The Crucial Step To Do Before Bringing Cut Peonies Inside To Keep Pests Out

From seasoned professionals to those putting their first trowel into the dirt, gardeners are surprised every day by creepy crawlies. Whether it's with a spider casually wrapping a grasshopper in its silk or a tomato hornworm the size of your finger, shiver-worthy encounters are a price we pay to spend time outdoors. If peonies (Paeonia spp.) are blooming in your garden, be prepared for a surprise like this, especially when you're planning to cut them and bring them inside. Before you do, wash your peony blossoms with soapy water as a crucial step to keep pests like ants and aphids outside where they belong.

Ants are attracted to peonies because of the nectar they produce. You may also have aphids — another common peony pest to be aware of that can attract even more ants — on your blooms. In the garden, you might be able to take a "live and let live" approach to the ants on your peonies, but it's another thing if you want to bring them indoors. Shaking them and washing them off with water can get rid of some of the bugs, but the essential step is using soapy water.

All you have to do is fill a bowl with water and add a squirt of dish soap, then submerge the peony flowers. Give them a quick swish, and leave them for a few minutes to get rid of the ants. If you want, give them a rinse afterwards to remove any soap residue or remaining ants.

While a dunk in plain water will get rid of some of the ants, adding soap makes the trick work better. Various soaps have been used for pest control for over two centuries, and even though they can damage some plants and we've replaced them with insecticidal soaps for crops, a bath of soapy water is the right call for your cut peonies. 

The reason soapy water works best to get ants off your peonies is because soap breaks the surface tension of water, making it so pests can't cling to the petals. Breaking the surface tension of water also makes things sink rather than float, so the ants won't be able to stay onboard. This is the same mechanism that makes a soapy water solution one of the best ways to get rid of stinkbugs when they get more active in the spring.

It's also helpful to note that while early mornings are the best time of day to cut flowers from your garden to ensure they stay fresh longer, many ant species are more active at night. If you've noticed more ants on your peony plants late in the evening or early in the morning, that's the reason why. But as long as you're using the soapy water trick to get ants off your peony flowers before you bring them indoors, you won't have any problems.