Peonies are the lush and most beautiful flowers in the garden. Naturally, many gardeners look forward to their flowering. But there are times when ants appear on peonies how to get rid of them? Plants cannot bloom because of this. It is believed that ants are beneficial insects, but this is not entirely true. There is a kind of insects that settle in living quarters and cause harm to people living there. You should be careful with them, as they are carriers of diseases. In addition, ants breed aphids, which is also undesirable for garden plants.

Reasons for the appearance of ants on buds

The diet of ants, first of all, depends on the amount of carbohydrates that they receive from honeydew and plant sap. It is worth remembering how sweet peony flowers smell, then it will be possible to understand what exactly attracts ants to it. If insects appear already on blossoming flowers, then this is not so scary than on buds.

Peonies

The buds give off a smell more than the flower itself, so insects gnaw right through the bud in search of nectar. This becomes the reason that the plant does not bloom. Or flowers come out deformed, crooked and with nibbled edges. Many are interested in the question: ants appeared on the buds of a peony, what to do?

Interesting information. In South America, some Indian tribes used ants to initiate young men into adult men. To do this, the guy was put on a special sleeve filled with ants. The insect bite causes a severe swelling on the child's hand, and it becomes immobile.

How to get rid of insects

Shaking off insects from buds is not the best way to get rid of. First you need to find out what methods of insect control will be the most effective, only after that start working. At this time, there is a wide range of drugs with which you can save peonies.

Chemical-based preparations

Ants on strawberries - how to get rid of

Chemicals are not very effective in the fight against insects, because, having sprayed the flower buds with an aerosol, the gardener will only get rid of the invasion for a while. The dead insects are replaced by new ones.

If you use a gel to fight, then its effect is longer, since it acts on the digestive system and is able to act in a chain reaction. An individual that gets sick is capable of infecting the entire colony. The only drawback is that this bait can also kill beneficial insects, such as bees. So how do you get rid of ants on peonies?

Most often, such drugs are in demand as:

  • "Anteater" - the drug is sold in powder or liquid form. The active ingredient is diazinon. It is a potent poison that infects the intestines of an insect. One ampoule of the drug must be diluted in ten liters of water and sprayed with a peony bush, as well as an anthill.

Important! In no case should the diluted drug be stored for a long time. It is best to use it immediately.

  • "Muravyin" and "Muratsid" are similar preparations to "Anteater", they operate on the same principle.
  • "Expel" is a German powdery preparation. The drug is based on two percent chlorpyrophos. The drug is produced not only in the form of a powder, but also in a liquid state. Works great, but one condition is important.If you do not follow all the rules specified in the instructions, you can harm not only your health, but also your pets.

Special preparations will help get rid of ants

Physical means

In this case, special scarers and traps are used.

It should be noted! You won't be able to scare off the ants, the trap can be more effective, especially if you put bait there. This substance acts like a virus on insects and destroys the entire colony. Traps that are safe for bees and other insects, as there are small holes in the plastic that only an ant can enter.

These drugs include:

  • "Combat". One package contains four traps with the drug at once.
  • Raptor. The set of this drug includes six pieces of traps containing the drug Chlorpyrifos.

Folk remedies

To treat peonies from an ant, you can use folk remedies. These are very simple methods that will not harm other animals, plants, and will not deplete the land and will not accumulate in the soil. Among them, the most popular are:

  1. A bait consisting of boric acid and a sweet ingredient such as jam or honey. The sweetness must be diluted in water, in a ratio of one to two. Boric acid should be added to the mixture in the amount of a tablespoon. The trap is placed under a peony bush or near an anthill.
  2. Bay leaf will help in the fight against ants. It is boiled, flower buds are treated with this liquid. To get a positive result, you need to spray the entire plant.
  3. Wormwood, tansy, mint, lavender, parsley and anise have the same effect as bay leaves. You need to spray the plant with decoctions of these herbs.
  4. Garlic works just fine instead of chemicals. You can simply rub the whole plant with a clove of garlic and forget about the ants.
  5. Insects from the plant will be scared away by an ordinary rag that has been doused with kerosene.
  6. To avoid the invasion of insects, you need to carefully loosen the root zone near the shrub, and a mixture made from soda, lime and ash is also poured into the place where the anthill was.
  7. Tobacco will help drive away uninvited guests. To do this, you need to prepare the butts, fill with water and insist for several hours. Peony buds are treated with this mixture.
  8. You can also use ammonia, vinegar.

Interesting. When cutting peonies, it is unpleasant for gardeners to see how ants run up and down the trunk. To get rid of them, the flowers are immersed in water. After three minutes, they are gently shaken off. Ants get along with the water.

Prevention of ants

Ants in a hive: how to get rid of

In order for peonies to bloom and smell sweet in the garden, you need to protect them and make sure that insects do not harm the peduncle. Their invasion can be prevented with the help of preventive measures, which are as follows:

  1. Regularly inspect the plant and flower beds to determine if there are anthills on them. Discovered insects must be destroyed immediately. The next year, you need to re-process the treatment to finally get rid of the ants.
  2. It is constantly necessary to ensure that anthills do not appear on the territory of the garden.
  3. When replanting flowers from place to place, you need to add ash to the soil. It will serve as a fertilizer for the plant and keep it from the invasion of insects.
  4. On the same bed with peonies, you need to plant plants that emit fragrances that repel insects.

Before you fight ants on the buds of peonies, it is better to try to carry out prevention. It is easier to prevent the appearance of ants on the plant than to get rid of them later. Removing an anthill is much more difficult, it requires a lot of effort. Moreover, if the aphid is also bred, which is able to stick around the plant and feed on its juices.

In order to get rid of insects once and for all, first of all, you need to study their behavior and how the structure works. Constantly identify areas where colonies are forming and remove them. Although ants do not pose a great danger, they spoil the flowers in the buds, and for the sake of them the plant is grown.That is why taking preventive measures in the garden is the most effective method of controlling insects.