Ants are plaguging me too. Check the underside of your leaves (if you have not) and see if you have tiny aphids under there or residue on the leaf. They may be farming for aphids on or around the plants. They were farming on my eggplants and driving me nuts. I used several applications of soap (killed aphids) but nothing worked for the ants. They were coming from the ground so I tried some diamotaceous earth and it didn't work.
Neem will, however kill them. Do you have neem oil? A few drops in a hand sprayer of water will work however neem is non-selective, which means it will kill everything it touches so they advise spraying early in the AM before the bees are up and at 'em!

Guys -- I have tons of black ants on my eggplants as well. I have a stone wall dividing our property from the neighbor's. Her lot is about 4 feet above ours, so the wall is like a terrace, open rock on my side, covered in earth on hers. THere is a HUMONGOUS black ant colony that lives behind the wall. From what I can tell, they are active in an area at least 7 feet long. They are a part of nature, and they aren't ridiculously aggressive, like fire ants, so I don't want to hurt them. But that many ants is a little disconcerting at times. I was also wondering if there is an environmental reason for there being so many. (There is also another huge colony down near the bottom of my back lawn.) I wonder if we've messed up the food chain somewhere -- what eats ants? I sure haven't seen any frogs and toads for the last few years.

If you would like to have more toads in your yard build a small water garden and they will come. We have one that is the size of 1/2 whiskey barrel, black plastic insert. It is buried in the ground with some flat rocks around it and a small pump, a few Walmart goldfish and 3 plants. It came about because we are in the process of scaling down everything in our yard to lower maintenance-we are both getting slower and creakier. We had filled in the big pond but I missed the sounds of water in the garden and my fish babies.

We've found cornmeal on dry days to be extremely effective (and cheap). Ants will eat the cornmeal, drink water, and burst. Make sure you apply when you have at least 12 hours before rain or heavy dew. You don't want the cornmeal damp before the ants eat it.

We have to reapply no more than once a month.

Spray the plants with the hose?

To Girlgroupgirl's point. It's usually the aphids the ants are after, or farming the aphids for dew. The aphids would be the ones damaging the plants. If you can get rid of the aphids the okra will grow so tall the ants will simply get tired of going up and down! ;-)
Robert

I also have ants on my Okra. There are no aphids involved. Only ants. They are all over the blooms and the actual Okra. I have tried insecticidal soap (which kill the ants present) but does not keep others from coming back. Tried DE, no luck there. Have finally given up on organic methods and am now trying Spectricide (I know that is a no no but you gotta do what you gotta do). Next time I will try the cornmeal.

Still have ants. Tried insecticidal soap, DE, Spectricide. None of these have worked yet. Had hundreds of ants on the Okra this morning. Used esh's suggestion and hosed them off with a hard spray. I am now trying cornmeal.. I have an old pack that I will try this morning. Maybe I should be waiting longer after each application to see if each thing may work. But put DE and then Spectricide around the base of each plant and the ants just crawled across that and up the stems.

I finally got rid of the ants on the Okra. The final solution I found somewhere on the web. 9 tsp sweet corn syrup, 1 tsp boric acid (or borax). Mix well and put in a small plastic container (like a small butter tub) Put top on the container. Punch holes (big enough for ants to get into the container) around the sides on the container just above the level of the syrup mix.

Within two days all the ants were gone and have not come back.

I don't know if the boric acid mixture eliminated the ants, or maybe somethin I applied earlier that took time to work.

I'm trying the corn syrup and and boric acid. Thanks for the tip. Will post if it works or doesn't work for me.

I'd been dusting with DE to no lasting effect. Something that kills the ants immediately, and it's great in your kitchen, is a solution of hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle. I was spraying it on the ants as they dined on my okra fruit but it would only kill the ants it touched and in a few hours there were more.

Corn meal does NOT kill ants! I work at Clemson University and asked an entomologist that specializes in ants about this several years ago. They have a digestive system. They eat like we do. They digest corn meal if they eat it. I don't know why they'd eat it. But it will NOT kill them.

It's not like feeding alka-seltzer to seagulls. They swallow them whole and then they... well... not a good idea.

This post was edited by chrisb_sc_z7 on Wed, Sep 3, 14 at 15:37

Bagsmom "what eats ants?"

I saw my first Armadillo (road kill) this past week in Conyers. I don't know if it is the kind that eats ants or not. I read some years ago they were advancing into north Georgia, but this is the first one we have seen. I grew Okra for a couple of years, and the ants were terrible on them. The only thing that helped was neem oil. The strange thing to me was that we grew lots of okra every year in the vegetable garden when I was growing up in Whitfield County. I often harvested it, and I have no memory of having problems with ants. I am very sensitive to ant bites, and would never have gone close to the Okra if it had been a problem. There seem to be more ant colonies than there were even 30 years ago when we moved to Conyers. That said, I do not want to run into an Armadillo in my gardens or back yard :~) Creepy looking creatures.

It is my understanding that Tree Tanglefoot will keep the fire ants off of your okra. Had the same problem last year (with no aphids). It can be purchased at Wal-Mart. It is a sticky substance that you smear around the stem of the okra in a band about 1-1/2" wide near the base. The ants cannot go past it to your pods. If you have a dead or drooping limb on your plant that is touching the ground, cut it off as it can provide a way for the fire ants to by-pass the Tanglefoot. Make sure you wear latex or nitrile gloves when applying the Tanglefoot as it is a very sticky substance. You may have to re-apply after a rain. This information came from an organic farmer so I suppose it is an organic product. A 15-oz. tub can be purchased for about $15.00 (you can get it for less at some on-line outlets). Other uses include tree repair, use as a pruning paste, or you can buy some tape to wrap around the tree on which to smear the paste - for okra, you can forego the tape and just apply directly to the stem. It is made from natural gum resins, vegetable oil, and wax. I'm going to use it this year.

Used coffee grounds. If you sprinkle the grounds every day for about two weeks they will leave!

Garlic . Put garlic cloves in a blender with some water. Or even garlic or onion leaves.. Blend it and add more wather. Apply directly. Repit every 2 or 3 days

vlsm1020 Thank you SO much for posting your recipe for tomato leaf spray for aphids. Once it stopped raining here (and washing off my spray) it worked like a charm withing a day or two. I'm always grateful to find an organic solution that is easy, quick and doesn't cost an arm and a leg!