It’s an ant’s job says the popular saying. Never better said when carrying out biological control of these classic inhabitants in family orchards and gardens. INTA recommendations to achieve adequate biological control.
Black ants are surely one of the most frequent and least loved visitors to our garden, among the best-known species are the red, carpenter, and Argentine,” explained Francisco Pescio – technician at the INTA Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires and one of the authors of the book “My house, my garden” –
He added that “although they play an important role in nature, they generally cause us quite a few inconveniences in our crops. That is why we have to learn to regulate its population.”
Some methods to combat them range from cracked rice baits to fighting with fire or between ants. “Biological management or control requires that it be carried out in an integrated manner and not only by applying a recipe,” said the INTA AMBA specialist.
In this sense, he highlighted that it is necessary to “find balance within the garden not by destroying the ants but by ensuring that they do not attack the vegetables in principle through the combination of species or the presence of aromatics.”
According to the specialist, “not all species are the same for ants since some will be the first to be attacked, such as legumes (beans and peas). And others can be consumed last or repelled. What are good repellents? “Mint, garlic and onion, wormwood, lavender, rue, sesame.”
Baits and traps
Baits are beautiful elements that can fulfill several functions. At the beginning of an attack, they allow you to “distract” attention from the attacked plants and direct them to the bait. They can also affect the ants’ food (as is the case with rice).
At the same time, allowing the ants to transport toxic substances to the nest so that they can then attack the fungus (as happens with copper sulfate).
The most used baits are citrus peels, honey, and grains of broken rice. Traps are those species of plants that are highly preferred by ants, which they will attack first.
To do this we take some plants, such as beans, and we can use them knowing they will warn that the ants are there. When they appear attacked (we have little time) we begin to prepare our biological control arsenal.
Extracts, preparations, and slurry
Pescio commented that there are differences between extracts, macerates, and slurry. “Our preparations are called plant extracts,” said the technician. Many plants have compounds with various insecticidal, fungicide, and medicinal properties, among others.
“The way to extract them is using some liquid, generally water, although the result varies according to the extraction procedures,” he explained.
In fermented manure, the plant parts are placed in containers with water. Cover the container and stir daily until a color change occurs in one to two weeks. The smell it has is very unpleasant. It is diluted in water and can be applied.
Meanwhile, the infusion consists of placing the plants in boiling water. Let it rest for 24 hours. Unlike Maceration in which the vegetables are placed in water for no more than three days. It should not ferment.
In all cases, we must filter the result. Generally, it is also diluted and then applied.
Orange Blossom
This technique uses fungi that attack citrus fruits. Characteristic green and blue fungi generally appear on the fruits, which belong to the Penicillium sp species. As its name indicates, penicillin, a powerful antibiotic, was obtained from this family of fungi. The technique consists of taking several of these fruits and making a macerate.
This liquid is filtered and watered at the entrance to the anthill. The objective is to “water” spores of these fungi on the anthill, which will germinate in the fungus and eliminate the fungus that the ants use as food; thus causing them to move away from the area.
This technique is not always successful, because in the fungus the ants grow not only the fungus that serves as their food but also other fungi that generate defense substances. Depending on the relationship between these mushrooms and the ones we add, the final result will be.
A great community
Ants are the most evolved social insects since they have an organization in castes and are distinguished by: a queen who, compared to all her progeny, is gigantic, and her entire life, once she has established the colony, is restricted to laying eggs.
Both the winged reproducers, the fertile virgin females (winged, they only use their wings in the nuptial flight, and after being fertilized they detach themselves from the deciduous wings) and the males (they die at the end of their only flight: the nuptial one); and workers (asexual and wingless females) are the majority of the colony’s population and are responsible for the damage. They measure between 6 and 10 millimeters long and are semi-glossy black.
The specialist explained that “there is a great variety of ants in the garden, and not all of them affect us in the same way: we have the typical red ants, with their classic elevated anthill that, except for the annoying bites, these ants do not feed on vegetables. ; and there are other types of red ants, which do not sting and can cause other problems, but they do not attack plants.”
For this reason, Pescio focused on controlling the famous black ants that damage vegetables or cutter ants. But how do we differentiate them? “Cutter ants are easily differentiated from non-cutter ants because they have spines on the dorsal part of the thorax (above the back, in Creole” responds the INTA AMBA technician.
