antz!

 I am cursed with ants this year. The house is bad enough, they get
into everything. But in the garden they kill stuff. They killed my
chinese tallow tree, they traumatised my quince. Now they are killing
my capsicums, and I had a great crop coming on.

Usually it is not actually the ants that do the damage, although in
the case of the quince they bore through the fruit leaving it
inedible. The problem is that the ants farm the aphids. My poor old
capsicum are wilting away to a shadow of their previous glory.

I have treated the trees by smearing this really sticky stuff around
the trunk that Dad uses for his olives. Does a great job but not
practical for capsicum plants. What should I do? Obviously I am
reluctant to use poisons on edible plants...

 
i believe that they won't (or can't) cross a nice thick wide smear of
vaseline on the plant stem - like the trees but on a smaller & less sticky
scale - if you try it could you let me know? (as you know, some gardening
advice is just rot because nobody's ever actually tested it!!!!)

i get ants & aphids on my broad beans, but the above seems like a bit too
much trouble (given the way broad beans are planted & grow closely in
blocks) so i've used derris dust. it does mostly work - it's just that
you'll get more later on, so it's a sort of temporary respite just to tide
you over until you can pull the plants for good.
kylie

 i'm sorry to hear of your problems!

the "symbiotic" relationship that ants have with aphids (well, it may be
more a slave-master system, im not sure!)  is very interesting, although as
a grower under attack from them im sure you dont care about how interesting
it is at the moment lol

But from this document ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071009212548.htm

It suggests that ants leave trails using their feet...

A previous replier to this thread, 0tterbot, suggested using a line of
vasoline.  Whether or not that will work I dont know, but that sort of
approach seems like the way to go.  I guess ants cant leave their chemical
footprints in water, nor can they swim well, so maybe a medieval-style moat
around your plants will do the trick?

 Dave -Turner wrote:

Just FYI, I tried the vaseline method on my roses AND IT WORKS!!! Not a
single, solitary aphid for months until the vaso wore off. Reapplied it
and, bingo, no more aphids again. You have to make sure the only route
to the luscious growing tips is via the plant's stem (ie not via a
branch that touches a fence or anything else, since the ants will invoke
Plan B to get what they want.

--
Trish Brown

Newcastle, NSW, Australia

 
I have some stuff that my dad gave me that he uses for his olive
trees. It is similar to vaseline but much stickier - don't touch
because it won't come off. It lasts a lot longer than vaseline, should
last at least a year. I wrap the trunk with gaffa tape first and then
apply the goo.

However for small shrubs it is hard to isolate the plant completely
from the ground.