A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Why are there ants in my veggie bed??

I went out to the yard the other day and was picking out some kind of tree I have with green needles boy are those things anoying. Anyways I notice that I have ants. Why? and How can I get rid of them.

I tried using organic spray and then I got real mad and used sevin dust I don't like to use stuff thats not organic , but I did not know what else to do.

This is my first garden ever. And what really gets me mad is that I have a few peppers (jalepnos) growing and when I mean a few I mean I have 6 plants with one each why is that? I do not know what to do I have been trying every way to get rid of them.

My peppers now have black spots on them not on the leaves, but on the plant it self. This is going to drive me .

Thank you,
Nicky

Sounds like your plants have end rot which is a Calcium defishency. There are treatments for this at most any store that sells garden supplies. tomatos get this as well. I`ve had ants and they did`nt hurt my plants. Why are you planting by Pine trees? (pointy needles tell me thats what the tree is). Pine trees\needles are highly acidic.

Hey Nicky. Relax willya! It's your first garden. Observe, ask and learn.
More info.
These ants. They could be carrying scale insect onto your peppers. Or they may be doing nothing at all, just being ants. (Regular watering will generally keep nests out of a vegie patch.)

Are the black spots on the peppers a small rounded lump the size of a match head? Are they on the stems/branches or on the fruit or both?

A quick tip. If you think there is a problem, ask on here before spraying stuff about. You may be doing more harm than good. Also, observe exactly what the problem is and include as much info on here as possible. Remember, we can't see what you can, we only have your choice of words to go on and it can be misleading and confusing if they are a bit emotional or vague. Fotos are great. Esp closeups.
Now relax willya!
Breathe in, breathe out. etc.

Longy,

They are on the branches only at the begining of them once they have already grown out. I don't know if you can see them I am going to add it to my bucketphotos. I went out and only took 2 pic's of the plant and the weird thing about it is that fruit is still growing.

Thank you,
Nicky

Greenthumb,

As for planting there I really don't have a choice some lovely person who owned the house way before me had them already it's 2 full grown trees right in the middle. I hope to soon cut them down alot so that I can make mulch. It gives nice shade, but a lot of clean up in my bed.

I go out every morning just to pick them out of the bed to be on the safe side they don't harm my veggies.

Thank you,
Nicky

Nicky, your foto site needs a login.
You can open the individual fotos on your screen, then copy and paste the address to your post. Or you can setup the fotosite to allow public viewing.

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j184/ladyk24/IMAG0079.jpg

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j184/ladyk24/IMAG0080.jpg

I hope this show's sorry about that Longy.
Nicky

the photos aren't clear enough.

what is the issue with the ants?? ants are all over the place - they're not something you can really get rid of...and probably shouldn't anyway (they can be very beneficial in some ways). they're not going to do anything to any of your plants - except walk all over them that is

are your plants getting proper water and sun? are they planted in the correct type of soil?

plant growth can vary...sometimes they have a lot of fruit growing and sometimes not. they might not be established enough to be producing lots of fruit or they may not be getting the correct combination of water and sun light. they might need a touch of food too...

tomatoe and pepper both need lots of sun to grow well. and they need regular watering.

it's never a good idea to randomly start spraying chemicals around...

this is a great forum, filled with people with some really terrific knowledge!! make the most of it by posting questions about what's happening...

i'd really hate to see you go overboard with something and end up causing real damage to your garden!!

I can't see much of anything either. Back to my question for you.

+ Are the black spots on the peppers a small rounded lump the size of a match head? +

Can you rub them off with your thumb?

I'm really not sure what the problem is, (if there is a problem. )

Longy,

No you can not rub it off. It's between the limbs

Y
You see the Y it is between the to lines on the v part. So far it's not traveling at least it does not look like it since how there's flowers growing on them. I hope it's not nothing just extra rain because they showed up after 3 days of rain.
Thank you,
Nicky

Joclyn,

As for the chemicals yeah I am laying off that stuff only using organic spray.

And as for the pepper thing I have to be doing something right my tomatoe plant has several flowers and 5 tomatoes. And as for the water thing I have not watered latley since how it's been raining cats and dogs. So I am hoping maybe they might just be sick of Texas weather changing every other day.
Thank you,
Nicky

Lots of the pepper family have black as a natural part of the stem colouring. You can even get black leaves and fruit.

Longy,

I did not know that. Everytime I look them up they always have nice pretty green leaves. So I am ok. Thank you very much.

I picked 3 yesterday from 3 different plants they are pretty good, but they do not generate alot of peppers I should have maybe picked the first flower off right. Oh well lesson learned this year hopefully I will have a bigger one next year.
Again thank you both for helping me with this.
Nicky