corn being attacked by ants!!

So my corn is completely infested with ants and it looks like they are laying eggs all over the stalks any ideas besides pesticides?

I have never heard of corn being 'attacked' by ants, though ants crawl all over stuff. Usually the sins of ants involve farming their domestic herds of aphids. Eggs are usually carefully tended in underground chambers by nanny's while workers bring them back delicacies like aphid poop, and are laid by a bulbous queen that you will never see without a shovel. They really are a family values kind of species.

You might spend some time watching them to try to figure out exactly what they do where they go, and what they do there. The seldom stop moving except on business. You might try to identify some kind of damage to the corn, or other nefarious behavoir and try to describe and photograph that. I used to work at a garden center, and often some plant damage was caused by one creature, and then when the gardener was watching, they see another creature walking by, and they get pinned with the crime... "I've been framed" they gesticulate with their antenna, but no one pays attention to their plea, squish... sad story.

really?? wow well is there anything i can do to get them off my corn???

People who want to hurt ants without poisons usually use boric acid or diatomaceous earth... Usually because they are getting in the house (sugar ants). I think I read recently that there are around 1,000,000 ants on earth for every human. But if there is not damage, it might be a learning experience, and the ants may be gathering organic materials and bringing them back to your garden, depending on what kind they are... keep an eye out for aphids though (not a problem on corn around here..)

Your picture shows an infestation of aphids. The ants are protecting the aphids from predators and feeding on the sweet secretions of the aphids. The best way to get rid of the aphids is to blast them off with a stream of water from a hose. You will have to do this several times a day but corn is sturdy enough to take it with no damage. If you want to use an organic pesticide probaby your best bet would be a mix of Safers soap (available at most nurseries) and neem oil. Neither one is harmful to you or your animals but the mix will kill aphids and discourage ants. Unfortunately it will kill beneficial predator insects also.

Why do anything? Are they harming the corn in any way? Perhaps there are aphids, although I can't see any in the photo. But it is certain these ants are performing some function in your ecosystem, and eradicating them isn't necessarily desirable. Unless you have evidence that they are causing damage, do nothing but observe and learn. I was pleased to find ants breeding in my hugelbeet; diversity is welcome there and plant growth is far more vigorous and healthy than in the regular garden plots.

Victor Johanson wrote:Why do anything? Are they harming the corn in any way? Perhaps there are aphids, although I can't see any in the photo. But it is certain these ants are performing some function in your ecosystem, and eradicating them isn't necessarily desirable. Unless you have evidence that they are causing damage, do nothing but observe and learn. I was pleased to find ants breeding in my hugelbeet; diversity is welcome there and plant growth is far more vigorous and healthy than in the regular garden plots.

Look at the picture again, especially the central stalk. It is packed with aphids. You may have mistaken them for droplets of water but you can see the tiny legs on some of them.

It looks like most of them are water droplets, because I can see the cornstalk veins magnified through them. I'm not seeing the legs. But aphids would certainly explain the ants' presence. Unless aphids are really horrible, they're usually not much to worry about; predators will multiply rapidly. The garden hose thing works pretty good; I've done that on my beans before, and a flock of birds immediately descended to feast on the dislodged aphids.

Sorry for the resurrected post but this is the first result in Google (2018) so I thought I would help other people looking also.

I can not see any aphids but I am also a very novice gardener so I doubt everything I do.

It seems that these ants are just ripping up my corn plant and drinking from it or possibly eating it also?

Please help. I am going to try DE but from what I have read ants won't/can't eat fibers like that and I am intrigued to hear from someone who knows anything.





If this forum doesn't allow new users to post images in posts here is direct links
https://i.imgur.com/Z9Uvl1S.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/fZIiG40.jpg

Rusty Shacklefurd wrote:Sorry for the resurrected post but this is the first result in Google (2018) so I thought I would help other people looking also.

I can not see any aphids but I am also a very novice gardener so I doubt everything I do.

It seems that these ants are just ripping up my corn plant and drinking from it or possibly eating it also?

Please help. I am going to try DE but from what I have read ants won't/can't eat fibers like that and I am intrigued to hear from someone who knows anything.





If this forum doesn't allow new users to post images in posts here is direct links
https://i.imgur.com/Z9Uvl1S.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/fZIiG40.jpg

that is some real damage. normally its them acting as farmers. i'd see where they are going then just pour hotwater down the hole. those are pretty big ants. almost like a carpenter ant. but they look a little too round for that.

The Ants Have gone mad! They are eating everything! i am famished!

I think something else has damaged your corn and the ants are eating the sweet sap that is leaking from the damage.

Since this thread was raised and the the image in the OP is gone, I thought I'd supply one from my own garden last August. I didn't know what it was at first, but I figured it out. And I just sprayed it off with a hose one time and they never came back.

I will try that thank you.

I found thousands of small ants on every kernel of corn in my raised box bed. I mixed a a tablespoon of borax and 12 cup sugar to a small pickle jar and added water shake well. They were crawling all over my front of house along the easement I tried this and bam they pests are gone. I don’t believe the borax will hurt the corn it just started popping up. But if so it’s still early to start a new batch. I put it on my other plants last year and they were okay. Just don’t do it in the heat wait till early morning or evening the sugar water might burn the leaves of tender plants.

1/2 or 1 tablespoons Laundry Borax
1/2 cup sugar
To 1/2 gallon water
Put a lid on container
And shake the poop out of it. It helps to use hot water to get things to dissolve better but the borax won’t dissolve just shake before you use. Also dip cotton balls in solution leave near the nest holes they will eat it and bring it back to the best bye bye ants. You can also use indoor areas of the house where you have ants . Just leave the cotton balls around they will scope them out and die a day later . Leave the balls for a few days . You can set on jar lids or something so they don’t stick to the counter or floor . Hope this helps. Good luck

Denise welcome to the forum!

Thank you for sharing.

Another great way to get rid of ants:

https://richsoil.com/diatomaceous-earth.jsp

For folks that don't know, a really simple way to get rid of those ants is to use vinegar.

By the way, that picture that Christopher posted shows ants farming aphids.

https://permies.com/wiki/ants-and-aphids

Hi Denise,  

Thanks !    You just addressed a problem I am having.

I had a similar issue on okra 2years ago. Upon further inspection there was aphids. Ants took care of aphids then disappeared when aphids were all gone

Hi all, I just watched this fantastic video recently relating to this topic (though probably not in the way you'd imagine)

https://youtu.be/bnNOvA3diDU?si=V8hKC3YuUxa4ZAvF

The jist is that insects (aphids included) exclusively feed on dead, dying, dieased, or unhealthy plants. The video goes pretty deep into the how and why, but suffice to say that if you are suffering insect attacks, your crops are unhealthy compared to the surrounding environment. This may be due to any number of reasons (poor nutrition, incorrect environment, bad genetics, etc.) but if your goal is to keep insects off your crops, focusing on plant health will undoubtedly yield best reasults. Trying to just "get rid" of the pest will never work. They found your plant once. They'll do it again. Nurturing your soil, and subsequently your plants, will significantly help to deter insect predation. Though the healthier your plants, the tastier they become to higher orders of life (think mammals) and now you have a whole new form of predation to deal with!

Dan O'Brien wrote:Trying to just "get rid" of the pest will never work. They found your plant once. They'll do it again.

I'm all in favor of building a whole and healthy ecosystem to make your entire garden more robust, but in the case of ants farming aphids on a particular plant, I've read dozens of accounts of people getting rid of the problem by just spraying them off with the hose to disperse the enterprise, and it's worked for me the couple of times I've encountered the problem. It seems that treating the symptom to get rid of the pest really does work well in this case.

I have used Diatomaceous Earth before, but have also found that peppermint being planted nearby helps too.

One possible cause of aphid infestation is high nitrate level in the plants. If a high nitrogen fertilizer is applied, plant roots will take in more nitrogen than it can use and nitrate is building up. It attracts aphids which can propagate asexually, i.e. a mother can give rise to many daughters which in turn give rise to grand daughters and the numbers explode in a short time. Fertilize light and often or use slow release fertilizer instead of giving the plant a big doze at once.

Dan O'Brien wrote:Hi all, I just watched this fantastic video recently relating to this topic (though probably not in the way you'd imagine)

https://youtu.be/bnNOvA3diDU?si=V8hKC3YuUxa4ZAvF

The jist is that insects (aphids included) exclusively feed on dead, dying, dieased, or unhealthy plants. The video goes pretty deep into the how and why, but suffice to say that if you are suffering insect attacks, your crops are unhealthy compared to the surrounding environment. This may be due to any number of reasons (poor nutrition, incorrect environment, bad genetics, etc.) but if your goal is to keep insects off your crops, focusing on plant health will undoubtedly yield best reasults. Trying to just "get rid" of the pest will never work. They found your plant once. They'll do it again. Nurturing your soil, and subsequently your plants, will significantly help to deter insect predation. Though the healthier your plants, the tastier they become to higher orders of life (think mammals) and now you have a whole new form of predation to deal with!

While there is undoubtedly truth in the proposition that a weak plant is more susceptible to damage and infestation than a strong one, I do not see that in practice *only* unhealthy plants get pests. Plant-eating bugs are seeking the plant that is easiest for them to eat. Weakened or unhealthy plants may be easier to eat for various reasons— preexisting physical damage could give easy access to yummy juices, stunted or weakened leaves may be easier to chew through. But other conditions that are not “unhealthy” to the plant could also make it easier for the bugs to eat. New growth is tender and easy to eat and thus even healthy new growth will be prone to infestation. A plant or some part of a plant may be located in a place that shields the pest bugs from predation or other environmental hazards. Or there could be not many plants to chose from of a bug’s favorite type, so they go after even the strong ones. For example, if you’re the only garden on the block growing squash this year and those borers need to lay eggs somewhere.