Help #2: Ants in My Plants -- Friend or Foe?

[PimpernelSmith]

Next question: Does the fact that at least three different species of ants are colonizing my 10X10 foot garden mean
                       a) my plants will have company
                       b) their tunnels will aerate the soil nicely
                       c) they have probably eaten all the seed, and will go after the plants next
                       d) none of the above

Thanks for any advice --
PimpernelSmith

[d]

What I know about ants:

a) black ant's are good for flowering plants, they take the sap off the bud    black to the Queen, helping the flower to open.

b) Red ant's bite and many people are allergic.

c) If you want to get rid of them set a trap. With no worker ant's to bring food back to the Queen, she dies.

d) A cheap and easy ant trap: Take a jar and poke holes in the lid. Put toilit paper in in and moisten it with a sweet liquid. Put the lid on and lay on it's side where you see the ant's. They crawl into the jar and get trapped in the wet toilit paper. I have had the quickest results with the juice from marishino cherries, but soda pop, kool-aid and just plain sugar water works too.

Good luck, d

[cataway]

ants frequently farm "herds" of aphids onto plants and then milk them for their honey dew.  Flowering plants do not "need" help with their buds so I say FOE get rid of them.

[bluedox]

I realize this is an old post, but probably a popular topic so here goes.

I can't use the sugar water as my dogs would try to eat the TP.

So if you want a poison free pet friendly way to get rid of ants completely cover the mound with cornmeal, grits, cream of wheat, basically something that expands when it gets wet. Then when the ants eat it it will puff up, and "explode" the ants. Then you have to hope some of it gets passed to the Queen or else the mound will come back.

Just don't put your cornmeal down if it is wet or will be soon.

[cataway]

  UPDATE for a very old thread, to get rid of ants use aspartame I swear to god I put two little packs of sweetener on a med sized hill and that sucker was dead in 2 days.  It has to be aspartame though, not any of the other sweeteners like splenda.