Forum home› Problem solving
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Ants in Roses

HelloFellowGardenersHelloFellowGardeners Posts: 18
in Problem solving
Today I was dead heading the roses and suddenly all of these ants came pouring out of the centre of the roses. I tried to take a photo, but not sure I fully captured the moment. There were no ants on the leaves or stems or on the ground. No indication at all that there were any ants present until loads came out of the centre of each rose. They ran around a bit on the petals and then eventually went back into the centre and were no longer visible again. 

Anyone seen this sort of thing before? My roses in general are not looking good this year. One plant has no leaves or flowers although the stems still look healthy. Is it possible the ant issue and poor rose performance could be linked or are they two separate issues? 

Is there an organic way to get rid of the ants?

Posts

  • TenNTenN Posts: 184
    Do you have any aphids on the rose? That's what the ants are probably doing, they herd them up.
  • Mike AllenMike Allen Posts: 208
    Ants are a valuable asse to any garden.  Reseach then and make use of them.
  • HelloFellowGardenersHelloFellowGardeners Posts: 18
    I didn't see any aphids nickten but I will have another look in the morning. 

    I don't mind the odd one or two in the soil Mike Allen but seeing them pour out of the roses today was disturbing. They were all over my hands before I knew what was happening. 
  • strelitzia32strelitzia32 Posts: 758
    Try disturbing the soil around the base of the rose (don't damage the roots though!) and see if more magically appear. You've probably got an ant nest in the roots, and they're farming aphids as nicten says. They won't do any real harm, I'm surprised they're still around now that flying ant day has passed. 

    You can try to kill them off with ant powder, but it's unlikely you'll succeed (and I remember reading something about killing ant nests just makes more ants move in to the territory). Maybe get a green woodpecker to come and eat them?  ;)
  • HelloFellowGardenersHelloFellowGardeners Posts: 18
    Think you're right about not using ant powder. Any advice on how to attract green woodpeckers :smiley:

  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    Ugh, that’s pretty revolting! Ants like to nest in dry soil so water your roses really deeply and regularly and mulch around them to help retain moisture and hopefully they will move on. Your roses will perform better with deep watering at the roots as well, especially critical in hot weather. The UK seems to be experiencing my normal summer temps just now, so they may stop blooming in that heat to conserve energy, which is normal.
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • HelloFellowGardenersHelloFellowGardeners Posts: 18
    That makes sense Nollie and you're right it has been very hot and dry these past few days. I'll give the area a good soaking tonight. 
  • Jason-3Jason-3 Posts: 391
    Mike Allen said:
    Ants are a valuable asse to any garden.  Reseach then and make use of them.
    Ants are not valuable when they protect and farm aphids on roses. Aphids weaken roses, ants farm the suger from the aphids. Ants in turn protect aphids from natural predators. 




Sign In or Register to comment.