Re:ants in the vanilla

[Henry Karczynski]

Dear list serve,

I am having problems with ants eating the pre-florescence vanilla buds on my farm in Costa Rica. This problem reduces the amount of flowers that can be hand pollinated. I have identified at least six different ant types (there are more) which colonize the plants through pruning cuts on the host trees. Interestingly this phenomenon is occuring only in certain lots of the farms. The ants that are urinating or eating the tender buds are in all the lots but only cause extensive damage to the buds in three of the lots, which are geographically separated and also have natural barriers.
I have been applying foliar water, diamataceous earth with capsicum (hot pepper) and garlic but with minimum results. My next response will be to "bug juice" dead ants in the lots that are problematic. I am opposed to "pepper ants" as they are such an integral part of the rainforest ecology. Has anyone had any luck controlling ants on the list?

Hank
Costa Rica