Are ants hurt roses? I think some ants were using my rose pot as a home. When
I over watered, ants and tiny white grains came floating to the top. I kept
flooding the pot until I couldn't see them anymore.

Ants are GOOD for roses. They keep the evil rose eaters away.


"JorgNS" wrote in message
...
Are ants hurt roses? I think some ants were using my rose pot as a home.
When
I over watered, ants and tiny white grains came floating to the top. I
kept
flooding the pot until I couldn't see them anymore.

On 26 Oct 2003, (JorgNS) wrote:
Are ants hurt roses? I think some ants were using my rose pot as a home. When
I over watered, ants and tiny white grains came floating to the top. I kept
flooding the pot until I couldn't see them anymore.

Ants don't hurt roses themselves, but they will farm aphid colonies and
aphids will do considerable damage. It's best to keep them away from your
roses.

The tiny white grains you saw are ant larvae.

Mike

Mike wrote:



Ants don't hurt roses themselves, but they will farm aphid colonies and
aphids will do considerable damage. It's best to keep them away from your
roses.

The tiny white grains you saw are ant larvae.

Hi Mike! Do you have any ideas about how to keep
ants away from roses without using pesticides that
will kill beneficial insects such as ladybugs and
spiders?




Mike

Hi Mike! Do you have any ideas about how to keep
ants away from roses without using pesticides that
will kill beneficial insects such as ladybugs and
spiders?

Hi Shiva,

Ants don't like coffee grounds, garlic, or cloves. You can try repelling
them with these if they haven't already established mounds in your beds. As
a bonus, roses really like coffee grounds and garlic also repels aphids and
spider mites.

If you already have mounds, you can use outdoor bait traps or mound
drenches without exposing beneficial insects.

Mike

"torresd" wrote in message ...
Ants are GOOD for roses. They keep the evil rose eaters away.


I wouldn't say that.

Ants will cultivate and protect aphids on roses in order to harvest
the aphids' sugary wastes. Their nests can also disturb the roots of
roses.


J. Del Col

"J. Del Col" wrote :
"torresd" wrote:
Ants are GOOD for roses. They keep the evil rose eaters away.


I wouldn't say that.

Ants will cultivate and protect aphids on roses in order to harvest
the aphids' sugary wastes. Their nests can also disturb the roots of
roses.

Sadly, yes. I've found that when it rains a lot here, the fire ants move
into the soil of the potted roses. The mounds I'm planting roses in, due
to the same heavy rains of late, are also gettting colonized. The ants do
loosen the soil nicely, and they are mostly insectivorous -- but even fire
ants have been known to "farm" aphids. Mind you, I haven't seen any
obvious aphid damage on my roses, but...

The acephate-and-something powder, the white stuff that smells like
vinegar only worse, seems to work pretty well and doesn't seem to
kill other insects.

Mark.

"Mark. Gooley" wrote in message ...
"J. Del Col" wrote :
"torresd" wrote:
Ants are GOOD for roses. They keep the evil rose eaters away.


I wouldn't say that.

Ants will cultivate and protect aphids on roses in order to harvest
the aphids' sugary wastes. Their nests can also disturb the roots of
roses.

Sadly, yes. I've found that when it rains a lot here, the fire ants move
into the soil of the potted roses. The mounds I'm planting roses in, due
to the same heavy rains of late, are also gettting colonized. The ants do
loosen the soil nicely, and they are mostly insectivorous -- but even fire
ants have been known to "farm" aphids. Mind you, I haven't seen any
obvious aphid damage on my roses, but...

The acephate-and-something powder, the white stuff that smells like
vinegar only worse, seems to work pretty well and doesn't seem to
kill other insects.


Fire ants? Yikes! That's an ant problem from hell.

Good luck.


J. Del Col

Oh, no, Mark! After all your planning about what to do with the roses, and
the "mound plan" and all, now you have to worry about fire ants?! Yikes!
I'm sorry to hear that.

Anne Lurie
Raleigh, NC


"Mark. Gooley" wrote
[about ants on roses]:

Sadly, yes. I've found that when it rains a lot here, the fire ants move
into the soil of the potted roses. The mounds I'm planting roses in, due
to the same heavy rains of late, are also gettting colonized. The ants do
loosen the soil nicely, and they are mostly insectivorous -- but even fire
ants have been known to "farm" aphids. Mind you, I haven't seen any
obvious aphid damage on my roses, but...

The acephate-and-something powder, the white stuff that smells like
vinegar only worse, seems to work pretty well and doesn't seem to
kill other insects.

"Anne Lurie" wrote :
Oh, no, Mark! After all your planning about what to do
with the roses, and the "mound plan" and all, now you
have to worry about fire ants?! Yikes! I'm sorry to hear that.

Thanks for the sympathy, but so far the ants seem to be causing
few if any problems. Fire ants are ubiquitous here and short of
spreading poisioned bait thinly over a wide area, with added
spot treatment of individual mounds, there's not much one can
do about them.

The biggest headache is when I repot a potted rose that the ants
have used as a refuge: it's hard to do without getting a plethora
of bites. Often such roses are rudely healthy, as if the ants have
done no harm whatever. In those cases, I'm almost forced to
sprinkle the top of the soil in the pot with a tablespoonful of
the 50%-acephate powder (I have come to hate that vinegary
smell: I think that my hatred stems from my undergrad work with
acetic anhyride in the chemistry lab, which was over twenty years
ago but has put me off vinegar even in food; acephate has a similar
smell, almost as intense as the anhydride's but with a nasty chemical
note as well) and wait a couple days before I repot. I need to get
the roses out of the pots and into good honest ground, yes.

The plant-them-in-a-mound shtick seems to be working okay, fire
ants colonizing or not: I've lost few roses that way, and some seem
to be outright thriving. Some variety of creeping bluish grass is
moving in into some mounds, and I may have to bring out the Roundup
again. Roundup is relatively innocuous provided that none gets on
rose leaves: it breaks down swiftly in soil and bacteria eat it.

I ordered some Rhizopon rooting compound, the extra-strong variety,
from Muncy's near Sarasota, and sooner or later I should have copies
of all the roses that are not own-root. I refuse to waste time with the
wimpy stuff. In the spring I need to drive south to Sarasota and get
some own-root Austins from the Muncys. More and more of the older
Austins are coming off patent (e.g. Heritage, 1984), though, so making
my own own-root copies will pose no ethical or legal problems. The
clay in my soil, and judicious addition of organic matter, should keep
the nematodes down.

Mark., zone 8b