Field ants in my raised garden bed

[GneissPlace]

So do field ants farm aphids? I have a swarm of them in my raised bed after laying down cardboard a couple months ago. I removed decomposing cardboard. Do I need to do something to control the ants or will they just aerate the soil and eat pests?

 

[Susan BBPM]

So do field ants farm aphids? I have a swarm of them in my raised bed after laying down cardboard a couple months ago. I removed decomposing cardboard. Do I need to do something to control the ants or will they just aerate the soil and eat pests?

I'm in the UK so our ants might be different from yours, but I had the same problem when I created my raised beds on front lawn (using cardboard).

I put a sprinkler hose out for a couple of hours a day for a week and that seemed to do the trick. They don't like being flooded out.

Generally speaking though, all my research online told me that it's best to just leave them be if they're not doing any harm. But again, I'm talking about British ants - I know everything is bigger in the US!! LOL

 

[Chuck]

We need to see what kind of ant it is. Some are good, and some are bad and some are indifferent as far as your garden is concerned. Even if they do farm aphids, this is not good as your plant still has aphids, which must be removed. These ants actually protect aphids so they are actually harming your garden. A good way to remove ants is to use a spinosad soil drench