I realize that ants crawling around on my container plants (almost all Dahlias, Zinnias and Peppers) often means aphids, but what if I don't see any evidence of aphids? This is a heavily wooded lakeside location so there are tons of ant hills. Could it be these critters are just checking things out (or have already eaten the aphids) and mostly, will the ants do any long term harm or are their presence a sign of yet something else? I really don't like using pesticides, especially on the peppers. Thanks in advance for your help.
Ants In My Plants
Ants do lots of things besides farm aphids, so if you don't see any evidence of aphids or scale (which is another thing that secretes honeydew which the ants love) then you don't necessarily have to do anything about them. I've repotted things occasionally and found tons of ants in the soil, I think sometimes they'll build their nests down in the pot and they definitely make themselves comfortable in the garden even when there's no aphids around. If you want to get rid of them, get an ant bait made with boric acid, that'll knock out the ants but won't get on the veggies (or if the ants do track some onto the plants, it's not harmful so you can still eat the veggies)
I'm a big believer in food grade diatomaceous earth.
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