They can't stand cinnamon, and that does not harm plants. If you want round up some ants and put cinnamon in a circle and watch them go crazy as a test.

You just saved my plants, after your talk about ants and aphids. That got me thinking the two Trinidad Scorpions I picked up from the nursery seemed to be picking up on ant traffic. I went to check Grrrrr Aphids present, guess I should not be surprised coming from a nursery. There were a few hundred at least it was not a few thousand.

Sometimes you read a post and your skin starts to itch and ya gotta check on your peppers.

Tsheets you just saved my TS plants THANK YOU!

Haha! Glad I could help! Though, I'm sure you would have found them on your own pretty quickly.

Thanks, Mark! I'll give it a shot!

i once had a lady staying at my cabin while i worked in Alaska. She had an ant infestation and put pennyroyal around-----by by ants

thats all i know, and not sure of any bad effects. well, actually pennyroyal has been used to bring about abortions....maybe the ants eat and then die

I just buy a box of outdoor ant bait spikes and put one in the pot. Works like a charm, and when they're dead I can pull the stake out without leaving any extra residue.

I have been keeping an eye on the potted plants on the table and they're mostly gone. I did see a few on the table, but, not a whole colony in/out of the pot. The cinnamon seems to have done a pretty darned good job!

Cool glad the cinnamon did the job, besides ants, it can be used to treat damping off fungus, I have 3 plants alive that had damping off. One was really bad it had almost died, had to even snip the top because it was that bad. Cinnamon treatment and time, it bounced back and now starting to bud, still small though just the one the other two cant tell they were sick as all.

Yes, thanks Mark! You rock!

Hands down this is the best forum, so many people here I enjoy talking with (pepper talk) ha ha even off forum talk too it's cool. Everyone is always helpful to remedy issues, better soil or mixes, ferts, or even some psychology time if needed (shoulder to cry on).

Next up the annual pepper meeting where we meet to swap seeds and peppers LOL!

I had damping off last year on my seedlings and also used cinnamon. It sure helps. I haven't tried it for ants.
Bruce

BTW, I did have to re-apply after a rain. There weren't a lot, but, enough that I gave a nice sprinkle on the top and around the pot. I am hoping that they will just find a nicer home and I don't have to keep on re-applying.

You may have to repot that sucker. Why not try 7 dust or demactous earth.

I had wondered about sevin dust, but hadn't thought about Diatomaceous Earth - just not that familiar with it. If it gets to that, I'll look at those, but, I'm hopeful that the worst of it is over. Thanks, Jamie!

To wrap this up, the ants moved on. As mentioned above, I had to apply cinnamon a couple of times (2-3) but after that I haven't seen any.

To restart it, I have had large black ants in and around my above ground garden which has 5 of my Banana Peppers in it. I noticed them last year as well as the small red type. Well, with this heat, I decided to water the garden fully. I let the sprinkler run for quite a while even after water was dripping out the bottom. Suddenly, the big black ant started swarming out the cracks. My research is telling me that they are carpenter ants. I just ordered some gel type stuff to kill them and the whole colony off. It was a bit scarey to see and I am determined to see them gone. I dont think Cinnamon would do it.
Bruce

Hi Bruce,

Sprinkle corn meal or grits for em, they can't digest it and they get their fill then die.

Mark

Mark, that is a great tip, and I may do that but first I need to kill off the colony which means the queen. The stuff I am getting is supposed to be real slow acting poison which is in gel form. They ingest the stuff, then go back to the nest where the queen is and then feeds the queen and other colony members with the poison. The cormeal/grits sound like a great control option.....is that specific to carpenter ants or does it work form multiple species?
Bruce

While you wait for your order to arrive sprinkle cornmeal if you got it, they may also take this to the queen. It works on all ants, but it takes time also using this with a large infestation. I tend to use these methods unless absolutely necessary to use the nukes, and so far not had to resort to the nukes.

Since its an issue last season and more so this season to prevent another move in for next season, plant a few peppermint plants in the box or sprinkle some dried peppermint every so often around the box, they won't move in.

If its just that bad NUKE EM!

Mark, sounds like a plan. I will throw out some corn meal tomorrow. Nukes are armed and ready however.

Bruce

What? You don't think the shotgun would be effective against ants????? ;-) ;-)

is the NUKE stuff boron....such as borax?
add some to some sugar, they eat/gather and take to the nest and it kills them all

This is the stuff I ordered. See link below.

Next time I water, I may video tape them as they swarm out of the cracks in the wood frame.

I was wondering something about these damn ants (all ants, not just Carpenter ants). I know they are beneficial in that they help to keep your soil aerated. But can they go too far? I have tons of both Carpenter and little red ants all over the place (no aphids though) in the raised garden. It seems like the soil in the garden drains really fast and dries out really fast. When I water, it doesn't take much time for it to start draining out the bottom. I have put in everything from top soil to garden soil to peat to cow manure, etc over the years. I am wondering if the little bastards are not making it drain too fast. The reason I ask is I planted two Concord Grape vines this spring. They are about 5 feet apart. Our soil is sand here. I dug a nice sized hole and filled it with some MG garden soil. Then I planted the vines in each hole. One vine does great. But the other one did fine until it got warm out. As soon as it started to get hot, the thing started wilting. I watered it and it would perk back up in a couple hours but would be wilting the next day if it stayed warm and sunny. Not even hot, just 80-85. So, I water it again...run the hose slow for half an hour. It would just drain right in. Then it would recover only to wilt with in a day again. Finally, in the heat wave, I couldn't water it enough. I even shaded it. I noticed one time when watering, it had a ton of ants around it. I think the bastards killed it by creating a super fast draining zone around the vine. I think the same thing is happening in my raised garden. I am going to kill them all. One way or the other. The shotgun is an option but I need to find some really small shot.
Bruce

Here is a link that might be useful: Maxforce Ant killer