booth@princeton.UUCP (Heather Booth) (09/16/86)
I'm growing some black-eyed peas and have trouble with black ants. They cluster around the tops of the pods. The places they cluster are lacking pods and some of the pods are lacking some peas. None of the garden books I've seen even mention black-eyed peas and none mentioned any trouble with ants (except for encouraging aphids). How can I get rid of them without pesticides? One book said that ants didn't like to cross ground bone meal or charcoal. I tried some wood ashes but the ants were undeterred. Also when do I pick the peas? They seem to be ready now (pods are light green, peas are fully formed but still pretty hard) but I have vague childhood memories of withered brown pods. I've also had some trouble getting the vines tied up. I ran them up vertical strings but they'd grow about 10 feet high vertically if I let them. Is there a better way? I had horizontal strings originally but they just climbed the supports. They seem to want to go straight up. Thanks, Heather Booth (Why is it that no garden books mention black-eyed peas? Do southerners not garden or do they not write garden books? Or does my New Jersey public library contain only northern garden books? Black-eyed peas are delicious and easy to grow (except for the ant problem).)
LRL@PSUVM.BITNET (09/24/86)
In article <1509@princeton.UUCP>, booth@princeton.UUCP (Heather Booth) says: >I'm growing some black-eyed peas and have trouble with >black ants. They cluster around the tops of the pods. I've heard that ants are good guys. Earlier this season I had lots of ants on my corn. A gardening friend told me to look closer and see if there was something the ants were eating. There were aphids. I'm not sure if ants are good guys in all situations, but I'd suggest looking to see if there are some harder to see bad guys that the ants are feeding on. Good luck.
buls@dataio.UUCP (Rick Buls) (09/26/86)
In article <7529LRL@PSUVM> LRL@PSUVM.BITNET writes: >In article <1509@princeton.UUCP>, booth@princeton.UUCP (Heather Booth) says: > >>I'm growing some black-eyed peas and have trouble with >>black ants. They cluster around the tops of the pods. > >I've heard that ants are good guys. Earlier this season I had lots >of ants on my corn. A gardening friend told me to look closer and >see if there was something the ants were eating. There were aphids. >I'm not sure if ants are good guys in all situations, but I'd >suggest looking to see if there are some harder to see bad guys >that the ants are feeding on. Good luck. > Actually the ants ARE the bad guys, the ants don't eat the aphids, they spread them. Aphids are ants' milk cows. They raise them, moving them from leaf to leaf. Its an example of two species relying on each other for some benefit.