I sprinkle salt around my plants and a little on the slugs, as for the ants I don't know.

DE (Diatomaceous Earth) is a good natural organically friendly way to rid yourself of them. If you find them you can also put salt on them. Crushed egg shells around the plants helps too, as well as coffee grounds I hear.

Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden adventure!

For slugs, I take a solution of brewed coffee left in the pot too long and water (about 1:4 ratio) in a spray bottle and spray it on leaves. The slugs die, as caffiene is toxic to them. Don't know about the ants--I have DE, so will probably try that : D

I too have an ant and slug/snail problem. Was told by the guy at our local home center that canola oil is used for most organic slug bait as they cannot process the oil and it kills them. Since we have small pets we decided to do a test and pour some oil around the yard. So far it has seemed to work, but I can't imagine pouring it anywhere other than on the dirt. Would be way too messy for the patio. As for the ants...still have no clue! They are our biggest problem these days. It seems the mosre we spray them the more they get immune to the spray. I'm going to try the coffee idea. Thanks for the suggestions!

Yorkielvr--do you know where the hill is?

If it is not in the garden itselt, i.e., the roots, the best way I know to kill the little buggers is to boil a huge pot of water and pour it directly on the hill while it is steaming away. I do NOT recommend doing this near your garden plants, however.

I got rid of my ants that way, but the hill was not in the garden.

Here's a link that suggests using orange peel...Have not tried it myself.

Here is a link that might be useful: organic ant control

Here's one for you. Boric acid, which can be bought at any pharmacy, is deadly to ants, the sugar eating kind. I've mixed powdered boric acid and sugar with water and soaked it in cotton balls and placed them around the garden. The sugar mix draws the ants and they take it back to the nest and feed it to the queen. Bingo, the whole ant colony goes belly up. Hopefully your ants like sugar.