Ants eating vegetables

Ants are eating my beetroot leaves! How can I stop them?

And have some blackfly on my runner beans, and see the ants running up and down - do they actually farm the aphids i.e. do they get rid of them?

Are ants helpers as well as pests?

 

the ants are eating the aphid poo which is very sweet , and yes they do milk them like we do with cows , use a hose and a bit of washing up liquid

Spruce

 

Ants are a civilisation unto themselves. Lets just hope they don't work out we are a threat to them

Unlikely they're eating your Beetroot, unless they are cutting leaves for Mushroom farming. Ants grow a fungus that only occurs in their nests

Yes they farm Aphids, they milk them for Honeydew, like we keep Moo Moo's for milk

 

So, if it's not the ants, what's munching on the beets?

 

Probably snails, but they don't usually persist as the Beetroot grows.

 

Ants will protect the aphids from predators and move them around. If you provide the ants with an alternative food source (say some sugar syrup in a bottle cap lodged in the runner bean foliage) the ants will remove the aphids for you. They see them as a competitor for their new food source.