A month ago I converted a basil plant from potting soil to clay pellet passive hydroculture. Today, I noticed that some ant-like insects were crawling in and out of the clay aggregate. I took the entire pot and submerged it, with the plant still in it, in a bucket of water. Sure enough, dozens and dozens of ants floated to the top. Carrying their little white eggs. And their queen! My boyfriend squished the queen.

I uprooted the poor basil, soaked the roots in a bucket of water to drown/remove the remaining ants, hosed off the pellets in a strainer, put them in a basin, and then poured boiling water over them. I let them soak in the hot water for a couple of minutes before re-potting the basil. Should that be good enough to kill the remaining eggs?

I hope that wasn't too much stress on the plant. It did have a good number of healthy-looking water roots, so I'm not too worried.

Has anyone ever had a problem like this before? An ant nest! How did you solve it?