Aquaponic Gardening

A Community and Forum For Aquaponic Gardeners

Hello everyone! My system has been running with fish for a few weeks now and plants are doing well. But I've noticed little sugar ants crawling around in the grow bed.  Are ants harmful to the system? Is there something I can do to get rid of them? Or is it no big deal?  There are not a lot of them, but then again, I can not see how many are inside the growbed under the rocks.  Thanks for the help!

Views: 318

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

You can flood the growbed and see what comes running out. I have some ants that eat all my seeds, then I wonder why nothing comes up. For sugar ants I make little traps using a small container with top. Punch a hole near bottom and mix boric acid and marmalade. Grease ants use margarine and the acid. Place by their trails.

I don't think the ants are really harmful to the plants or GB.  However, ant do have a symbiotic relationship with many bad pests.  They will farm critters such as aphids and protect them because they are after the honeydew the aphids suck out of plants.  Just watch your plants and ensure they aren't infested with any bad bugs. 

Something is attracting them, possibly a particular variety of plant or an insect attracted to the plant.  You could try what someone else suggested - flood the bed to the surface.  They probably won't like that. 

Sounds good! I'll give it a try! Thanks!

Reply to Discussion

RSS

© 2024   Created by Sylvia Bernstein.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service