orchids and ants

i put my orchids outdoors for the first time -hanging from a tree--after just one day one is swimming in ants!! i tried hosing them down but they are still there--it looks to me like they are eating something in the basket--the moss maybe? i can't bring them in like that --don't want to spray or do anything to hurt the orchids--any suggestions?

Ugh, I hate ants! I'm pretty much a newbie, but I have been learning that ants and aphids often go hand in hand. There is some kind of substance that the aphids leave behind that the ants like to feed on or something.
Insecticidal soap works well to kill the aphids, but I'm not sure if it kills ants (prob. not as I think they are pretty formidable) or if it's safe to use on orchids.
You might get better info if you post in the orchid forum. Good luck!

You guy's seem to have a wider variety of ants than we have here in UK, but I find the best cure is a product/powder that you sprinkle close to the ant run and they take it back to the nest and feed it to the queen and young, this kills them, you may have to reapply this over a period of time till you see no more activity on the plant, this poison wont harm the plant as you wont sprinkle it onto the foliage, just in a small flat dish on the soil, the ants will find it themselves, just don't let any cats/dogs etc get to lick it as it MAY be harmful to them, make sure you don't over water your Orchid as you try to hose off the ants or you will over water the plant.
Last resort could be to remove all the special Orchid compost from the basket, wash the roots to remove all the ants and then pot up in new Orchid compost mix well away from the tree where the ants are, they wont harm the plant in any way, it is more like they are building a nest using the Orchid nice dry compost. hope you have good luck. WeeNel.

Oh! I re-read your post and I see that I missed the part about you putting the orchid out just one day before you got the ants. Ignore my aphid comment. Sorry.

thank you both for your responses--i did not know that aphids and ants go together!! i am so glad to hear that the ants don't hurt the plant--that is what i was worried about--thanks again for sharing your knowledge with a still learning gardener!!

Hi Plantolinda, never be worried about asking ANY question, always someone able to help if they can, how do you think we learned, still learning in fact, gardeners are always happy to help each other, we always love to encourage others to give gardening a go, we might all grow different things and have different ideas as to what is a problem, but between us all, we can usually get to the results needed to help out a fellow garden nut, happy gardening. Weenel.

thank you for your kind words of support--