Help! I am finally getting okra off my plants, but the pods have ants all over them. They are the tiny "sugar" ants. Each pod has dozens of ants on them. None of my gardening books mention what to do about ants and I've never had this problem before. I hate to spray them, but I thought maybe spraying them with water would help. (This is the desert, we don't get much rain0> I plan to hunt down any antbeds I find and deal with them. Any other ideas?? Thanks.

-- connie in nm (karrellewis@aol.com), July 07, 2001

Answers

Are the ants actually eating the okra, or are they just inhabiting it? I've never had ants to eat produce on the plant, unless it was already "opened" by another injury-source. Could be that a decent blast of water would whisk them off. You said that they're sugar ants. If this is so, and they are getting in the way of your harvesting, just set out sugar cubes along the okra rows the night before you want to pick, and the ants will probably be off the plants and on the cubes come morning.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), July 07, 2001.

We always see this. No major problem. Its my understanding that this is a fairly common occurance. Its never affected our yields.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), July 07, 2001.

I get the same problem here. I was told ants are attracted to the oils in the okra plant. They usually attack when the bloom forms, and I've seen mine covered by hundreds. Once the pod starts developing they usually do OK, but you have to do something about the ants so they can reach that stage.

Locating nearby ant nests, and destroying them, as you mentioned is what I do. I also sprinkle sevin dust around the bottom of the plant, which keeps them off for the most part. Good luck, and I hope you'll soon be harvesting lots of okra. It's one of my favorite foods.

-- Mark M in NC (MagicMark85@aol.com), July 08, 2001.

Look for aphids, ants herd them to eat the honey dew from their bodies, if there are not too many it won't hurt any thing. if the okra is showing signs of curling it is caused by the aphids. Since you are in a low water use area, you can use an old time dusting method, pick up a hand full of dry dusty soil and fling it on to the under sides of the leaves, it really slows down the bugs from munching.

-- Thumper (slrldr@aol.com), July 08, 2001.