DeborahM Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 Hungry little pests stripped my beautiful gardenia in two hours! I'm frantically google-searching potential solutions, but wondering whether anybody has any advice to offer. Help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowyela Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 Ortho Ant Stop Plus powder from Walmart has worked really well for me. Works fast and so far hasn't hurt my plants. You want to find their nest if you can - follow their trail and nail them, good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sea Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 Trompa is good too. It's a pellet that is lightly scattered around the nest or a trail. They carry it back to the nest and it wipes them all out. The only place I've found it lately is the garden shop in Riberas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suegarn Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 Plain uncooked white rice (not any fancy ones, like basmati or jasmine). Â Spread it around plants, the ants will eat it and it'll puff up inside them and kill them. Â I was told this by several gardeners down here, and it works! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeborahM Posted February 5, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 THANK YOU SO much! I just went outside and sprinkled a cup of rice around the plants. There's a GAJILLION  of them! Tomorrow I'll go buy what you've suggested. And maybe a new gardenia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gogirl Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 I used Hormigol that I bought in the Garden Center in Riberas. Cheaper than Ortho and works great. Follow the above advice and try to get the nest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferret Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 Don't trash your gardenia. It WILL come back in a few weeks. I always like to think of cutter ants as mother nature's pruners...nasty but effective. I use food grade diatomaceous earth that I purchase from Amazon.com. I have two dogs and I know that it won't harm them but sure does a number on cutter ants. Good luck! Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammerhead Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 There is no substitute for getting them where they live. I do my The Great Hunter bit after it gets dark by trailing them back to their nest with my flashlight and using the powder. While most are only a stones throw away I've tracked a few over the length of a football field. Theses suckers will go the extra MILE for something good it appears. Â GOOD HUNTING! Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yo1 Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 Ants don't eat rice so the rice trick is a gardener's fable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowyela Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 2 hours ago, Ferret said: I use food grade diatomaceous earth that I purchase from Amazon.com. I have two dogs and I know that it won't harm them but sure does a number on cutter ants Does that also work on the "micro/mini" ants as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garth Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 Do you want chemical control or organic control?  The chemicals work, as does the rice trick. Cutting ants have been discussed lots at both the Lake Chapala Garden Club, as well as the Organic Vegetable Gardeners group. There is a link on the Lake Chapala Garden Club with more detailed instructions on how to use rice. My understanding from first hand accounts I have heard from dozens of gardeners who have shared their own experience with cutter ants is that the rice trick works for most people, but not all.  FYI, the ants do not actually eat the leaves, but take them back to their nest that they then farm to produce a fungus that they eat. They have apparently been farming this way for hundreds of millions of years.  So, the basis of some of the chemical controls is a fungicide that atacks their farming operation. Hope this helps. Good luck.  Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedros Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 You can't stop the ants permanently-only slow them down. I have tried every chemical & trick available. You should go out every night and look for ants on the move and put down some substance to stop them (hormigol-smells awful and only works for a few day), paration metalilico is much more effective but it is toxic. For me other things like diatomaceous earth, laundry soap, rice are not very effective. Sprays like Ortho Ant Killer kill them in their tracks but is effective only for a week or so. Theoretically bait that the ants take back to their nest (like Patron and Trompa) should be the most effective in the long run. They sort of work but beware I have seen one of my dogs eating them. If the plant has just one or two stems treatments like Tree Tanglefoot are very effective. You put tape around the trunk and then paint this very sticky substance on the tape. If the ants try to pass over it they are trapped. It can work for a month or so. Tree Tanglefoot is "organic". Maybe a real solution will be found one day; http://news.rice.edu/2015/10/07/research-points-to-possible-fungal-control-for-leaf-cutter-ants-2/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferret Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 7 hours ago, snowyela said: Does that also work on the "micro/mini" ants as well? Yes it does... but in both cases it only acts as a physical barrier. So, when it rains or when the area is watered, the barrier goes too. I was so incensed when my jasmine bush got stripped last year that I went a little overboard with the powder. On the other hand, I haven't seen any cutter ants since then. Knock on wood.  Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajijicbound Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 11 hours ago, suegarn said: Plain uncooked white rice (not any fancy ones, like basmati or jasmine). Â Spread it around plants, the ants will eat it and it'll puff up inside them and kill them. Â I was told this by several gardeners down here, and it works! Yes, plain uncooked rice works. Just lay an opened bags on the trail. May take quite a few bags, but works. They use the vegetation to grow fungus, for food. When they take rice to their nest, fungus will not grown on the rice, thus starving them. The ants do not explode, just die of starvation and the colony dies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedros Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 13 hours ago, suegarn said: Plain uncooked white rice (not any fancy ones, like basmati or jasmine). Â Spread it around plants, the ants will eat it and it'll puff up inside them and kill them. Â I was told this by several gardeners down here, and it works! That is an old wives tale, nothing more. It doesn't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floradude Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 Cedros is absolutely correct.  After over 13 years of fighting the battle and killing thousands of the critters with Ortho Home Defense (the best product), and everything else known to man, you can win the battle, but you will never win the war. They ALWAYS COME BACK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mainecoons Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 Trompa has worked consistently for us. Â The key is to find the nest and sprinkle around it plus along the trails they use. Â You have to go out after dark with a flashlight and follow them home. Â If they are behind a neighbors wall, I put it along the trail they are using only and this also seems to work. Â Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedros Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 I've used Trompa for years. It only slows them down for awhile-they make a new exit hole from their nest in a different place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mainecoons Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 Not my experience at all. Â Very important to scatter it along the trail, then they take it inside. Â We've been advised not to put it down the hole as then they think it is a pollutant and push it out. Â I killed a half dozen nests nearly two months ago, haven't seen a sign of a new hole or ant since then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedros Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 I also use Patron which are pellets that are used like Trompa with the same results. I never put either in their entrance hole-rather a short distance from it like the directions say. The underground nests are often quite large. The results are the same for both. The ants go somewhere else for awhile (sometime just a few days, sometimes for months) but then return to my place through a different hole. Be careful scattering it along their trail as your pets might eat it-as does one on my dogs. I've been using Patron and Trompa for years with the same results. They are only temporary. Risky scattering it along their trail if you have pets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparks Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 Whatever you apply it's better to put it in or on their nest. Â Vets here have a toxic white powder that really works ... fast Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedros Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 sparks I wonder what the powder is? Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joyfull Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 1 hour ago, cedros said: sparks I wonder what the powder is? Â I forget the name of it. It stinks. Laura who runs the garden store in Riberas by the 7/11 is a good source for help. She speaks good English. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedros Posted February 5, 2017 Report Share Posted February 5, 2017 I picked Laura's brain long ago. It could be Hormigal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willie Posted February 6, 2017 Report Share Posted February 6, 2017 I've also heard that if you can get a man to urinate into the nest, it will wipe them out.......have only heard this...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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