Do I need to worry about ants?

I seem to have a lot of ants in my veg path.

Do I need to worry about them?

Do I need to get rid of them?

Are they harming my veg?

 

Depends really - biggest problem I have with ants is that they farm the aphids on the apple trees & the climbing beans affecting their growth. They get into some of the pots as well but only when I forget to water them!

Greasebands seem to work on the apple trees, but chemical warfare seems to be the only option if they start on the beans unless you have the time to regularly de-aphid things in the day.

 

Not sure to what degree ants effect veg . I try and leave them alone where possible . I do get infestations on the front lawn and use Ant Stop which works very well . Also tried Nippon Ant which does not seem as effective. Now you would need to check if these chemicals can be used on veg.

 

Same here, i have no veg in my garden so i let them do what they want.

 

I have few problems with ants. Once I had a gooseberry bush start to struggle, it kept wilting, investigation showed a large ants nest in the base. They had loosened the soil to get there nest excavated. I just watered thoroughly every day for a week and then kept damp for the rest of the season and they went away.

 

Thanks, they don't seem to be doing any damage, there just seems to be a lot of them crawling all over things as they grow.

I wish they ate slugs......