Are Ants pests or friends?

Hello everyone!!:D

I seem to have alot of red ants in & around my veg patch. Will they cause me problems, or will they help?

Kind Regards

 

BigBird

I admire ants for their organisation and industriousness but I'm afraid their interests clash with ours. Regrettably, I can't think of any benefit they provide. Other members may know more than I do about this.

I think red ants have the same behaviour as black ants, in which case they will farm aphids on your crops. I'm afraid you'll then have to take action against the aphids.

I never bother trying to kill ants out of door because you rarely wipe out the whole nest and another nest will establish itself very quickly near the old location. It's an endless campaign to reduce their harmful effects, but you never win the war...

 

Thanks for your advice Flinty!!

I will keep eye out for any aphids & treat accordingly. Hopefully that will keep the ants at bay!!!:gnthb:

 

I once saw ants assembled en-masse on my coriander and thought they were eating it. On closer inspection I found they were actually picking the aphids off and taking them underground. I don't know why they were doing it, but I was happy that they were.

 

I have loads of ants in my garden. They look kind of worrisome, but don't appear to do any damage to plants. The birds like eating them!

 

Ants or no ants, you cant do a lot about them. The red ones always seem to bite whilst the black and orange ones dont.