ants harvesting my blueberries

17 years ago

Hi, i was just wondering if anybody knows of any organic ways to keep ants away from things like blueberries and grapes. My cousin had a grape vine that put out like 20 clusters last season and he said the ants got to them all. Know the ants are trying to grub my blueberries that are still just forming inside the flower, anybody know what i could do?

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rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7

17 years ago

( I knew that the ants and grits fable would come up sooner or later, lol!)

Though I agree with kimmsr about ants having an important place in the garden, SOME ants seemed determined to cause trouble. Fire ants are one of those that will do considerable damage to fruit and vegetables. There may be others, but I've personally had to deal with the fire ants. (Grrrrrrr)

Ants are allowed to cuddle up with any aphids or other insects they may find, but I'm not particularly tolerant of them getting to the 'fruits' of my labor before I do!

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Comments (11)

squeeze
17 years ago
a shallow dish of boric acid [from a pharmacy] mixed in strong sugar syrup will take care of them

Bill
Kimmsr
17 years ago
Are you sure this is what the ants are rally doing, or are the ants up there removing insect pests form your blueberries? Even ants, with a fairly well developed "sweet tooth", would not want to eat a not yet formed fruit.
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kimpa zone 9b N. Florida.
17 years ago
If the branches are not touching the ground (giving them many ways to climb on the plant) you could put a barrier on the trunk so they can't climb up. I have used a gummy substance called Tanglefoot around the trunk of plants to stop ants successfully.
blueberrier1
17 years ago
Years ago, I added some rotting 'electric co' woodchips to my BB patch...and there were many ants adapting to the BB diet. I thawed a # pkg of frozen grated mixed citrus peels and scattered it all around the patch. In a few days-NO ANTS.

When Organic Gardening and Farming had many homemade solutions, a reader wrote that they had rid their garden of fire ants by sprinking grapefruit peels on the nests. Though I have no need (so far), to repel fire ants, I consistently grate (food processor is the best) all citrus peels and freeze in # clumps. Have heard of folks using these around their 'lopes as well.

Of course, check for aphids.

cella jane
skagit_goat_man_
17 years ago
If you have ants in the berry plants the primary problem may be aphids. The ants go and "milk" them. If you have aphids get rid of them and the ants should go away too. Tom
dchall_san_antonio
17 years ago
I would start by spraying the plants with milk to make sure they are as protected from sucking insects as practical. You can dilute the milk 2-3 ounces to a gallon of water and spray to dripping every other week. Any kind of milk will do (chocolate, powdered, spoiled, goat's, etc.).

At the same time you should figure out whether you have sweet ants or protein ants. Put down some molasses smeared on some cardboard in their ant trail and see if they go for that. If they do, then they are sweet ants. Otherwise they are protein ants. I have used a mix of sugar and molasses with bread yeast to eradicate ants. I'm not sure how it worked but the ants went completely away in about a week. For protein ants you need to find their home. Some protein ants cannot stand too much sugar in their environment and will move if they are "sweetened out." You can mix molasses/sugar in water and drench their mound and spray it about 10 feet out in a circle so they don't just move a few inches away.

As an aside, boric acid will work on ants but, and this is a big BUT, you can easily poison your soil with too much boron if you apply boric acid directly to your soil.
organic-marcie
17 years ago
Wait until your soil is dry and put out quick grits around the plants. The ant will eat the grits and explode. They usually take the grits to the queen and she eats them first so you kill them all in one fail swoop!
Kimmsr
17 years ago
That story about grits and ants is a myth.
Organic gardeners need to look closely at what ants do before they siply start killing them off. Contrary to popular opinion ants are beneficial in the garden, helping clean up waste material, and often helping control insect pests. But you need to really look at what they are doing and not simply accept folklore.
Kimmsr
17 years ago
Texas A & M research people have found a fly that parasitizes the Brazilian Fire Ant, the one causing so much trouble in the southern, warmer regions. This fly, evidently, does nothing about the native fire ants but we have had those for many years and they, normally, are little noted by most of us. With the exception of the Brazilian Fire Ants most all other ants are far more beneficial than destructive. They do "farm" aphids and they take those aphids off your plant to the nest where those aphids are fed to the colony of workers there. While many people see ants hauling aphids they are taking them to the nest, no one has ever, really seen an ant bring an aphid from the nest to a plant.
waterslip_shaw_ca
12 years ago
I have a raised bed 5' x20' of blueberries and in the centre of the bed is an anthill about 4'x4' in size , upto about 10" high in the centre. They are small black and red ants . Is ther something I could pour onto the nest to get rid of them without harming my plants ?