemed to deter them. This year they seem to be in both containers (see pics), so, as a last resort, I bought a pack of 2 Home Defence Ant Stop! Killer Bait Stations. Although I have removed the dead foliage, the tulip bulbs are still in the containers. Now I need some advice from you lovely people who have dealt with ant problems before, and especially from any who have used these bait stations before (or something similar).
Should I leave the bulbs in situ until the ants have gone?
Any tips about using the bait stations?
Thank you in advance!

happycottontail

josusa47 · July 2020

What harm are they doing? Can't you leave them be?

micearguers · July 2020

We have lots of ants in the garden, some in pots. Yesterday morning I spotted two green woodpeckers! It's a lot more fun trying to work with the natural world rather than against it. Move the bulbs, move the pots, or stop worrying about it.

happycottontail · July 2020

Thank you for your comments Josusa47 and Miceargueurs, but I don’t want to have another winter of weeks of having masses of ants invading my kitchen.

Lizzie27 · July 2020

I put old JCloths (folded in two) over the holes in my pots and then a layer of gravel. Seems to deter both ants and woodlice. The gel ant bait seems to work better as the ants take it back to their nest which kills most of them. Follow the instructions on the product you bought and hope it makes a difference. I am though puzzled by your reference to ants coming into your house in winter - they are not usually around then so perhaps you're not in the UK?

micearguers · July 2020

@happycottontail well fair enough, that's not nice. Still, moving pots away, and sloshing a lot of water over their nests can help. Good luck!

happycottontail · July 2020

Lizzie27 said:

I put old JCloths (folded in two) over the holes in my pots and then a layer of gravel. Seems to deter both ants and woodlice. The gel ant bait seems to work better as the ants take it back to their nest which kills most of them. Follow the instructions on the product you bought and hope it makes a difference. I am though puzzled by your reference to ants coming into your house in winter - they are not usually around then so perhaps you're not in the UK?

I’m in Yorkshire Lizzie! Thanks for the advice about JCloths and gravel. Will certainly try that in future.

FlyDragon · July 2020

happycottontail said:

Thank you for your comments Josusa47 and Miceargueurs, but I don’t want to have another winter of weeks of having masses of ants invading my kitchen.

Can you not put powder down to stop them coming in the house?

Dovefromabove · July 2020

We’ve had several summers of ants setting up home under our front porch and house wall, resulting in frequent invasions of our living space on summer afternoons, including swarms of flying ants crawling up the wall.

We’ve tried the bait stations indoors and ant powders outside but they just didn’t work. Ant powders contain neurotoxins so we don’t like using them, certainly not indoors.

Then a couple of months ago we discovered ExAnts and ordered some via Ama*on ... its made of aromatic plant oils which the ants don’t like, rather than insecticide type chemicals, so we felt ok about using it indoors.

When we used it the first time the ants on the skirting-board went crazy just trying to get away from it ... since then we’ve sprayed the crack between the skirting board and the floor a couple of times and we have seen no ants indoors ... it seems to work!!! And the house doesn’t smell of chemicals.

Hurrah!

Ants in, under and around two plant containers on my patio

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