Question
Hello,

   I noticed recently upon watering my jade plant that their were little black ants on the vase/dirt. When I moved the planter there was a bunch of them under it and also around the rest of the plants on the stand. I moved them to a different area after cleaning.
      I noticed again last night after moving them to a different area in the house, that there are more. I have some small plants in baskets and when I lifted the basket they were under it also. I took it outside on the porch and removed the planter/plant from the basket and they were in the bottom of the basket also.
     I had to clean them up after killing them with ant spray. They were starting to go on the floor and also were all over the planters and table of where the others were. I do not have any where else and have noticed none on the outdoor plan.
     Could this be the soil that I am using? I am going to try to transplant them again and see if that works. Any other suggestions. It is all of my plants not just the jade.

    Thank You  Cindy

Answer
Cindy,

WAIT! don't trans plant it is not the soil. Your plants have scale or aphids, another insect and the ants are spreading the aphids or scale as farmers because they like the honeydew (excrement) of the aphids or scale. What you need to do is mix up a sprayer of the following mix and spray all your plants daily until the ants and scale or aphids have disappeared.

1 part rubbing alcohol + 1 part water then ad 1 teaspoon dish soap to each quart of mix.

Scale looks like brown spots on the leaves but you can fick them off with your fingernail or a knife tip. They can be as small as the o's on this page. Aphids can be tiny black, brown or clear specks smaller than the periods on this page. They can be virtually invisible and still be a big problem on houseplants.

Changing the soil will just put the plants in shock and add to the damage and the ants will be right back because the scale or aphids will still be there. Keep up the daily spraying until you see no signs of insects then spray weekly for another 3 weeks to get any eggs that hatch. After that watch closley for any new signs of insects. Good luck.

Darlene