Usually ants don't eat leaves but farm aphids. Could you include a pic of the plant?

OMG, I am so sorry, I thought I had attached the pic!! Here is the plant...

Would a solution of hydrogen peroxide & water get rid of the ants? She is very concerned that her son's plant will be harmed by the critters, and wants to safely remove them...

Red Coleus or something close to that. I doubt the ants did the damage. Sprinkle cinnamon on top of the soil that should ward off the ants they don't like cinnamon, that's what I did for my peppers.

Peroxide may get rid of the eggs but I am not 100% sure on that though. That's if they have eggs in the soil.

Ok thx Habjolokia!! I'll have to google more about the red coleus.

As far as the ant problem, I'll have her try the peroxide & cinnamon. They do have eggs in the soil, their colony started all around the name tag from when her son grew it in school as a science project (pre-K), and when she pulled it out last nite it was covered with tiny ants & eggs. Hopefully we can get the ants to move on somewhere else... Cuz her son would be devastated is anything happened to the plant!

Im not even sure what species the ants are. They're tiny & reddish, but too small to be our area's common fire ants (plus I had a couple crawling on my hand & didn't get bitten).

Another solution might be to repot the plant after stripping off most of the old potting soil. It may be due for a repotting any way.

I agree a repotting and spraying off the old soil, it would rid the ants quicker and it's better for the plant to get new soil.

Start some cuttings in fresh potting mix. Coleus roots very easily.

Rodney

There are a lot of different coleus varieties. Any decent nursery should carry them. I have three favorites that I have kept going for years. Just take cuttings in late summer and overwinter them.