Ants on your leafy vegetables? Your fruit trees? Your house plants? They’re a prime indicator that sucking insects are feasting on your plants.
There’s a group of soft-bodied insects – aphids, mealybugs, soft scale and whiteflies that feed by sucking juices from plants. Their damage can cause spotted, bleached, or curled foliage, and stunted growth. They also cause indirect damage from the waste they produce. They excrete honeydew, a sticky material that looks just like drops of honey on foliage, that’s a favorite of ants. To keep the sugary stuff coming, ants will fiercely protect those soft-bodied producers from predators.
To effectively control ants on your plants, you have to first control the source of the honeydew production, then learn how to keep ants from crawling up your plants.
As outdoor temperatures get cooler, ants may also start visiting you indoors seeking water, food, and shelter. If you find a trail of ants traipsing across your kitchen sink, use these methods for managing them. And if they’re really causing a problem, here’s information on more effective management indoors.