Try flour, If that doesn't work I'll prescribe somthing stronger, LOL really!
The ants just may look for another route. I have the same problems, the stem may be oozing a sap that is tasty to them. if you don't have much rain, or food, well that is what they are looking fore. Check the soil for mealies or dead bugs, ants are hungry and are looking for food to bring back to the bivouc (spelling)

PS How do I increase the size of my letters. Help please. Norma

Norma, you mean like this?

The HTML code for changing the font size is to use "" but without the quotes, and inside the greater than & less than signs type ...

font size="insert number desired for font size here"

*Note: The quotation marks after the equal sign ARE manditory.

**Note: the font size # I inserted above was ---- font size="10" --- and you can see how large that turned out.

Did that make sense?

Now if you don't actually want to type in a larger font but only wish to make the words larger for easier reading, then -- assuming you are using IE as your browser -- then left click on where it says "Page" on the Menu Bar at the top of the screen. (It is located on the lower part of the bar on the right hand side.) When you click on that you will see a drop down menu. One of the options there is Zoom. When you left click on that, you will then see another drop down menu that will give you various options as to how much larger you would the web page to be.

Jordan, you might not want to get rid of them....

When my D. elephantipes flowered, I also noticed alot of sticky sap on the vines. Maybe the ants are attracted to the sap? Maybe they are polinators. Don't know if your plant is in flower or not. Just a thought. They might help keep away other harmful pests. I'd do a little more observation and see if you can see what they're doing on your plant.