I don't have anything nice to say about ants. We had an infestation of them a few years ago, and had to get a pro to take care of them. When they are out of control, they will come in the electric lines of your house, plumbing, everywhere.

For the outside I use baits that I purchase at online pest control stores. One is www.pestcontrolsupplies, another, www.doyourownpestcontrol.com

On their websites they identify different types of ants, and how to control them.

For our house we finally found that we needed termite control, and chose a control that would also control ants. That has really taken care of the house - even though it is temporary.

I think I know that ants go way way underground, and will come up in other areas. I don't know if baits really take the poison to the queen or if the nest just moves to another location. I don't know if it is a fact that when you spray the ants, they will make 25 new queens, but it is interesting.

I hope you find out what will be helpful, and share it.

Sammy

Ortho makes a red bag of granules that I think covers ticks, fleas, ants & grubs.

I went to go put a letter to go out in the mail 30 minutes ago, imagine my surprise when I found tons of ants with eggs in my mail box. I sprayed them with ant & roach, killed them instantly, still have to clean it up :(

I don't want to kill them unless they are doing harm. They haven't invaded my space and they do loosen the soil. I guess I need to read up on different kinds of ants.

Okay, I found this site, which pretty much says leave them be unless they get out of control. http://garden.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Ants

I've never found them to harm anything in my garden. I have also noticed an increase in them--both the larger black kind, which I fear are carpenter ants, and the smaller reddish-brown kind, which are everywhere this year--under my mulch, wherever I dig to put in new plants, random nests in the lawn. I haven't done anything to control ants since our last "home invasion" in our cupboards (ugh--nothing like waking up one morning to the sight of a line of ants marching into a box of Lucky Charms your kids left wide open), but I probably should get something for the carpenter ants.

I have fire ants and while ants normally do not bother me, this year they are so bad that when I come in from gardening I have to take my clothes off to look for ticks & ants.. A few weeks ago I had an ant in my bra biting me. 2 weeks ago one was crawling up my leg when I came in to use the bathroom. Sorry to be so graphic.... They hurt when they bite, that I can tell you.

My yard has been treated. Probably why they were in my mailbox this morning.

Fire ants in NJ? I had no idea! That's one thing I don't miss about living in the South (well, that and palmetto bugs)--when I lived in FL, I stopped wearing sandals altogether and learned not to leave my feet standing still in the grass for too long. I didn't realize they had spread that far north.

We buy these black little ant traps..they are small and discreet..well the ants get the poison on their feet and carry it back to the colony..they work great and aren't expensive.

I did want to say that my parents had termites and they had to tent. Well, the ants love to eat dead termites..they were over run with ants for a few years

I have nests of small ants around the edges of raised beds where the roses seem to grow just fine. They can be good for heavy soil because they form it into sand-sized granules.

I also have a kind of larger ant that encourages aphids and will actually mine rosebuds for syrup.

So, it depends.

I have a lot of ants. I believe my area is really a HUGE ant hill. Something Stephen King would come up with. They rarely come in the house, I just divert them if they do. (prairie-rose, Lucky Charms are just for kids...I know weak joke)
I just lately looked up ants and damage. They are in my trees, mulch, clay dirt, grass, cracks in cement, everywhere! I was concerned about the trees. The info said they are clearing out dead stuff. Well good! I know the trees are ok and there is not visible dead areas, so they are cleaning.
Now the aphid transportation issue.....I just squirt them off the roses. I don't use poisons. It would be futile.
The regular "little brownies" Ants supposedly do a lot of good.

Ants can be controlled somewhat with coffee grounds and boric acid, not necessarily used together. You might try mulching with free coffee grounds from Starbucks for the short term and planting a spreading groundcover for the long term. Boric acid can be left out in any convenient container, sometimes combined with honey or sugar.

Okay, so I seem to have a lot more ants this year, too! Not the big carpenter ants, but I have the small black ants. They are around my rose beds and I also find them crawling all over my roses.

Roselvr - I 100% agree with you - they hurt when they bite! We have been getting bit often here lately!

I'm glad to see this post, though. I was wondering if they will do any damage to my roses, and knowing that they don't does make me less eager to try to get rid of them.

Thanks for the info!

Shelly

Allison64--LOL, I also have Trix (Silly Rabbit!) and Fruit Loops in my cupboard. It's like a second childhood thru cereal--I pretend it's all for my kids, though.

We are overrun with fireants, and I think the whole area is an underground city of ants. They kill small mammals like fawns and baby chicks, and they tear up pastures bad enough to break farm machinery. Yesterday we had to shut off the electricity and clean fireants out of the electric panel out on the utility post, as they had gotten into the wiring (which they ADORE) and disabled our water pump. The last time they did that, we had to get professionals out and pay several hundred dollars. Even worse is a flooding rain, when the ants clump up and float till they find something to attach to and sting. So we're not real "live and let-live" about fireants.
But the feral hogs are much much worse...we had to get a bulldozer out to repair the damage after the wild hogs spent a night in the yard, and they will kill about anything. Texas has decided that anybody anytime is allowed to shoot feral hogs, since they have a litter of twelve to fifteen every six months.
Sorry, I seem to have gotten intense here. Back to the roses...
Laura