Yes I have them too.Lots of them in fact...

That's helpful, LOL! At least I'm not alone.

I too seem to have millions!!!!!!!!! I left them alone until they started to farm aphids!!!! I would also find them crawling up my legs while I was watering, UGH! but LOL

Well, why do we have this epidemic of ants this year, and what can we do about it, and could they endanger our plants? My little korean fir had MOVING BARK which upon inspection was a mass of these ants along the whole trunk. I guess I already said that. These ants are everywhere in the garden.

UGH is right!

I am SO annoyed with the ants this year. I planted a beautiful magnolia and found carpenter ants chewing on the new leaves. I had to put a collar of Tanglefoot on the tree to keep them off. Then the little ones always farm aphids on all the other plants. I just noticed several leaves of my waterlily had gone yellow and on closer inspection saw that ants were all over, happily farming these dark aphid-like bugs on the yellowed leaves. Very annoying. I used to ignore the ants, thinking they were harmless, but this year I've taken out any colonies under my stone patio by pouring boiling water on the nest entrances.

It was said:
"I planted a beautiful magnolia and found carpenter ants chewing on the new leaves. "

Carpenter ants don't feed on leaves. Neither do other ants.

But most all ants feed on the sticky, also sweet, honeydew excreted by various insects, among them aphids, whiteflies, mealybugs, and certain scale.

As for "...saw that ants were all over, happily farming these dark aphid-like bugs on the yellowed l[water lily] leaves" -- those black bugs likely *were* aphids.

Waterlilies are notorious for having aphids. Ants aren't to blame.

Remove the yellowed pads and spray aerosol cooking oil spray in the evening or not in direct sunlight on the others to kill the aphids.

Thanks, everyone. I hosed off the fir to start, and I'm going around the whole garden jet-spraying everything that has ants on it. Then we'll see what else may have to be done.

Maro

Oh yes, carpenter ants do chew on new growth. I watched them at it and there were no aphids on the tree. I found some reference material that mentioned it as well.

In the woods, siding my pasture there is an ant hill the size of a VW bug. They are everywhere and as harmless thatch ants go they do a ton of mischief. Besides aphid farming, they chew off all of the young buds and flowers of my fruit trees and decimate production. I used tanglefoot on bark wrap around the trunk to thwart their advances. I watched them eat every petal off every raspberry cane. Last winter they took out my beehive and again I used tanglefoot to keep them off the hive this year.

I'm not a fan of these guys and I don't used chemicals but I fear one day my tired old carcass will be carried off to the ant mound, given the chance.

I've had a terrible time with the tiny black ants, they're soo small - I think they call them pavement ants. Some were getting in the house, which is soooo aggravating! I think their population thrive because we have a giant volunteer plum tree that drops huge amounts of sweet sticky plums. It rains sticky plums on my car too, it's so hard to get the dried on plums off the car's finish when the sun bakes them on. Not to mention all the fruit flies and smelly moldy plums. I tried to keep them picked up, but there are sooo many plums it just doesn't help. That tree is coming down next year!!

The only thing that has worked for me is a product called TERO. I usually set the bait right near where I see a large number of ants them going into the ground. It's basically sugar water with borax, they take the sweet death syrup back to nest / queen before they die. I also found out where they were coming in the house and used expanding foam to fill the hole - that helped!

It's worked well, and the population has been greatly reduced. I've had to keep reapplying the TERO bait over and over to keep them at bay.

It sounds like you all aren't familiar with Argentinian ants, the number one ant population here in California that has virtually wiped out the native ants in the milder parts of California. This species builds up such huge populations because the various colonies all derive from the same queen, probably first brought to California with the Gold Rush. At least you have cold enough winters to keep them in check, but here they are year round pests of both house and garden.

As to whether ants eat foliage, I can't say about Carpenter Ants, but certainly in the tropics, the Army Ants can eat everything in their path, and even mammals can be attacked if they are not intelligent enough to remove themselves from the area.

Army ants are carnivores and do not eat plants. That's leafcutter ants. My mother used to complain about the 'army' ants carrying off her garden overnight when she lived in the tropics, but that was leafcutter ants. I love watching their trails - mesmerizing.

No argentine ants here, which is very fortunate! they are horrible. Impossible to keep out of the house. Here I never have ants come in except when I was in new construction and the carpenter ants got in - I'm told they prefer new construction to old. I'm in an older house now and sure there are ants in the garden, but they never come in. No more waking up to a kitchen literally black and crawling with ants. yay. No fire ants either. Double yay.

I like ants, but to a point. I really like the thatch ants, those mounds are incredible, but if they're eating your garden you have to dig up the mound to make them move.

No ant problems here this year, no different from any other year. Lots of dampwood termites on the wing though.