Getting rid of all the "bad" insects can result in most of the good bugs leaving since they now would have no food to live on. You need a balance of insects to have a healthy eco system, and each insect has a purpose.
1) There are many, many species of beetles most of which are part of Ma Natures recycling machine, although some are considered pests because they will eat the plants we like.
2) fire ants do serve a purpose, in Argentina, but not here. The best place to find out about them is at http://fireant.tamu.edu/
3) Crickets are a food source for many birds, toads, snakes, and some other insects. Unless the population is considerable they are not normally much of a problem in the garden.
4) Centipedes, and millipedes, are part of Ma Natures recycling machine and can be left alone as can roly polys, sowbugs and many other similar insects.
5) Spiders help control the "bad" guys mostly in a passive manner. There are spiders that will attack prey, not you, while most wait until the prey is caught in the web.
6) Slugs are a food source for many beneficial critters, toads, snakes, birds. Keeping them from muching on favorite plants can be accomplished with sprays of cold, caffienated coffee.
Do the minimum necessary to control the bad guys, what you must to keep the off the plants you do not want them on, but understand that to keep the beneficials around you need to provide them some food, so that means not killing off all the bad guys. Balance.

Thanks. That helps a lot. It's funny, we had lots of harmless snakes last year, mostly garter snakes I believe, and they didn't bother me in the least. Really only saw them crossing our sidewalk at night. But I was set to exterminate the insects. Not sure why that is. I've always known there were beneficial insects, but had never thought about the balance thing you described. Makes lots of sense. I guess my biggest fear is worrying that something will bite my children. We've all had our share of getting bit by the ants, and have been relatively unsuccessful in getting rid of them. I'll check out the site you mentioned, thanks. Those, and the black widows, makes me nervous. Again, thanks for the info. Oh, and about the coffee, that is amazing!

I've always had very good results with Amdro Fire Ant bait. When used properly, the granules spend only a few moments on top of the soil before they are taken by the ants down into the depths of their chambers. If you do decide to try the Amdro, get the smallest container you can find, as it loses it's potency after a few months, once opened.

Speaking of black widows....we were doing some housekeeping chores near our outbuilding where I do all of my propagation, potting, etc. I had stacks of pots and flats that we needed to clean up and store. That little inner voice spoke to me as we started, and I asked that we put some gloves on. OMG! We must have uncovered dozens of black widows...from tiny to huge...male spiders, too, and many dozens of egg sacs! What a nightmare!!!

Luckily Black Widow spiders are very shy and retiring and would prefer nothing more than to be left alone. With children around it would pay to be very cautious- but I leave the arachnids to their own devices. I've even kept them as pets- and while I've never done anything as stupid as stick my finger in a web with a female and her eggsac, none have ever done more than run away... Fast. I consider them a very good free pest control.