Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 07:35:12 PST From: "Stefan Ploszak" <imduff@hotmail.com> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg277$foo@default> Subject: Re: Ants in my Nepenthes
Hi Gabriel,
> I was wondering what I should do, two of my nepenthes have
alot of
>ants burrowing in their pots. Is that going to harm them?
>
>
Thanks,
>
Gabriel
A while back, I saw a little thing on ants on the Discovery
Channel(maybe someone else on the list saw the same show). It was
mentioned that ants don't directly harm plants, but they physically
carry scale and mealy bug to your plants. The ants will attach the pest
to your plant and let them do their thing. Every once in a while, the
ants will "milk" the pest like a cow. It was quite amazing to see the
video footage of an ant attaching a mealy bug to a plant and later
returning to rob the mealy bug of it's plant nectar.
So, get rid of those ants. I'd think about uprooting the plant and
letting it sit in water for a while to loosen all the soil away from the
roots. You may not have to use any chemical means to kill the ants, but
it probably wouldn't hurt. Once you feel your plant is free of the ants,
repot it in new soil.
Stefan
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