*yes I know ... reminds me of a childhood affliction my parents used to mention, too ... but maybe it's just as uncomfortable for the daylilies! ...*

Please share any organic (we have dogs-allowed yard and beds), easy, affordable ways to dissuade ants from buzzing around in the daylily blooms I'm not sure what they are doing in there, but each time I go to pollinate, there is at least one ant that climbs to the top of the stigma and reaches out their front set of arms to wrestle with my tweezered offering of pollen.

Others are seen wandering around eating tell-tale holes in the petals, or are down inside at the base of the bloom, perhaps drinking water or nectar. If I try spraying diluted lemon juice on the unopened or just-opened buds (perhaps mixed with anti-aphid-thrip diluted dish soap) do you think it would mar the flower or just end up encouraging the ants further?

We've tried over-the-counter eco-pet friendly solutions, but there has been no impact from their use So ... hoping someone has found something else that has worked for them?

Tina,
Problems with ants, I have many. Because I use sand-rich earth in the seedlings, like the ants nest on. When the flowers are indeed also, but here I do not see any danger. When I hover flies and beetles are much worse pests. Ants build their buildings often go where food is. Therefore, I had asked infested flower pots into the water. So I could only find out that the pot is infested.




Here the moving queen!


When all the ants were up I had sprayed with hard chemistry and then again with clear water - protecting the plant.

So they killed one seedling close to the root .... there is lot of sugar in the hole plant!

There is also a good home remedy for ants - baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). This is only in dry weather. Because the powder reacts to moisture and acid. This is also the mechanism.

You can mix it with powdered sugar and sprinkle on the ant-street and -holes baking soda. The ants eat that and since baking soda reacts with formic acid. The CO2 escapes into the ants. The ants then explode. Some ants then bring the mixture to the queen to feed it. If that works, you've won.

here is an example of the reaction

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...

han

look what I found in www

http://www.ehow.com/how_658066...

When dry seaweed was spread on my 8 acres to help with fertilization, I noticed all the fire ants and other kinds of ants left.
After about 8 years or more, they've gradually returned.

I also have ants get in my pots. Haven't really done anything with them. They don't seem to bother my seedlings.

what an awesome solution! Thank you so much, Hans. I would love to have blooms that are not in danger of "enthusiastic grazing," and seedlings that succumb to aphid farming done by the ants (pictures and quoted captions shown at http://www.morning-earth.org/G...).

I had never heard of baking soda and sugar, and I will start using it today. I also have somewhat sandy soil since I live near a large river not too far from the ocean, and had not thought of that - it makes perfect sense as a home for ants to find desirable for housing. They really are literally colonizing the entire yard and garden.

I'll also check out the seaweed possibility. I'm glad to provide another source of food that they might prefer if it will keep them from the daylilies, and could try to fix up something to keep the dogs and other critters from eating it, too.

You guys are awesome - the daylilies will have a chance to bloom to their full extent, the seedilngs might have a better chance to withstand assaults from parasitic pests, and I've learned such positive ways to adjust my own environment in helpful and beneficial ways, just by asking about ants.