Hello, boys and girls. This might be a little long as I am one of those people that explain everything to the smallest detail.
I'm having an issue that I don't quite know how to handle, and it might be nothing. (I grow hydro, using clay pellets as medium)
I'm at the end of my 8th week of flowering, and several weeks ago (almost as soon as I started flowering) I started to see ants roaming around.
It's summer here so it's very common to see ants everywhere collecting food for the colony and I didn't give it a second thought. Although this is the first time I've seen them inside the tent, I see one every now and then but it couldn't be described as 'ant activity', now that's what it is.
Then I started seeing them climbing one of the plants up and down and their presence became very noticeable.
Today I went to check on the girls and there were a lot of ants (a few dozens), enough to cause concern, climbing up and down and walking over the medium.
I don't think they're nesting in the medium because it floods three times a day.
Here's a video (
) I took with my phone.
So I did a bit of research and found that apparently they don't harm the plants and feed off the feces or traces left behind by other insect such as white flies.
Now, I do have other flying insects going around (not sure which, maybe thrips), they are there almost every cycle despite cleaning and disinfecting everything, I keep them under control using sticky paper, I rarely see them flying around but I can tell they keep reproducing as the paper catches more and more every day. There's no damage to the leaves or the plants so I don't bother much with them.
So I sprayed a little RAID (very carefully and slowly) on some point outside the tent where I saw ant roads and killed as many as I could with my fingers.
I know that this is not even close to be considered a solution, but at least killing a few of them makes me feel better hehehe.
So I have about 20 days left till harvest, at which point I normally remove and sanitize everything so I'll do my best to keep this from happening, plus summer will be almost over by the time I start the next flowering cycle (around the first week of March) so I don't think it will be a problem later.
So my question is, do I need to worry about the next 30 days? or is there anything I can do?
I wrapped the stem at the base with sticky paper so they won't be able to get up the plant that way, but the plants (there are three on the 1x1x2 mts tent) are big enough that the branches are touching each other and the sides of the tent, so they'll figure that soon enough.
I don't know if it means anything or it's purely coincidental, but the only plant the seem to like is the one that is budding slower than the other two (all the same strain, AK-48), no stunted growth otherwise, just the budding started a bit later and has gone a bit slower.
So anyways, if you're reading this line it means you took the time to read this huge text that described a very simple thing, so thank you for taking the time to do that and I appreciate any answer you might give me.
Good luck and Happy Growing!!
I'm having an issue that I don't quite know how to handle, and it might be nothing. (I grow hydro, using clay pellets as medium)
I'm at the end of my 8th week of flowering, and several weeks ago (almost as soon as I started flowering) I started to see ants roaming around.
It's summer here so it's very common to see ants everywhere collecting food for the colony and I didn't give it a second thought. Although this is the first time I've seen them inside the tent, I see one every now and then but it couldn't be described as 'ant activity', now that's what it is.
Then I started seeing them climbing one of the plants up and down and their presence became very noticeable.
Today I went to check on the girls and there were a lot of ants (a few dozens), enough to cause concern, climbing up and down and walking over the medium.
I don't think they're nesting in the medium because it floods three times a day.
Here's a video (
So I did a bit of research and found that apparently they don't harm the plants and feed off the feces or traces left behind by other insect such as white flies.
Now, I do have other flying insects going around (not sure which, maybe thrips), they are there almost every cycle despite cleaning and disinfecting everything, I keep them under control using sticky paper, I rarely see them flying around but I can tell they keep reproducing as the paper catches more and more every day. There's no damage to the leaves or the plants so I don't bother much with them.
So I sprayed a little RAID (very carefully and slowly) on some point outside the tent where I saw ant roads and killed as many as I could with my fingers.
I know that this is not even close to be considered a solution, but at least killing a few of them makes me feel better hehehe.
So I have about 20 days left till harvest, at which point I normally remove and sanitize everything so I'll do my best to keep this from happening, plus summer will be almost over by the time I start the next flowering cycle (around the first week of March) so I don't think it will be a problem later.
So my question is, do I need to worry about the next 30 days? or is there anything I can do?
I wrapped the stem at the base with sticky paper so they won't be able to get up the plant that way, but the plants (there are three on the 1x1x2 mts tent) are big enough that the branches are touching each other and the sides of the tent, so they'll figure that soon enough.
I don't know if it means anything or it's purely coincidental, but the only plant the seem to like is the one that is budding slower than the other two (all the same strain, AK-48), no stunted growth otherwise, just the budding started a bit later and has gone a bit slower.
So anyways, if you're reading this line it means you took the time to read this huge text that described a very simple thing, so thank you for taking the time to do that and I appreciate any answer you might give me.
Good luck and Happy Growing!!
. I had a rhubarb plant infested with aphids and ants one year, it made great compost.
