Clogged Micro Sprays

[antman]

Hi Folks,

The time has come to see if anybody else has any ideas... I have a stack of little microspray irrigation thingys (that would be the technical term) that I am always having to unclog from ants. Has anybody hit upon a way of stopping the ants getting in and clogging up the sprayers? I tried vicks vapourrub on the pipes (which stopped the dog from chewing them) but have not been able to stop the ants.

Any ideas would be greatfully received.

Cheers,

Anthony

[Stuart]

If it was Victoria, you have to remove them altogether

But while you can still use then in NSW.... ants huh. What about something sticky (tar-like) on the risers, so they can't reach the sprays? Vicks might have worked, not for he smell, but for the texture, but guess not (unless it wasnt thick enough, and I guess you put a very light coat on the spray, rather than a thicker amount around the stem. More experimentation required!

[MAPLEMAN]

There are ant resistant micro irrigation sprayers available but you would have to check with your local hardware as to the brand.
T-Tape is ok it's holes are too small for the ants but the water delivery is not as wide. Very effective for deep rooted plants like trees.

[Eddie Jones]

We used to have a problem with ants in young fruit trees - they "farm" mealey bugs - Solved it by tight wrapping the tree trunk in cling wrap. Apparently the little buggers find it too slippery for their little footsies. Only lasts a little while though as the tree outgrows the wrap.

If the stem of the sprinkler was nice and round - not lumpy - it may work.

[glock40sw]

G'day.
Our 1 acre block has micro sprays fitted around the boundary. Each tap has a small roll of 0.6mm mig welding wire over the handle for cleaning the ants out whenever the sprays are turned on. The mig wire is good due to the copper coating on the wire. slows down the rusting.

[DanP]

If it was Victoria, you have to remove them altogether

[johnc]

To overcome the problem of ants and earwigs clogging up the system we put an inline filter in at the tap end, the ants don't seem to enter at the spray around here. As we have just entered stage three restrictions its all abitary, I can no longer use the system.

John

[Bleedin Thumb]

How do you know its ants? if your micro emitters are blocked, by the time you unblock them you would need an electron microscope to identify the remains!! Do the ants gather around the tip?

I design and install fog sculptures where the emiters are 8 micron which I would guess is about 50 -100th the size of a micro system. Ants wouldn't get in them. These always get blocked despite very, very fine filters. You just replace them every so often.

[ernknot]

The minerals in my bore water clog my micro sprinklers. I need to find some that can handle bore water.
BTW, leave the ants alone, they are biomass don't you know. ha ha