My Catt is Antsy
 

Latest edition to my collection is a giant Cattleya in a 6" pot purchased from Hausermanns in April.

There are a brigade of tiny ants all carrying egg sacks surfacing & scattering as I water the plant tonight while trying to acclimate this orchid to the outside for the past week.

All advice appreciated. It was planted so nicely with roots on top of roots everywhere and sitting very pretty and neatly in it's pot.

Soak it in water.

Is what I am doing. Soapy? What is too long to soak plant?

I've soaked mine for hours to kill snails.

I grow many types of plants and the ants love to colonize my pots (My soil is usually peat, sand, perlite, sometimes pine bark--perfect for ant nests). I am not a fan of ants.

Personally, with my plant pots, I use fresh leaves of my Artemisia absinthium to clear ant colonies out of my pots. The ants scramble out of the pots as if the soil is on fire. Best of all, it works on all the types of ants that I have gotten in my pots.

To get rid of ants in general, I use Terro baits. This takes a little time to work, though. When putting it outside, I usually put it in the path that I see the ants taking. If rain is predicted, I take measures to protect it from the rain.

Another quick, effective method is to sprinkle Sevin on top of the soil/medium and then water it in. There are some types of ants that resist the soapy water soak and the ant baits but the Sevin will kill them immediately.

---------- Post added at 09:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:43 PM ----------

Sevin kills snails, too, even bush snails.

It had three new growths when I set it outside, one has turned black & fell off, another darkening up. Is that attributable to the ants or the outside environmental adjustment?

Thoughts?

Has it been raining where you live? If so, the Cattleya may need extra Calcium as this tends to wash out of the medium easily. In the past, when I put my orchids outside, I added a tablespoon of powdered milk to my water each time I watered during the summer. If we had rain, I would water the orchids right after the storm. Doing this should help with the future new growths. If you have eggshells, you can put them in the pots and, by winter, they should be decomposed enough to help add a steady supply of Calcium.

Another trick is to make certain that the orchid is planted on top of the medium and only the roots are in the medium. The Rhizome and pseudobulbs should be above the medium. This keeps the eyes/new growth from rotting. Instead of messing with the current set of roots, you can gently remove some of the medium around the pseudobulbs.

Good luck!

How are you watering it, and how often? New growths turning black on Cattleyas is often a sign of insufficient water.

Borax ant baits will kill them.

Quick version, use Terro ant baits, based on Borax and sugar. Available in home improvement stores everywhere, probably other stores too.

To make your own, you can scale this recipe up or down to make as many or as few baits as you need. Mix 8 tbsp sugar to 1.5 tbsp borax (laundry additive). You can take this solid mix, and combine 1 part of the mix to 3 parts water. Soak cotton balls in the liquid, leave them sitting near your antsy plants. To avoid a mess, put the cotton ball on a piece of foil or plastic.

The Terro or home-made borax bait will eliminate the ants in a day or two.

Might have been under watering it, I've been using a ka-bob stick to check & it always seems quite moist so I skip (all the while inside house, now it is outside) it.
It is a huge plant!