Why are ants on all the vegetable plants??

Is it just me or what's the deal? I keep finding ants on all the veggies.

I sure wish I knew why they are there, do they eat veggies I thought they liked protien. They are on the bush beans and the okra today. Yesterday they were all over the melons.

I am an organic gardener so don't put chemicals down. I put some Diotamacious (sp?) Earth around the beans the other day but then I watered the next morning and they were right back.

They are around the outer base of this okra bloom, climbing up and down the stem. The plant looks otherwise healthy. So do the bean bushes. The melon they were on the other day doesn't look so good today, the leaves are a little wilted but it's 101* today.

Hope to hear from some of you about this. Tried to google but didn't come up with much other than a couple of people asking about ants in the garden ~ no answers.

Thanks.

Have you seen aphids on your plants? I do know ants will "farm" them for their sap.

I looked but didn't see a-one. I did see a couple of leaf hoppers, that quickly moved out of my view! But haven't seen the aphids.

And I put my reading glasses on so I could see that they were ants. LOL

Hm. I do wonder if there is something on the plant that they are after. Don't see anything.

But you know, it seems like they were on other blooms too...maybe there is some tiny bug getting on the blooms and they are after those? Just guessing now!!

Thanks for your help bugme. Great name!

Bugme is right -- ants are farmers, and their crop of choice is aphids. Apparently, they put the aphids where they want them, let the aphids get all full of sap, and then eat them. I had ants building colonies on my pole beans (you can find the aphids mostly on the underside of leaves). If you find the "crop" and either kill it or remove the leaf, it slows the ants down considerably.

That said, I also had them all over my squash (especially the blossoms) -- they did no damage, so as an organic gardener, we just lived in peaceful coexistence. I actually began to wonder if they were helping with pollination, but never figured it out. Now my beans and squash are about done, so I'm not worrying about it much. I'm on to peppers and tomatoes!

good luck!
-Patty

Thank you Patty! I'm glad you said that about the pollination because it crossed my mind too. I know they are the pollinators for peonies. But I'm way behind you because my beans and squash are just getting going.

I will follow your lead and not worry too much about it... they doesn't look like they are hurting anything.

But I will keep an eye out for aphids.

If you have aphids, you can spray them with soap water. I tend to live with the ants as long as it's not a whole colony or nest in my bed.

Adding my two cents, if the ants are tiny (you mentioned using glasses just to see the ants) I will agree on the aphids. I have lots of aphids on the blooms on the okra plants. I don't have many plants but just blast them off with water. Mostly, I don't feel there are enough to drain the plants but if you want to spray, soapy water or I have used a blend of a little Murphys Vegetable Oil Wood soap and water and spray them. It won't deter more but will stop those it soaks dead in their tracks.

An interesting side note... you noticed all the leaves wilting during the day. It is said they do that to conserve moisture. Shriveled leaves have less surface for evaporation.

Thank you Podster and everyone else here!!!

It seems unanimous on the aphids so I guess I better get a magnifying glass out there and check everything really good. It stinks when your eyes start going bad!!!

Yes, they are the tiny ants. This morning I noticed they were still crawling all around but mainly on the melons, okra and bush beans. It's a small garden so I can keep a pretty good "blind eye" on everything! LOL.

I will try the soapy water in the morning too.

I noticed ants on my cow peas today but only the few plants that have started blooming. I've had a lot of rain lately and I've noticed that ants will come up out of the ground temporarily if it's too wet. These on my peas are searching for nectar in the blooms I think. I've had them on blooming okra before and I think bloom nectar is the attractant. I haven't seen aphids since mid-April. They're only a cool weather problem here.

The aphids were absolutely horrible on my beans and peas this year. I finally threw in the towel and admitted defeat. I was tired of spraying them twice a day every day. The ladybugs were of no help either! I only have to spray my okra about every other day for aphids. LOL

I have the tiniest of ants going deep into my squash blossoms.- nectar? Striped cuke bettles also love some of my squash and gourd flowers and its a good place to catch them to kill them.

I'm guessing the ants are sugar loving ants and that they are after the nectar in the blooms. Ants help with pollination, but are not considered "good" pollinators.

Yes, ants do farm aphids, but if memory serves me correctly, they don't actually eat the aphids, rather they "milk" them for the sweet secretions the apids produce from their alimentary canals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphid

Overall, ants are considered "beneficial" in the garden.

Sorry about your aphid problem stephanietx!! Did you grow your veggies from seed? I only ask because I just read (somewhere) here on DG that the Bonnie plants from certain stores were full of aphids and caused problems in the garden for many.

Well, I guess it could be nectar the ants are after, seems some have the same experience. That must be it because I checked twice today and the ants are only on the blooms. This morning I didn't see the ants on the okra but checked again after another bloom opened and sure enough there they were. They are also on the bush beans again today. I still haven't found any aphids. Maybe they are smaller than the ants and I can't see them with my glasses!! LOL But they should be getting fatter soon if they are there. I hope not.

Honeybee, thank you for the info. Also, an interesting read on the Wiki link.

Most of our plants were from transplants, except the beans and some watermelon. The beans had the aphids the WORST! Good grief, I tell ya! Seriously, I could spray them in the morning and they'd be back by the afternoon. I think they were immune to the water and the soap! LOL

How frustrating Stephanie!!

I guess there are probably certain plants that the aphids prefer? I know they like milkweed, the butterfly host. And don't the monarch butterflies lay the eggs on the milkweed and then the larvae eats the aphids? Seems right. So I guess they can serve a purpose there.

I've had those aphids in the garden so bad before that they were on the alleged "deterents", like the nasturtium! No fun. I think the last time they were a problem, I finally got one of those rubber gloves and took them off.. and they didn't come back. Of course they may have gotten squished. Yucky I know.