Ants on my strawberrys

[sonsmiley131204]

hello, i wonder if anyone had any ideas or similar problem, last year i had my strawberrys in pots then decided this year i build a raised bed now they were doing brilliant growing away happily, went outside to check on them and the little blighters have nibbled on my nearly ripe strawberry leaving a hole
is there a way to get rid of the ants or to protect my strawberrys? my strawberry are sorrounded by straw.

[Jameslovell]

Same here, but not eating my crops yet. I have had a huge amount of ants this year. Must be at least 3-4 nests on my allotment. Would be really interested to know if there are generally more ants this year.

Maybe the bees are turning into ants...maybe not.

[sonsmiley131204]

tell me about it lol i must of hit about 4 ants nest in my garden, was planting out my sweetcorn and the little blighters are there

[IVIik]

I had to dowse 1 nest in my garden last night with a couple of kettles of boiling water - the blighter's seem to be popping up all over the place!

[sonsmiley131204]

well there was nothing else for it but dig up all my strawberry plants and put them in pots had a handfull of ripe strawberries and all of them had been eating havnt managed to try one yet : (

[Shadylane]

Are you it was ants and not slugs nibbling them? I've heard that this year is bad for ants. People I know are getting them in the house, we've got them in the garage and there definitely seems to be more on the plot. I brought four home in a lettuce t'other day uggh.

[sonsmiley131204]

definatly ants ive been watching them they all cluster and eat my strawberrys lol

[Shadylane]

Little bleeders. Give them a squirt with some diluted washing up liquid, that'll teach em.

[sonsmiley131204]

ill give that go shadylane, half of them are in pots now so ill spray them all, how much liquid do i put in a bottle?

[Shadylane]

Just a drop in a thoroughly rinsed out dettox type spray bottle. It works on aphids and most insects I think but it only works if you spray it on the bug, spraying the foliage won't stop them from coming. The trouble with ants is there's so many they'll just keep returning no matter how many you kill. If they're now in pots you could try putting a strip of vaseline around the pot - olive oil and WD40 apparently stop them from crossing. I normally leave them alone on our plot as even though there are loads I've never seen any crop damage caused by them. I wouldn't appreciate them nibbling the strawberries though.

[sonsmiley131204]

thanks for that i shall put the above mentioned around pots, ive never had so many ants before they havnt touched anything else just my strawberrys lol, i shall also get some ant powder and do a barricade lol thanks again

[greengas]

I have at least a dozen red ants nests on my plot and was thinking of buying nema ant, has anyone used it and was it succesful?

[sonsmiley131204]

whats nema ant? ive just tried to google it but didnt come up with anything

[Shadylane]

I got one hit in a forum and the rest were in other languages. I did find this though which sounds interesting. I would want to research it further though. Personally I'd only use stuff like this if they were becoming a real nuisance and all other options had failed. Hopefully it's just been a bad year for them and next year things will settle. Last year it was waps and greenfly.

[sonsmiley131204]

Thanks for the link but i think ill give it a miss id rather put up with them and deter them away, yep last year i had alot of trouble with greenfly on everything but i was able to get a spray that was ok with edible things so wasnt much of a problem