How to get rid of ants on cucumber plants

Have you been looking for why exactly are there ants on my cucumber plants? The invasion of ants on cucumber plants is a common scenario as they love to eat honeydew that aphids and pests leave on plants.

Although not all ants harm the plants equally, still, some ants really hurt the cucumber plants when they go out of hand. So, it’s important to take proper steps to protect the cucumber plants from these villainous little insects.

Let’s find out when ants are harmful to your cucumber plants and how to deal with them!

Reasons Behind Ants on My Cucumber Plants and How to Stop These

For your better understanding of why you see ants on cucumber plants, we’ve divided the discussion into several sub-sections.

Are Ants Harmful to Cucumber Plants?

It’s not necessarily true that all ants cause damage to your plants. There are plenty of beneficial ants in your garden that is blessings for you.

To begin with, ants often feed on the eggs of plants harming pests and helping bring down their population in the process.

Secondly, when ants build underground nests, they make tunnels that allow sufficient air to pass through the soil, enabling plants to take up more oxygen, water, and nutrients.

Moreover, the leftovers from their food act as a fertilizer such as the citrus type providing rich nutrients to plants. Ants also act as pollinators by helping spread seeds, thus playing a vital role in maintaining the ecosystem in your garden.

But some reasons indicate ants are harmful to cucumbers. Sometimes pests leave honeydew on cucumber plants thus ants get attracted and start to harm the stems and leaves of the plant.

However, ants don’t eat the plants or cucumber they just make holes on stems and leaves during honeydew eating.

What Attracts Ants to Cucumber Plants?

Ants on your cucumber plants typically indicate that your plant is infested by pests. For your information, cucumber plants are often attacked by small plant-sucking pests like aphids, mealybugs, whiteflies, etc.

These bugs feed on saps from leaves and stems and produce a sweet thick secretion known as honeydew, which in turn attracts ants. So, ants on your plants mean that the plant is providing a lot for ants to feed on, often at the expense of its health.

When Should You Worry About Ants on Your Cucumber Plants?

As we’ve said earlier that ants are not always a reason for you to be panicked. However, here are three instances when you should be concerned:

1. Heavy Colonization

If you notice ants building colonies till the end of the pot and there are an alarming number of them crawling on and around your plant, it is about time to take some action!

They can damage the roots of the plant and mess with the natural fertilization level of the soil just like some ball-shaped green fertilizers do, further impacting your plant.

2. Recurring Ant Invasion

When ants keep coming back to your plant, they indicate that your plant is heavily infested by pests. Since ants feed on honeydew, they tend to protect pests like aphids, which allow them to multiply their population.

This slowly weakens your plants and might negatively impact their health over time when this happens. So, watch out for pests and take action as soon as you spot them.

3. Plant Harming Ants

There are more than 12000 species of ants and as you can tell already, some ants are beneficial for your plants, but some are trouble. Red ants are also known as fire ants and carpenter ants, for instance, can chew on leaves to devour your sap from your plants, leaving holes in your plants.

Black ants on cucumber plants are called Argentine ants or sugar ants as they love sweet food most and they are also attracted by honeydew. They only harm plants when multiply. In most cases, they make deep holes near the plant root that might weaken the young cucumber plants.

When cucumber plants are wounded in this manner, especially young plants, this hinders their growth. What happens next is you start seeing your plant’s health deteriorate and normal yield drop.

That stings, right? Well, we can vouch that your plants feel the same way.

How to Get Rid of Ants of My Cucumber Plants?

Fortunately, it is possible to control the infestation of ants in your garden. There are commercial pesticides and repellents, but whether they are safe for plants, especially for fruits and vegetable plants is still debated.

In our opinion, why settle for toxic chemical substances when there are completely safe organic ways. But you can use chemicals or plasticizers as a final solution if any natural options don’t work. Ten effective ways of dealing with ants in your cucumber plant include:

1. Borax Trap

Borax is a readily available household product that is extremely effective in getting rid of ants. Although they are not harmful to humans, they are extremely toxic for ants and cause death as soon as they reach their digestive system.

To make a Borax trap, all you need to do is mix 1 part borax powder with 1 part sugar and with enough water to form a paste. Then, apply the paste near the nest opening.

The sugar in the mixture will then attract the ants and once they feed on it, and feed the entire colony, they will eventually die.

2. Diatomaceous Earth

Diatomaceous earth is fossilized rocks of the remains of a special type of algae or microalgae, which has a crushed glass-like texture. Whenever they come in contact with small insects like ants, fleas, ticks, roaches, etc. they tend to penetrate through their skin and soak up their fluid, eventually causing death from dehydration within some 16 to 24 hours.

All you need to do is spread the powder in heavily colonized areas and along the trails and voila, let nature do the magic!

3. Coffee Grounds/Cinnamon

If you are looking for a natural way of dealing with ants without having them killed, you can try Coffee grounds or Cinnamon. It is said that ants cannot stand the strong smell of coffee and cinnamon since they seem to confuse their sense of smell.

Sprinkling a liberal amount of coffee grounds or cinnamon near the source and along the trails can repel ants to the point that they consider moving their colony elsewhere.

4. Boiling Water

Pouring boiled water down the anthill is another effective way of killing the entire colony. However, one point to keep in mind is that the ant tunnels are designed in a way to drain rainwater naturally. Therefore, you’ll have to run boiling water down two-three times to completely sweep the colony.

5. Essential Oil Pesticide

Essential oils have proved to kill different bugs including aphids, crickets, fleas, and ants, so it is an all-in-one solution to combat any sort of pest infestation in plants.

Although you will get a lot of options, Peppermint, thyme, clove, and citrus essential oil work best against ants. You can get these at your local grocery store and they are very much within budget.

Making an essential oil pesticide is almost a child’s play. Just add around 20 drops of essential oil of your choice to a cup of water, transfer the mixture to a spray bottle and give it a good shake and your homemade plant-friendly pesticide is ready to be used.

6. Soap Water

One way to remove ants from your cucumber plant is to remove aphids or other bugs first. A very easy solution made from only two ingredients can help remove pests from your plants.

All you need is dishwashing soap and water. Mix 125 ml of water with 80 ml soap; shake well and spray directly onto the infested areas. Do not forget to spray on the underside of the leaves. You can also rub the leaves and stems with your fingers to make sure the pests are completely removed.

Let the mixture sit on the plant for some 15 minutes and then rinse the plant with lukewarm water, removing the last trace of pest on its body.

7. Beneficial Nematodes

You can use different kinds of nematodes as these worms are very effective to repel ants, moths, flies, beetles, and fleas. You may wonder how these wombs do all that. These microscopic creatures enter the host’s body and expel bacteria from the digestive tract that causes the death of these harmful pests and ants within 24 to 48 hours.

Nematodes are applied on garden soil only at 42 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit and air temperature should be at least 45 degrees Fahrenheit.

8. Orange Guard

Sometimes it’s difficult to find out the source of the ants’ colony. In this case, the orange guard might be a great way to remove ants from cucumber plants. It is a natural spray containing orange peel extract that is commonly known as d-Limonene.

This is not harmful to the garden soil (like using in pots) and is also EPA-certified. As it’s a food-grade ingredient, it won’t hurt the cucumber plants.

9. Non-Toxic Pellets

This is another organic way to remove ants from cucumber plants. Non-toxic pellets are mainly designed for slugs but it works to get rid of other pests and ants. When ants eat these pellets, they die within a few days. Just sprinkle them near the ant nests or their path and get the result.

How to Stop Ants Nesting in Plant Pots?

Ants like to nest in dry places, and where they can make tunnels easily. Loose soil is one of the best possible places for ants of nesting. If dirt falls on the dry tunnels of pots, this indicates a vital place to start a colony.

To get rid of it, keep the pot’s soil moist. When it dries out soak it well with water and leave it to be drained. You can also sprinkle a fine layer of diatomaceous earth over the top of the soil. Another way could be using a DIY borax trap.

FAQs About Ants On Cucumber Plants

Do ants eat cucumber plants or their roots?

Most ants don’t eat plants or their roots. They just build a colony on the plants or make a tunnel around the plants. But some variants like leaf cutter ants could eat and harm plants seriously or cause the curling of leaves i.e. curry plant.

Why are there so many ants in my garden?

It’s normal to have ants in any garden. Some pests like aphids eject sap on cucumber plants. Ants are attracted by this sweet sap and they visit plants. But sometimes this could be a sign of a major problem. However, you have to follow the event for several days to understand what is going to happen.

Conclusion

In general, ants aren’t harmful to cucumbers. The invasion of ants in plants is very common but problems arise when they start damaging the plant. However, there is no reason to allow ants on plants.

Luckily, with proper treatment, it is not only possible to get rid of them but also to keep your plant away from future infestations. Thus, we covered different effective methods to get rid of the ants on my cucumber plants. So, apply the most suitable one and enjoy ant-free cucumber cultivation!

Hi, I’m Shofi, a gardening enthusiast. After completing my study, I’m getting hold of my dream business project and living in the lush countryside with my family. Nature with all its beauty has always attracted me. This blog is a little reflection of my love of nature.

How do I get rid of ants on my cucumbers?

Why are there ants on my cucumber plants?

What to spray on plants to get rid of ants?

How do I get rid of ants in my plants naturally?