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Post by venusdoll on Jul 27, 2014 23:32:22 GMT
Ok so I removed the live sphagnum I'm using as a top dressing for my cephalotus follicularis to check out a second growing point. When I pulled the sphagnum back ants went EVERYWHERE. I panicked and put it outside on the banister and soaked it in distiller water. More and more ants keep pouring out and there are eggs down in the media. I've pulled the media away from the roots and removed it, planting it in another container that's ant free. I've read that cephs hate for their roots to be disturbed and it's not a very old plant and has no pitchers. Can anyone give me any advice in how to make it's rehoming less stressful? Or can I simply expect my beloved ceph to die? Attachments:
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Bio
Full Member
The Plant Whisperer
Posts: 12
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Post by Bio on Jul 28, 2014 3:02:40 GMT
Ant colonies are typically harmless to CPs, and can be quite beneficial by providing the plant with food.The problem with ants is that they can occasionally start to "farm" aphids and scale insects, which can damage the plant. It's up to you to decide if you want to remove them or not.
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Post by venusdoll on Jul 28, 2014 6:29:33 GMT
I didn't know that. Maybe if the plant was being grown outside? It's inside my house in a terrarium which is why the ants stunned me. I have seen the occasional ant poking around my terr but never carrying eggs or food.
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Post by partisangardener on Jul 30, 2014 4:40:44 GMT
I occasionally have ants inside my house usually in pots. It happens when a young winged queen comes inside to investigate for a new home. The next spring you will notice the first small workers. The other way is to keep a pot outside. They like pots very much. It sometimes takes only a few days to have a colony of ants in the pots. Hopefully there are only some workers with brood. Many of the species which like pots have only one queen. This is then a problem for at most a few years. Workers even of bigger species live only a few years. Queens live sometimes 20 years or more. I was breeding ants fore some years long ago. I love them, but in plant pots they are usually critical. Even if they don’t keep aphids, their burrowing, eventually leave roots too dry
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Post by partisangardener on Jul 30, 2014 6:06:49 GMT
To drown ants is normally quite unsuccessful; they are able to retain enough oxygen while clumping together. It takes days without a detergent. I don’t know if carnivores are harmed by detergents. Other plants do well as it was said.
To flood it regularly could work. They don’t like it and will eventually look for another better suited housing.
There is an ant species with a alarm pheromone which does not go into bogs or pots. Its name is Lasius fuliginosus. Smells for us like pyroligneous acid (wood acid). Whether this wood acid itself works or not, I don’t know. I believe its something different.
You could collect some workers and keep them for some time in a glass with a piece of cloth. Or just pour them over this place.
Nearly all our species will flee immediately.
This species is quite common in Europe to Siberia. Other continents will have other species with similar chemical warfare. They have nests in the trunk of trees made out of wooden fibre and saliva, stabilised with a special fungus (board). They live mainly on sugar they collect from aphids in trees. Colour is polished black.
Colonies need another species to be founded. By the way what we usually call eggs (ants) is the pupa. Eggs are really tiny and go usually in clumps while being transported. But all are usually transported underground only in case of emergency above ground
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