Hi! I think I have ants in my plant pot? Help please

[escapology]

It seems as if I am having a bit of bad luck with plants at the moment

I purchased a new plant yesterday, once I got back into the car I noticed small bugs on the soil. They were so small and I just assumed they were some kind of beneficial bug as I didn't recognise them at first. I took a video at the time just incase as I purchased this plant online and collected it from a reputable garden centre. At the same location my mum bought a plant, I got home and checked this other plant to find MEALY BUGS, something I have never faced before and was pretty disheartened but I think I can treat mealy bugs. However, it now worries me as to what the other plant is harbouring. Please see photos.

I have spoken to the owner and he told me the ants should die out in the home setting (which I really hope they do) but this is a plant I need to keep in a more humid environment (similar to what its been kept in) so I was planning on putting it in my greenhouse. I really hope I don't sound like a nag, its just frustrating to spend money on plants that end up being infested with bugs. Especially a philodendron verrucosum.

One is mealy bugs and I think one of the other bugs is a soil mite. Just the Ant looking one concerns me, i've never had to deal with ants in my indoor plants before. So wondered what you guys think and would do about them?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thank you so much!

 

[Tetters]

I'll tell you what I would do... take the whole lot back to the nursery and demand a refund. When you have your money back, find a decent nursery and buy some more plants, and check these carefully before parting with more money.
Could you please go to your profile and add where in the UK you are.

 

[escapology]

Hi!

Thank you for your reply! I'm also located in Kent! I don't know many good places to get indoor plants from around here. If i was to keep the plant how would you deal with the ants? do you know what they do to the plant?

 

[Tetters]

Well, the ants aren't really interested in the plant, all they want to do is make a nest and get on with their business. However they will move the compost around a bit to get themselves organised, but I reckon they would probably be happier outside in the garden. If you were to take your plant out of the pot and gently shake all the compost off and into the garden somewhere outside, the ants would happily make a new home out there. Of course you would need some new compost to repot your plant.


We have seen a few decent pot plants in the local nurseries, but I don't even think of looking at those expensive philodendron sorts I would be scared of doing it in. I usually stick with spider plants and orchids.
Before covid struck we got a few in B&M because they didn't cost too much, but we haven't been inside any shops for almost 2 years now.
We are between Canterbury and Dover

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I am just over the border in East Sussex, and I have seen an awful lot of ants this year. I use ant powder if they look like damaging something, sorry, I don't know what's in it, and I am sorry, but it is a wet night and it is in the greenhouse, but I have seen it on sale in garden centers. I have had mine years, I don't use it all that often, but it doesn't seem to lose it's effectiveness. The occasional ant will probably just disappear, I can't remember the detail, but I think you need a fertilised queen for a proper nest, but that isolated from a queen workers can mutate and produce some sort of egg. I can't remember the details. The main pain of ants is that they carry aphids to new places so that they can collect the honeydew they produce, and they make lumps in the lawn.

 

[DrCase]

I just flood the pots when ants try to move in

 

[SeniorCitizen]

I'm not a ant X-pert but I can tell ya what keeps little piss ants from carrying off all the bait in my mouse traps. 5% 7 dust sprinkled around the trap. 7 dust also keeps them from invading the hummingbird feeder.