Are ants a good thing to have running around your plants?

I see ants climbing up my pines all the time and they pop up by the hundreds on certain plants. Anyone know what they're after? Should I worry about a bunch of ants running up and down my trees?

I don't know about the pine trees but I wouldn't want them on my flowers. What kind of flowers are they on.

actually on some flowers they are good to have. like my moonvines they actually help the flower open in the evening. they are after dew and some are after the leaves. they also are after the aphids by product. ants are also a pollinater for some plants.


on the pine trees they are probaly after the sap. http://www.safeguardpestcontrol.com/new_page_6.htm if you go down this page about half way it tells you about pine tree ants.

Thanks for the link

CoreH...you may just be witnessing the normal routine of ants in their search for food, etc. Unless you see any bigtime damage I wouldn't worry about it. And those pinetree ants, according to the link given (Thanks, Imzadi! Great info!) seem to be relegate to a region in California so you should be safe from those.

Shoe

They don't seems to cause damage so I'm not really worried about the ants. I see them all the time on the pines (little small black ants) and other flowering plants on occasion. They go after my apple trees which I am worried about.