Wow, you’ve all been busy while I was out moving pots again. We dodged a bullet last night. It was 34° and calm. Tonight will be a repeat. Then it warms up again. They are now predicting 87° for the weekend.
You know, I think too much of anything isn’t good for plants. In master gardener mtgs long ago, I had heard the good, the bad and, the ugly of treating pests. I guess it comes down to common sense and what you're comfortable with. I try to do no harm, but I don’t plan to lose anymore plants to those ants. Whether they eat the roots or just chew them to have more room, I can spot a potted plant with crazy ants by the way the leaves are drooping.
Since Sevin dust (5%) is made from the dried flower head of a daisy (Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium), I don’t really see that as a noxious chemical when used as I do. On the other hand, phototoxcity can occur with soil drenching with boric acid. It can cause damaged root tissue that shows up as stunting or slow decline. So it’s just a matter of “name your poison,” as far as I know.
If anyone's interested, I would suggest the Texas A&M website (TAMU), and search for Rasberry Crazy Ants. They’re named after the exterminator that first discovered them.
We had the leaf-cutters in our Tucson garden. We could go out after dark and watch the trail they’d make carrying the leaves they’d strip from our new tagged Ocotillos. We first thought kids were stripping the leaves off, as we'd never seen anything like that before!
