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The Ladybird Party at the Aubergine Café
"Oh no, no the ant invasion!" sang Adam Ant on one of his lesser known tunes. This year I personally experienced the ant invasion. No matter how much poison the little buggers scoffed, they kept coming back. By the time my seedlings were potted up into their final bucket-sized containers, they were everywhere. What could be bringing them in? My house-keeping would meet with Kim and Aggie's approval... there didn't seem to be anything for them to eat.
I had heard tell of ants "farming" aphids. It wasn't long before I noticed a small outbreak on the plants in the leanto. They seemed to be very fond of the aubergines. On closer examination, they were actually carrying aphid eggs up the plants and putting them in place on the leaves! So, I read a bit about ant behaviour. They do this because aphids (greenfly, etc) excrete a sugary substance called honeydew. Ants love this, and will go to any lengths to protect their precious aphid farms. After all, they invest a great deal of energy in setting them up. Within a short space of time my plants were badly infested with aphids. Grr!
In desperation, I washed down the chilli and aubergine plants, and put the worst looking ones outdoors in the garden. But the ants would not go away, and now they had a food source (honeydew), they wouldn't eat any poison at all. I had two problems to solve - 1) ants, 2) aphids.
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One of the controls for aphid infestations,
other than spraying with horticultural soap, is of course predators
such as ladybirds. To my delight, the badly infested aubergine I
threw out of the leanto acted as a lure for the local ladybirds.
Just a day or so later, whilst watering, I noticed 5 courting couples
on it. They seemed to be having quite a party. I read later that
it is not only warm weather, but plentiful food which makes them
amourous. Well, they were certainly that. Even as I tipped
them out onto my indoors crops, they were still mid-clinch! Following
that, I actually saw a ladybird laying eggs on a chilli plant. A
few days later, the hungry larvae hatched. They are curious little
things and look a bit like alligators. How they become such beautiful
beetles is more than miraculous considering how they look at this
stage. Anyhow, they ate a lot of aphids, which took care of that
particular problem. |
Alas, I still had the ants to contend with. Ants will fight ladybirds, and whilst the adults can fly away, the larvae are more vulnerable. What could I do? I put my thinking cap on, to coin an old-fashioned phrase. I consulted my tomes. The first thing I tried was putting vaseline around the rim of the plant pots. All the books suggest you must provide a physical barrier. The vaseline did not work, and the ants just laughed at me, stupid human that I am. Back to the drawing board. To stop the ants climbing up the plants I removed all the leaves they could climb up (just the lower ones, touching the compost), and put a carboard collar covered with double-sided sticky tape round each plant. The plan worked. A couple of 'scout' ants got stuck to the collar, and that threw the rest of the group into chaos. There was ant panic in my leanto that afternoon. Interestingly, they learned pretty damn quickly to stay away from the collars. A brilliant plan.... or was it?
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Duh! In true best-laid-plans fashion, it didn't work out brilliantly. If I had got in early and done this before it became a problem, I would probably have got a better handle on the situation. Next year I will be more canny. I know more now! The honeydew excreted by the aphids was falling onto the tables supporting the plants. So the ants continued to feast faster than I could clean away the honeydew. A couple of ladybird larvae got stuck to the collars, and I got very fed up! The collar technique is probably better used in conjunction with horticultural soap and not with ladybird control. Gardeners should also be aware that horticultural soap is not very good for ladybird larvae. |
Meanwhile the "Aubergine Café" aubergine outdoors began to look a damn sight healthier than the indoors ones.
So, in the end I took all the plants outdoors and let them get picked clean by Mother Nature's critters. Every day when I am watering now I look out for ladybirds. Its even fair to say I am becoming a ladybird nerd. Why not? There are worse things to be.
June 2005