ants in my plants

[oppalm]

I am in the process of digging up some tropical stuff and repotting it for overwintering in my basement. I have a Bird of Paradise (BOP) that I planted in the springtime and it just looked puny and sick all summer long. I fertilized it, I played rock and roll music for it, etc. Nothing seemed to help it. Anyway, I dug it up tonight to repot it and when I pulled it out of the ground and began to gently shake the dirt of the root ball I must have had 1000 ants crawling up my arm. I layed the plant down , dusted myself off, looked at the planting hole I pulled the BOP from and ants were just bubbling out of it. I looked at the root ball of the BOP and there were 1000's of ants scurrying all over it. I think my BOP was under attack from ants all summer long and I did not even know it. I learned something new today. If you plant something and it appears to be suffering, there is probably a reason. Of course there could be many reasons, just try to figure out what.

Just a heads up for anybody else that might have a problem plant.