How to get rid of ants on strawberries?

Ants can be treated well as long as they do not appear on your strawberry, lovingly planted in your own summer cottage. These insects, which are not only not considered to be pests, but also bring a lot of benefits, are destructive for such a culture - not only do they eat berries, they also provoke the breeding of aphids, which destroys the leaves of the plant. Since most living species are trying to settle closer to the source of food, ants build their anthills in the roots of strawberries, in the process of which they cover the stalk with earth, and sometimes even completely overwhelm the bush.

In fact, it is possible to save strawberries from uninvited guests even without killing them, because, as already mentioned, ants can also bring benefits. If the colony is small, then this way, which does not require any costs, will be optimal - you just need to move the nest far beyond the bed.

This is done no later than mid-June, otherwise an abundant number of inhabitants of an anthill simply will not allow a summer resident of such liberties with his house. Another requirement for timing is time - this should be done at any time, only not during the day, otherwise the majority of the “population” will just be absent in search of food, and will return by evening.

The very meaning of the procedure is quite simple - a relatively small nest is dug along with all its contents, including the larvae and eggs.

Transportation of the nest beyond the useful area is carried out in a bucket, specially oiled, so that insects do not get out and reach the gardener, who, for safety reasons, must also wear oiled rubber gloves. The place where the anthill was, is filled with ashes - then neither the old ants nor the new ones will want to settle here.

It happens that the colony is small, but it is problematic to dig it out if it is located in the thick of the plantation. In this situation, a small number of insects are easier to scare off in the hope that they will appreciate the danger and leave themselves - they also act in order to protect the newly ripe berry. As a deterrent, some plants will fit, for example, parsley and mint, wormwood and mustard, as well as tansy, which are simply laid out in the undergrowth.

Anise oil for ants is also very unpleasant - they can process sawdust, which they then sprinkle on the roots. As a very obvious request to leave the anthill, lay out the cotton-free cotton swabs.

If you don’t want to or do not want to mess around with the transfer of an anthill, you can simply kill its residents. Considering that the problem has been known to mankind for a long time, this can be done without special costs - using folk remedies, tested by several generations.

So, at least 3 substances are dangerous for insects, which are quite easy to get - boric acid, borax and yeast. It is enough for ants to eat such “treats” so that they disappear for a long time - it remains to be done so that they agree to eat this product. To do this, it is mixed with something sweet - sugar, honey or jam in an amount sufficient to interrupt the smell of poison.

The trick of this method is that you don’t need to do anything special - the working ants themselves will bite on the bait and feed the uterus with it, which makes it impossible to further grow the colony. The only thing you need to remember is that the ants are not stupid, because they do not bite on an expired product - all the ingredients of the trap must be fresh.

If the nest from which raids are made is not located in the thick of the strawberries, but at some distance, the enemy can be fought in an extremely rough and just as simple way. The scheme is simple - you need to quickly dig up the anthill, and then as soon as possible pour it with either boiling water or vegetable oil.

If the nest is too close to the bed, money should be chosen carefully so as not to harm the plants. You can scare away ants without digging with ashes, soda, or quicklime, which are simply laid out on the nest - the method does not work immediately, because the procedure is repeated several times. Alternatively, you can use an aqueous solution of linseed oil and soda.

You can connect to the struggle and natural enemies of ants - birds, but they can be a separate danger to strawberries. If insects have already provoked an increase in the number of aphids, it is worthwhile to collect all the ladybirds encountered and bring them to your site - they feed on aphids.

If the strawberries have not even started to bloom, and there are already quite a lot of ants, the bushes can be treated with a liquid or ammonia solution - a fairly large spoon on a bucket of water. By the time the berries ripen, the smell will disappear, but ants will prefer to retire by that time.

Modern industry offers a huge amount of poisonous drugs that can kill anything on earth, and ants, of course, are no exception - special, narrowly targeted drugs have been created for them. They can have a different shape and method of application, but in all cases it is worth remembering that such a poison is very toxic and can cause harm even to humans.

"Muracid" is considered one of the most effective means of its kind - it mimics folk remedies in the form of supposedly food, in fact, it is a poison. This drug must be poured directly into the anthill, from which the top layer is previously removed, otherwise the use of an insecticide will be unnecessarily expensive. By chemical composition and meaning, some other substances are similar, for example, "Ants" or "Anteater".

Gel "Great Warrior" uses the same principle, but attracts insects much more, because it is simply laid out in the vicinity of the nest, smearing on cardboard or the lid from the can to avoid soaking into the ground. However, such bait has a minus - any rain erodes the poison, because of which the procedure will have to be repeated anew.

There are also special chemicals that are directly sprayed with strawberries - similar means include, for example, Biotlin, Bison, and Tanrek. Since there is a risk of such a poison in the human diet, it is necessary to act in strict accordance with the instructions - in particular, it is unacceptable to spray a mixture of flowers and especially the ensuing berries. Processing is carried out exclusively before flowering, and for sufficient effectiveness the procedure should be carried out on a day when there is neither precipitation nor strong wind.

Who tried to fight with ants in the country, he knows that it is impossible to win the final victory in this confrontation - insects will eventually appear again, no matter what you do. However, this does not mean that you should not even try to defend the harvest. Moreover, to significantly simplify the task will help timely prevention, when even the first uninvited "settlers" immediately face not the most favorable conditions for life.

The wisest method is to properly plant the plants in the garden. For example, the ants are very unpleasant smells of garlic, mint and onion, they try to avoid these plants, and those, although they have a strong smell, are still not able to soak strawberries in them.

If the onion was not planted on time, but no serious problems with the ants have yet been noticed, you can try to correct and protect the bed from a possible invasion. For these purposes, garlic is best suited, which is pressed to squeeze the juice and diluted with a bucket of water for half a glass. This mixture can be further flavored and made more vigorous with a pair of boric acid spoons and 2 glasses of needles extract. After that, the mixture is infused for 5-7 days for complete mixing of the ingredients, and then sprayed on the garden with an eye on the ground under the bushes. If a ready-made anthill is found out already in the process, it can also be watered with such a means - the result can exceed all expectations.

As a popular preventive measure, common salt is also used. Using it, it is important not to oversalt the soil, because they usually use relatively little, sprinkling only the so-called ant paths along which insects can move on the way to strawberries. As in the previous case, the salt can be poured into the discovered nests.

On how to deal with ants on strawberries, see the following video.