Jeekinz
Washing Up
Now what!?!?
Ants on my lettuce!
- Thread starter Jeekinz
- Start date
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
mcnerd
Head Chef
put food someplace else for them to eat, but admittedly lettuce is hard to resist.
MexicoKaren
Head Chef
Well, I would probably wash them off and eat it anyway, but I share my environment with lots of assorted insects, so my bug phobia is not very strong. I don't think they carry any diseases...make a peppercorn dressing and no one will know - LOL
Jeekinz
Washing Up
Very funny.
Is there some sort of veggie spray I can use in the garden? or what?
Is there some sort of veggie spray I can use in the garden? or what?
Maverick2272
Washing Up
I use a combo of ant traps and spray. I spray directly into any ant hills I find, and place the traps around places I don't want them. Works fairly well. Also, DW planted her lettuce in large pots, and we haven't had any problems with bugs getting in them. I guess they can't climb up the pots very well, or it is just too much work for them, LOL.
Maverick2272
Washing Up
Hmmmm... chocolate covered ants! LOL. Or just tell everyone they are funny raisins and they aren't really moving around it is just an illusion.
Jeekinz
Washing Up
There are no "hills" present. There just ripping around my bibb lettuces like nobodys buisness. I need some sort of spray or something to kil those suckers off.
Maverick2272
Washing Up
If you use an insecticide pick one that targets ants prominently, and make sure to really wash that lettuce before eating to get it all back off! I think there might also be a stick form that you put in the ground near the plant that is supposed to keep them away or kill them without getting anything on the plant itself. I saw it at Ace Hardware, a good place to go to get advice on this kind of thing usually or at least here it is.
Otherwise you can try sticking it in a large pot and moving it slightly to see if that helps stop them, it really did work for DW and I.
Otherwise you can try sticking it in a large pot and moving it slightly to see if that helps stop them, it really did work for DW and I.
mcnerd
Head Chef
So much for the thrill of "organic" lettuce.
Maverick2272
Washing Up
In his case the only ones that will get the thrill of 'organic' lettuce if he doesn't do anything will be the ants...
GotGarlic
Chef Extraordinaire
Hi, Jeekins. Try spraying them with insecticidal soap. It's an organic control. HTH.
BajaGringo
Cook
Ants are protein! Just nuke 'em first!
MexicoKaren
Head Chef
We have LOTS of ant problems here and people swear by Borax....just sprinkle it in a circle around your plant...better google it first to see if there are any issues involving pets if you have some roaming around. I haven't used it myself.
Claire
Master Chef
I often use plain old dish soap in my hose end sprayer as insecticide. Use something you wouldn't mind using to wash something you were going to eat (i.e., something rather pure, maybe Ivory).
archiduc said:
LOL - you never had an ant farm when you were a kid - did you?
Ants build the tunnels and chambers in their nests in a Y structure (like the trunk and branches on a tree) ... the chambers being at the top of the branches. What little air pressure there is keeps the water out. That prevents water from flooding the colony.
An "organic" trick I learned years ago was to pour a box of Cream of Rice or Cream of Wheat around the plant or the ant mount. I had a very large red ant mound that took 3 boxes ... but then they never came back.
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Jeekinz
Washing Up
"Sayonara" to the lettuce. We laughed, and we cried. It was fun while it lasted. I hate bugs!
buckytom
Chef Extraordinaire
jeeks, i was thinking of your lettuce this past weekend. 
did any of it bolt to seed in the heat? i think you planted all head lettuce, which is a liitle more resillient.
i had been taking in a full salad spinner's worth of loose leaf lettuces just about every other day for the past few weeks, but more than half of what was left bolted and became too bitter. especially the arrugula plants in the mix. (mesculun mix).a few romaine head in the mix are hanging in there.
i'll still get a few more salads out of it, from the seeds that germinated late.
did any of it bolt to seed in the heat? i think you planted all head lettuce, which is a liitle more resillient.
i had been taking in a full salad spinner's worth of loose leaf lettuces just about every other day for the past few weeks, but more than half of what was left bolted and became too bitter. especially the arrugula plants in the mix. (mesculun mix).a few romaine head in the mix are hanging in there.
i'll still get a few more salads out of it, from the seeds that germinated late.
