For many summer residents, a problem may be the appearance of ants on their property. These insects penetrate almost everywhere and can significantly reduce the amount of harvest, spoiling summer gardens. It is especially unpleasant when insects begin to eat strawberries.
Even experienced gardeners cannot always answer the question of what to do if strawberries are attacked by ants. In this material we will try to find answers and solve the problem.
Causes and consequences of ants appearing on strawberries
Establishing the reasons for their appearance in the beds will help save strawberries from ants. This garden crop by itself is not capable of attracting ants, but they will not refuse to feast on it. Probably, insects already lived in the places chosen for the strawberry plantation. It is known that in the course of their life, ants significantly improve the quality of the soil:
- loosen, ensuring a flow of oxygen to the roots;
- increase the concentration of microelements (potassium, manganese, phosphorus), thereby increasing productivity many times over;
- stimulate the growth of beneficial microorganisms;
- destroy eggs, larvae and mature individuals of harmful insects.
It is not surprising that after some time the gardener chooses this area for strawberry beds. And ants act indiscriminately. They begin to eat ripening berries and spoil the thin roots of plants. They bring entire colonies of aphids to the soil surface, which serve as a source of food for them. Soon, brown spots form on the dark green leaves, and putrefactive processes develop on the roots. This is how aphids become involved in damaging garden crops.
Important! If ants live in one place for a long time, this harms many fruit trees growing nearby. The soil becomes more acidic, so flowering is less abundant.
Why are ants dangerous?
Insects themselves will never leave your garden, but on the contrary, their population will only increase in size over time
Therefore, it is very important to keep the number of ants under control, because they can damage not only strawberries, but also:
- fruit trees;
- flower beds;
- vegetable crops.
Where ants appear, the population of pests such as scale insects and aphids always begins to increase. And this alone cannot but inspire alarm.
- carry weed seeds;
- destroy the wood of buildings;
- finally they just bite.
Ants love to take over sandboxes - children will no longer be able to play there normally. By digging tunnels underground, highly organized insects destroy roots everywhere, which leads to the death of young, fragile shoots. At the same time, in their habitats, the acidity of the soil increases, which as a result becomes unsuitable for the vast majority of plants.
Chickens have long been considered the safest way to combat ants. If you have the opportunity to have several birds at your dacha, then do so - they will quickly deal with the aliens.
Humane ways to fight
Gardeners deliberately strive to protect strawberries from ants without completely destroying them. After all, this will allow you to preserve the colony on the site, increasing its value for growing flowers, vegetables, fruit and ornamental trees, and bushes. In addition, the absence of beneficial insects will negatively affect the fruiting of many crops. The presence of anthills often helps to avoid pest attacks.
But it is advisable to use such methods when detecting single colonies of ants. In this case, significant damage will not be caused to the berries, since everything is compensated by an increase in yield. When there is a huge accumulation of insects against the backdrop of proliferating aphids, it is irrational to use humane methods.
Transfer to another location
A labor-intensive but humane method of protecting a strawberry plantation from insect pests is to move the anthill to another place. Now let's talk about how to do it. In the morning or late evening, a large zinc bucket is smeared from the inside with a sweet liquid that is sticky and at the same time capable of attracting ants. This is jam, jam, marmalade or honey diluted with water 1:1. Ants also like vegetable oils:
- olive;
- corn;
- sunflower;
- sesame;
- flaxseed
Leave a bucket of insect bait for several hours among the beds. And then they simply cover it with a lid and move it to a new place. Even more effective is digging up an anthill along with all its inhabitants. Then it is immersed in a bucket and taken outside the garden.
Advice! After digging the anthill, the resulting hole should be filled with ash. This will alkaline the soil that has been oxidized by insects.
Repellent by strong odors
Ants in strawberries can be removed using products with a strong specific odor (ammonia, essential oils, turpentine). Like all insects, they are sensitive to such odors.
For example, among mustard crops, an anthill is almost impossible to detect. Therefore, many gardeners who grow strawberries specially sow the plant among the bushes. This is an excellent prevention against ant pests and guarantees that the berry crop will bear fruit abundantly.
Herb leaves
Herbs commonly used for medicinal purposes will help you get rid of garden pests using humane folk remedies. Ants cannot tolerate the smell of tansy, wormwood, thyme, peppermint, lemon mint, lavender, and oregano. If the size of the plot allows, then it is advisable to plant the seeds of these plants. Many of them are decorative and do not require special care. And subsequently, infusions and decoctions with therapeutic properties are prepared from them.
In addition, bundles of dried herbs placed near the roots of strawberries provide excellent protection from ants. Aphids, which parasitize tender stems and young leaves, also go away. Insects stop coming to the surface, and then leave their homes in search of more comfortable living conditions.
Sawdust soaked in anise oil
Let's introduce some more humane methods of controlling insect pests. It is best to use shavings of trees and shrubs of coniferous species - thuja, fir, spruce, pine, cypress, juniper. It smells sharp, and when decomposed, it enriches the benefits with bioactive substances, macro- and microelements. Sawdust is well soaked in anise essential oil, which is sold in every pharmacy. You can also treat them additionally with ammonia.
Cotton swabs with turpentine
If there are red ants in the strawberries, then the sharp, repulsive smell of turpentine will come to the rescue. But precisely because of the smell, this method is rarely practiced, because it is intensively absorbed by ripening berries. It is rational to use tampons soaked in turpentine to repel pest ants at the stage of bud formation.
Contraindications to the use of boric acid for feeding strawberries
It is impossible to fertilize with boron on acidic soils before liming (applying calcite, dolomite, limestone, slaked lime). The use of acid solution during the rainy season is also contraindicated. Did you know? Every million tons of the earth's crust contains about 3 tons of boron, but you won't find a nugget of it. In nature, it is found only in compounds. Do not apply fertilizers with boron if there are signs of oversaturation with this microelement, as a result of which specific burns appear on strawberry leaves, necrosis, leaves become yellow, take on a dome shape, and curl up or down.
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Undoubtedly, boron is a necessary element that ensures high yield and excellent taste of strawberries. However, the range between the optimal norm and the toxic norm is small
Fertilizing with boric acid should be done carefully. An excess of a microelement is just as detrimental to a plant as its deficiency.
Traditional methods of getting rid of misfortune
Gardeners have long been fighting insects using time-tested folk remedies. They are especially popular among people who are wary of modern insecticides, which are chemically aggressive and potentially dangerous to human health.
Such methods of killing ants are energy-consuming, and the effect of their use does not appear immediately. They help only in the presence of single colonies of insects and the absence of a large number of aphids.
Sweet baits
Ants readily eat strawberries because of the thick juice they contain, rich in simple carbohydrates. We need to find a replacement for him that is more attractive to them. Old jam diluted with water and fresh sugar syrup are used. Planks and thick branches are soaked in the sweet liquid and applied to plywood. And then they, along with the adherent ants, are lowered into a bucket filled with a strong saline solution to be destroyed.
Advice! You can remove insects from berry bushes faster. To do this, the inside of the bucket is lubricated with sweet baits and left for a day. By evening it turns out to be filled with immobilized ants. All you have to do is fill it to the top with water and wait 15-20 minutes.
Yeast
Let's imagine a rather interesting way to remove pests from strawberry beds. Yeast is a valuable source of almost all B vitamins, and its smell literally fascinates ants. They not only actively eat yeast, but also carry it underground, replenishing their reserves. Nothing will happen in the anthill in a few days.
Read this article on how to use yeast against ants.
And after 2-3 days the yeast will begin to decompose and actively ferment. The anthill is filled with the carbon dioxide they produce, which gives the baked goods a fluffy appearance. But an increase in its concentration in earthen passages forces insects to get out. And the developed putrefactive and fermentation processes spoil all the reserves set aside for the winter.
Attracting Birds
Birds are natural enemies of ants. But starlings, sparrows, and swifts prefer to eat them in early spring due to the still existing shortage of grains, seeds, worms and slugs. Therefore, during strawberry fruiting, birds are more willing to eat ripe berries than tiny garden pests. But this problem is quite easy to solve.
Gardeners simply scatter pale yellow large millet between the rows. The ants mistake it for their own eggs that have somehow fallen to the surface of the earth. They begin to save them - they drag them into holes. At this time, insects are attacked by birds, who willingly peck at the delicious grain. To protect berry plantings from pests, plot owners scatter millet in advance.
How to deal with ants in strawberries?
Strawberries are a fragrant, healthy and tasty berry, but many insects can destroy the crop. According to many gardeners, ants cause enormous damage to the garden.
And to fight them, you can use pesticides. But it is not recommended to use poison right away. They can be dealt with by other methods. For example, an anthill can be moved from the garden and left in another place.
Are ants really enemies of the garden that only cause harm?
There are a large number of species of these insects on Earth. But ordinary black ants live in gardens. Adults feed on the sweet liquid produced by aphids. Therefore, they can be found on bushes, trees and grasses.
Ants also don’t mind trying nectar. But, collecting nectar from flowers, ants sometimes harm plants. They also like ripe fruits or berries, such as strawberries.
Many gardeners say that ants damage the soil when they make their moves in it. But that's not true.
Products consisting of carbohydrates are not the only food included in the diet of ants. Ants also need protein food; without it they cannot survive. The queen and larvae feed on protein food.
In order to get protein food, ants go hunting every day and look for insects to feed their offspring. It turns out that the insects that fall prey to ants are pests. This means that ants are of great benefit. And one of them is the destruction of the larvae of various pests.
But what if you still need to remove the nest?
The sweet secretions of aphids are the main food for ants. Reducing the amount of food will lead to a decrease in the number of insects. This means that by destroying aphids, the number of ants in the garden is destroyed.
In the evening, the ants return to their anthill, and at this moment the anthill should be dug up and taken out of the garden. It is better to carry out the work with gloves.
Before doing this, gloves and the bucket should be anointed with sunflower oil so that the ants do not bite or crawl out of the bucket.
The anthill must be dug up to collect the eggs.
Relocation of ants should be done in the first days of summer, or at the end of spring, until the anthill becomes large. If this method fails to get rid of all the ants, their numbers will sharply decrease.
If strawberries are at the flowering stage, then bait traps will help in this matter. You can make them as follows: for 1 tbsp. l. dry baker's yeast, take the same amount of sugar syrup. Mix the ingredients and place the treats in plastic bottle caps.
This composition will become poison for insects, and if green berries have already appeared on the bushes, then you need to try another method of exterminating ants: stir a spoonful of ammonia into 8 liters of water, and sprinkle the entire strawberries with this composition.
If the berries have already begun to ripen, then radical methods will not work here; you need to place wormwood, tansy, and mint under the bushes, changing the fragrant herbs regularly to repel pests.
Chemicals
These chemical methods help get rid of ants in the garden with a high degree of efficiency. There are several chemicals that help eliminate pests:
- "Tanrek"
- "Bison"
- "Biotlin."
Such products are sold in powder form, the mixture is dissolved in water, then the leaves or the entire plant are sprayed. Ants and aphids that ingest the poison die.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Bl4RZsWKewA
Powders “Aardeater” and “Muracid” help well; they also need to be dissolved in water, then water the ant heaps; you need to remember that the products are very poisonous and therefore can damage fruits and vegetables.
Traditional methods for removing ants from garden beds
- Mix tobacco dust and ground pepper, sprinkle on areas where insects spread.
- Sprinkle the anthill with hot ash.
- Spread out the chopped rhubarb leaves.
- Cover the strawberry bushes with grated cinnamon.
- Sprinkle the areas where ants gather with salt.
- Apply urine therapy.
- Plant mint under the strawberries.
- Pour sunflower oil onto the anthill.
You can declare an ant war, bring forest dwellers into the garden, these ants are safe for the garden, they do not breed aphids, and also devour other insects.
Conclusion and recommendations!
Take care of your harvest and remember that pests need to be removed delicately so as not to spoil vegetables and fruits with various chemicals. Health and prosperity to you!
Processing with special means
Treating strawberries against ants with insecticides is guaranteed to get rid of annoying insects for almost the entire season. Relief occurs within a few days after spraying drug solutions. This method of protecting a garden plot from pests has many advantages:
- fast action;
- reliability;
- relative safety;
- saving time;
- the ability to destroy other harmful insects.
The simultaneous elimination of earthworms, which actively saturate the soil with air, is also considered a disadvantage. However, their population is recovering quite quickly.
Advice! When choosing a quality strawberry insecticide, you should consider its expiration date. It is important that the chemical is not washed away by the first rain.
Anti-ant powder HECTOR
It is a granular food poison. The principle of operation is that an ant that has eaten the bait, upon returning to its home, shares the food it has obtained with everyone, thereby spreading the poison throughout the entire colony. The poison gradually passes from one ant to another and thus reaches the queen and larvae. It should be used in dry weather near the beds, so you will protect the soil as much as possible from the penetration of toxic substances into it.
If you apply it directly to the plants themselves, then it is best to pour the granules into some kind of substrate, for example ordinary bottle caps.
Ant-eater
Anteater is a drug with enteric contact action. When insects ingest the chemical diazinon, the transmission of nerve impulses is disrupted. Muscle tone also decreases, causing convulsions, partial immobilization, and then complete paralysis. It is not typical for insects to become accustomed to the action of the Anteater, so there is no need to frequently change treatment agents.
A reduction in the number of ants in strawberry beds is noted in the first day, and after three days they completely disappear. When using the solution, protection against insects is provided for a month; concentrated granules will be enough for 2 months. Regular treatment of strawberries with Anteater guarantees the complete absence of pests in the beds.
Ant
The active ingredient in Ant is also diazinon. This is a ready-made bait for pests, which is used to evenly cover the surface of the soil under the bushes. Attracted by the smell and appearance, the ants carry it to the nest, poisoning all its inhabitants, including the queen. After 2 days, paralysis and mass death of all insects occurs.
Ant is non-toxic. Its metabolites break down as a result of a chemical reaction of hydrolysis. They do not accumulate in the soil under strawberries and do not penetrate the root system of plants. The duration of action of the insecticide is from 1 to 2 months.
A great warrior
The drug is in the form of a gel with two active ingredients - chlorpyrifos and diazinon. The components complement each other perfectly and mutually enhance their insecticidal properties. Due to its gel structure and sweet taste, ants carry large amounts of the product into the nest. After 2-3 days, the entire population of the nest becomes infected.
Advice! Great Warrior is not the best product for spraying a strawberry plantation against insects. It is quickly washed off when watering plants. This product is much more effective for treating premises.
Tanrek
Insecticide in the form of a concentrated solution with the active substance imidacloprid. It binds to receptors in the central nervous system of pests, causing them paralysis, convulsions and death. Tanrek is produced in the form of a concentrated solution, packaged in compact ampoules. To prepare a working dilution of the solution, pour 1 liter of water into a plastic bucket, measure out 1.5 ml of the drug, mix, add water to a volume of 5 liters, which is used to spray the strawberry plantings.
Biotlin
Biotlin is a fast-acting garden insecticide, active against all varieties of ants and aphids adjacent to them. The drug has a moderate hazard class, as it does not contain aggressive synthetic components. The active ingredient is imidacloprid, extracted from concentrated tobacco extract. Available in the form of a solution in ampoules and bottles, it is not phytotoxic, therefore it can be systematically used on strawberries.
Bison
You can spray strawberry plantings with a solution of the preparation “Bison”, which has a powerful effect on the digestive system of pest ants. Penetrating into the stomach, the effect of the toxic agent is almost immediate. Therefore, after a few hours their death occurs. The maximum effect should be expected 1-2 days after processing the strawberries, and it lasts for a month.
Grom-2
Grom-2 is a ready-to-use bait for working ants among strawberries. It is convenient to use the drug, since it does not require dissolution in water. The granules are distributed over the surface of the nest and between the strawberry bushes, providing effective contact with insects. The death of ants occurs after 1-2 days. Regular treatment provides protection against insects for 2-3 months.
Agrotechnical measures
It may be a little unusual, but the number of colonies will decrease significantly if you kill the aphids. By the way, you don’t need to completely get rid of ants. New, more adapted pests will take their place. Aphids are the main “herd” that supplies “sweet milk” - honeydew to the voracious ant larvae.
The duration of maturation of the egg lasts 35 days, larvae - 7 days and pupae - 23 days. The lifespan of the larvae is 7 days and they enter the pupal stage, which stops eating. These 7 days are the weakest link of the ant colony. They intensively supply food to the larvae. If you feed the larvae poisoned food during this period, the colony may not be revived.
So, to successfully remove ants from a site, you can perform the following procedures with large colonies:
In late autumn and early spring, be sure to clear the trunks and skeletal branches of garden crops with a thick solution of freshly slaked lime with the addition of any toxic substance. With this technique you will destroy the ants dragging their precious cargo from the trees to the anthill for overwintering.
Around the bushes, stepping back from the base, sprinkle ash thickly in a ring, you can mix it with lime. Lime is poisonous to ants.
Approximately in the middle of the trunk (40-80 cm), secure the fishing belts, treating them with insecticidal agents. To prevent ants from crawling over the barrier, lubricate the bole around the perimeter with special slow-drying glue (buy in a store). They will not be able to overcome the adhesive barrier and will die along with their expensive burden. Hunting belts can also be used in the spring and summer (October and March), periodically replacing them with fresh ones.
Simultaneously with the hunting belts, for 8 days in a row, having dug up the ant colony to a depth of 3-8 cm, poison them in the evening (when the ants return home), pouring hot boiling water over the stirred up anthills, preferably a hot decoction of tomato tops (literally boiling).
You can dig it up and fill it with a mixture of ash and lime or ash and salt, or treat it with a mixture of ash and soda.
A good result is obtained if you fill the anthill with a mixture of water and kerosene (100-200 ml per 10 liters of water), digging it deeper.
Large winged female and male black garden ant. Martin King
Daily treatment for 8 days will destroy the larvae, some adult ants, possibly the “queen,” eggs, and pupae. Such treatments must be carried out systematically throughout the year, and the ants will leave the inhospitable dacha. Ants love peace and settle in places where the soil is not subject to frequent turning, that is, it is not dug up, stones, weeds, etc. are not removed. If you are farming without digging, then surface treatment of the top 10 cm of soil is required. Look under a stone or cardboard or board that has been lying there for a long time and you will see a bunch of ant eggs with nannies right on the surface of the earth.
Plantings around the perimeter of the dacha, individual beds, under the canopy of trees and, especially, between berry bushes of tansy, parsley, mint, valerian, wormwood, lavender, and garlic can serve as preventive preventative measures against the colonization of ants.
Black garden ant and aphids. Martin Urban
Detection and elimination of the nest
An ant's nest is a heap of leaves, pine needles, twigs and earth. It consists of a complex system of passages and miniature structures, the center of which is the uterus. The aerial part is a compact mound with a depression in the center. It can be detected not only by its appearance, but also by the behavior of insects. It is to the nest that all the red and black insects rush at the last rays of the sun.
To destroy anthills among strawberries, gardeners use boiling water. The effect will increase when boric acid is dissolved in it (20 g per bucket of water). They generously pour it not only into visible passages, but also into the soil 2-3 meters around. It is not always possible to remove insects this way. If a whole queen remains in the soil, the colony will soon be reborn.
Reviews
For the third year now I have been saved exclusively by Muratsid. I carry out the treatment at least 3 times in one season, but I am completely satisfied with the result.
I really liked the Ant food bait. It was recommended by a neighbor in the country who has been using it for several seasons now. After the morning treatment, by the evening the situation had noticeably improved, and the next morning the pest was completely destroyed. 4 weeks have passed and I still remember the ants.
Source of the article: https://notklop.ru/muravi/unichtozhenie-muravev/izbavitsya-ot-muravev-v-klubnike/
Hunting the queen ant
The queen is massive and less mobile than worker ants, and her body is equipped with a wider and more developed thoracic region. Unlike worker pests, it does not obtain food, but produces new insects. Therefore, without destroying the queen, you will not be able to get rid of the ants. What can be done:
- destroy the nest and find the queen, based on its size. The method is labor-intensive and does not always give the desired result. You can spend a lot of time, but not find the queen in the soil;
- pour boiling water over the nest, hoping to destroy the queen.
The most effective way to save strawberries is to use insecticides. When infected worker ants come into contact with the queen, for example during feeding, they will also poison her.
Additional tips for gardeners
Preventive measures can prevent the appearance of ants in your garden or make it easier to combat them. Experienced summer residents advise growing garlic and onions next to strawberries. The crops repel parasites with their pungent odor.
Spraying strawberries with garlic infusion will not harm them. To prepare the solution you will need:
- 10 l – water;
- 2 tbsp. l. – boric acid;
- 100 g – crushed garlic;
- 400 g – pine needle extract.
The product is infused for 7 days.
When ants attack a strawberry plot, the foliage of the bushes is carefully examined. Detection of scale insects or aphids is a signal to get rid of parasites. Soon the ants will lose food and will look for a new object. This will help:
- A solution of laundry or tar soap is a reliable means of protecting strawberries from scale insects and aphids;
- Table salt, which is sprinkled into the nest and into the tunnels inside, will force the insects to leave the populated area;
- Sprinkling bird droppings between strawberry rows;
- Use of cooking waste: vegetable oil after frying food;
- Soapy water after washing is good for an anthill.
When starting a war with ants, it is advisable to make sure who the enemy is: ants or bedbugs along with weevils.
Removing an ant colony from a strawberry plot is difficult. Therefore, it is useful to remember to protect plants from ants and take timely measures to improve their health and preserve the harvest using folk remedies and chemicals.
Prevention measures
The best preventative measure against ant attacks on strawberries is to keep the garden area clean. It is necessary to regularly weed the ground between the bushes, and then take the grass outside the garden. This way you will be able to get rid of weeds, which often serve as a hiding place for pests. Experienced gardeners recommend setting up nearby flower beds with fragrant flowers or medicinal plants to repel insects. Be sure to periodically water the soil with insecticide solutions to kill aphids.
When to expect an ant invasion?
Two types of ants settle in garden plots: black garden and red (red myrmica). Insect nests are a complex system of oval-shaped chambers connected by passages. In winter, ants hide in their deep dungeons; from the moment the soil warms up and warms up, they develop a rapid duration and come to the surface.
The biggest harm from ants is the reproduction of aphids. Ants feed on semi-digested juice, which is regularly secreted by aphids. As a result, hordes of ants attack the youngest, juiciest shoots and leaves of strawberries in order to spread their protected “herd” over them.
During the flowering period, ants gnaw out the centers of the inflorescences. During fruiting, a berry plantation is generally a Klondike for insects. Thus, strawberries have to be protected from ants throughout the entire season.
Spring protection
The time when ants appear on an apple tree often coincides with the swelling of the buds (in spring) or in the autumn when the fruits ripen.
In the spring, a two-stage treatment of the apple tree from various pests and ants is carried out: before the buds swell and in the budding phase (before flowering).
In early spring, spraying is carried out against aphids and ants, as well as against bacterial fungal infections (rot, spotting, scab, black cancer). Use 3-4% solutions of Bordeaux mixture or ferrous sulfate.
During the budding phase, the apple tree is treated against leaf-eating pests and fungi using 1-2% Bordeaux mixture.
Solutions of the following preparations are suitable as insecticides and fungicides:
- Decis - 0.5-0.6%;
- Karbofos - 1%;
- Speed - 0.15-0.2%;
- Topaz - 0.3-0.4%;
- Chlorophos - 0.3%.
Insect symbiosis
Symbiosis is a close, friendly relationship between living beings of different species, from which both species benefit.
During their life, aphids secrete a sweet liquid (honeydew), which the ants eat. This is the main source of carbohydrates for them, so ants provide aphids with protection, nutrition, and care, which boils down to the following points:
- The more honeydew the aphid sucks out of the plants, the more honeydew there is. Only young, tender leaves can provide an abundance of plant juice. The ants make sure that the aphids have constant food supply, transplanting insects onto young, not yet damaged shoots, thereby spreading the pests. If aphids reproduce too quickly and there are too many of them, the ants eat the aphids, keeping the numbers in check.
- Ants selflessly protect aphids from predatory insects and even birds.
- In the fall, ants carry aphids to the anthill for the winter, constantly caring not only for the adults, but also for the eggs. In the spring they replant aphids in the garden.
It is necessary to fight ants and aphids in the garden at the same time; they cannot exist without each other. Gortologists advise immediately starting the fight to get rid of both types of insects.
