ants and scale bugs

lisakay_2

I've noticed today that my bay tree (only a small one) is covered in ants and when I checked, the little beggers are farming scale bugs. what's the best way to get rid, preferably without commercial insecticide. It will take forever and a day to pick all the scale bugs off

Thanks, Lisa x

forgotmyname

No answer for you but i have a serious ant problem also. Got an old dustbin i used as a composter some years ago. I then planted rhubarb in it.

The ants got in and killed the rhubarb. Its been sitting in the corner for a few years now untouched.

Though time to shift it. Got a trowel and scooped some wonderful soil/compost off the top. Dark and crumbly. Looked brill.

Then i spotted the army of ants, I dread to think how many there are. Dont fancy them in the house so i left it.

Right next to a blackcurrant bush that had scale bugs a couple of years back. I hacked it to the ground and that seems to have got rid of the bugs, But what are the ants eating?

The bush is thriving so i dont think they are eating the roots.

I need a good solution for the ants next year. Raised planters and beds where they shelter from the high water table will be going.

Where next the house?

Last year i piled up a few spare slabs and the ants took over. I would lift them spray with turps and set fire to them.

Cruel but there are just too many and so close to the house.

lisakay_2

I've put porridge oats down to hopefully deal with the ants, if they'll take that over the honeydew that the bugs produce that will solve the ant problem. I (probably shouldn't admit to this) like the idea of setting fire to them!! but I want to keep my bay tree intact.

forgotmyname

Because of the high water table here, A few days of rain have them seeking somewhere higher to store their eggs. I lift the slabs and pots and there they are a nice store of them. Just above the surface.

Maybe try something similar, A tub next to the tree where they can hide away from the elements, Then dispose of them safely once they move in?

I had them in a round tub of strawberries before and encouraged them to move on by constantly flooding the pot with water.

theoretica

Soapy water would be worth trying on the scale insects.

ALIBOBSY

I have read that you can put out a mix of baking powder and icing sugar. The ants take it back to the colony as its sweet, but the baking powder kills them. Supposedly it reacts with the formic acid in their bodies and produces gas and the literally explode!

You need the sugar to get them to eat it and it needs to be icing sugar so the texture is the same and the can't separate the grains. Not had too many issues with ants ourselves, had one nest when me moved in under the flags at the front. OH used boiling water and boiled them all when he lifted the flags to re-lay them.

Ali x