I just saw an ANT in my soil :(

[panalilies]

I read Neem oil is good, has anyone tried it? Does any one have any fast/ easy recommendations?

Edit: its a small little black ant, and I might have seen 1 or 2 of them

[Farmbuck]

Ahh the old Neem oil !! I remembered last year spraying in panicked on my Thai Chi girls, especially on the colas because of gnats.... A few months after during Xmas... I took a few hits and well most of our dear growers know how it ended up.
Not so well I assure you.

My opinion try something else if you can and if you cannot do it before flowering stage.

[panalilies]

I was also looking at Diatomaceous Earth, but I ALSO read that ants can be "good" in some cases (they do eat roots, and I have an unexplained hole in the round leaf of my seedling), as long as there isnt a lot? They had to have come in thru the soil I bought at ACE, there is no other way in and I used new soil in this grow than I did in the last. Maybe I should do nothing if they are okay to keep? Otherwise Im making a trip to Home Depot for DE to get this taken care of ASAP

[PeterMatanzas]

Buy the DE, it's commonly used as a pesticide on the soil surface. Fungus gnats don't like it either. It's real powdery so be careful, because if there's an uplift of air when you're applying it you will have DE on plants and it won't come off easily. Don't water it after you apply it., it will dissolve. Wait until the soil's dry. There's also food grade DE, that works too, buy what's cheap as long as it's diatomaceous earth. A spear of DE will penetrate through the insect's body plates.

[panalilies]

I am going to go for food grade, I dont want to take any chances with safety. Should I do it like an inch away from my plant or directly around it to keep them off? thank you for the help!

[DeadlyFruit]

I wouldn’t worry a ton about ants unless your ants are different than ours. Ants don’t generally harm healthy plants and can kill other things that do. With that said I think some types of ants will farm other bugs, using them to suck out the sap and then taking it (I just have a faint recollection of reading something about it so can’t remember the details). Bugs are not generally desirable but there are plenty out there that are more smoke than fire, as the saying goes, and some that are actually helpful. With outdoor grows I ignore most types of bugs if they are not actually visibly damaging the plant excessively. Better than spraying a lot of strong chemicals if you don’t have to.

[panalilies]

I am not big on bugs in general, but I did read about them keeping other bugs out as well. Im just worried they will go for my plant since I do have an unexplained hole in it. I would prefer to do a more natural spray if its better than DE, but I will probably end up using DE to just make me feel better about my plant being safe

[PeterMatanzas]

My grows sometimes get fungus gnats so I use DE and apply it with this tool. A spoon would work. If I have container plants this works well, and I dont see any ants, except maybe roaming around the floor occasionally. Usually there's tomato and eggplant mini plants growing in containers, this is kind of like WMD

[PeterMatanzas]

1970 Duster, red with gold stripes. It was a great car, drove everywhere, one trip from Madison WI to Key West we ran out of money and made it back only thanks to hitch hiker cash.

[Rwise]

I miss the 70 Duster I had, got totaled out on my sons 2nd birthday.

[PeterMatanzas]

Girls thought the Duster was a very cool car.

[Rwise]

With ants watch for aphids as ants farm them, just like we do cows.

[panalilies]

yeah, I read that the aphids are the ones that go for sap. No way do I want them taking my sugar