How to Control Ants Around Your Raspberry Plants

The sudden appearance of ants surrounding your raspberry plants may be alarming, but there is a simple explanation. As anyone who has seen a trail of ants leading to sweet food knows, ants seek out sugary substances as sustenance. However, ants are not trekking toward your raspberry plants for the fruit. When aphids feed on your raspberry plants, they excrete a sugary, sticky substance called honeydew that drips onto plant surfaces and the ground, attracting ants.

• 1

  Contact your local county extension agent or a licensed professional to determine the type of ant gathering near your raspberry plants, particularly if you use mulch. Avoid pine straw mulch that acts as a nesting grounds for ants. Utilize aromatic pencil cedar mulch if Argentine ants are your pest. Discuss potential changes to your mulch use with the agent or professional.

• 2

  Use bait stations, which attract ants to poison housed within. Worker ants consume and carry poison to nests where the poison is shared and kills the entire colony, according to the University of California Integrated Pest Management Online. Choose bait stations with active ingredients like fipronil or boric acid. Avoid purchasing propoxur, which acts too quickly and does not make it back to the nest as well as insecticides that are formulated to control colonies.

• 3

  Release natural enemies like lady beetles onto your raspberry plants as these bugs hunt and kill aphids without causing further damage to plants. Also, parasitic wasps lay their eggs within aphid bodies, resulting in death, according to the University of California IPM Online.

• 4

  Apply neem oil or insecticidal soap as a low-toxicity insecticide to remove aphids from raspberry plants. Saturate plant foliage with your insecticide for death on contact. Reapply as needed as these insecticides do not provide residual control.