ok... you cracked me up

i presume you got the lacewings.. to stay organic..

but then you go out and buy killer.. to kill the ants...

hmmmmm .. i gotta ponder this ... might require some adult beverage ... lol...

have you taken the time to find out .... where the ants are coming from????

ken

ps: what about providing something the ants will prefer.. and LURE them away ... maybe.. a cantolope rind.. something sweet??? .. just guessing... and once the scouts find it.. you can follow them back to their lair.. and douse it with napalm ...

Ken: Baby steps to the organic thing. Being that the only insect that's going after the bait, I assume that I'm not harming beneficials. I live in a tract home -- I try to follow the trails and they just disappear under a fence or into some mulch... no ant hills in MY yard.

And no... I haven't got the lacewings yet. I want to get the ant problem under control first.

Can you answer my question or not?

Kevin

Ants are there, and will be there no matter what you do. If you really do succeed in eliminating one colony others will move in to replace them shortly thereafter. Ma Nature built balance into her system so while the ants may get some of your Lacewing eggs they will not get them all.

i never understood the idea of 'releasing' things...

its awful presumptuous on your part.. to think your new 'pets' are going to stay with you ...

i would suspect.. faster than you can release them.. they will leave your homestead .....

i dont recall.. what you are battling with the lacewings... perhaps this was discussed in some other post ... maybe link us???

'releasing' is like the polar opposite of 'luring' traps [which by the way.. is what your ant stuff is .... arent you luring more to you???] .. and i usually get a whiff of snake oil in this remedy ... a disney-esque mind picture of your little laborers.. just sitting around your small garden.. helping you win the battle of ma nature ..... i dont buy it ....

congrats on at least thinking about tracking back the ants... though i had you there.. lol ...

good luck and.. wait for it.. WOO HOO!!!! .... lol

ken

ps: now.. if you had a thousand acre farm.. and a prevailing wind.. and you could release them on one edge.. i could comprehend them moving across the field and doing some good.... [before they went right out the other side] but i just cant picture it.. on a few square yard garden ... not even on my 5 acres ....

Thanks kimmsr... a tad reassuring, but I still don't feel comfortable releasing the lacewings just yet -- when I give my peppers a good soak of water, they just come out from the mulch in the thousands. Some of them look like they're carrying eggs of some sort... maybe aphids?

Ken: like I said, Baby steps. I've made a concerted effort to create a year long insectary to encourage the beneficial adults to stick around and propagate. By this time next year, hopefully that goal will be achieved.

What pests do I want to control with lacewing larvae? Mites, aphids, whiteflies. And I was hoping they could help with the Tomato Suck Bug that I had identified just recently.

By the way, I know of a grower who grows all his peppers in containers on asphalt in the L.A. area. He has purchased lacewing eggs and says the generations have been around for 5 years.

Kevin