Ants

[Amberc]

Just discovered that my garden lawn is full of ant hills (yellow ants). How do I get rid of them? Do they cause any problems?

Also got loads of black ants in the bedding plants. I'm sure this is stopping my rose bush from growing but I'm no Alan Titchmarsh so any advice gratefully accepted!

[FreeButtonBee]

I had loads last year. It's such a pain. You need to be super vigilant; otherwise they just keep coming back.

On individual plants, like roses, they might be farming aphids. This really gross but basically they 'milk' the little green aphids and scare off other predators to keep the colony healthy. They will even transplant them to other plants to spread their herd! V clever and all that but not what I want on my plants. So you need to get rid of both the ants and the aphids. Spray them with a mixture of fairy liquid and water and if you have time/energy, hand pick them off or wash them off again with a soapy mix. I also got bait stations and set them near the ant runs. Apparently semolina is a good non-toxic bait - they eat it but can't digest it and when they drink, it swells up and they explode. Nice!

I warn you, it took me months to get rid of them and once they left one plant, they'd move to another. Finally got rid of them this spring but I did have to sacrifice a few plants in the process.

[Amberc]

Oh blimey - They are so clever it seems wrong to kill them! Semolina - will try that. I don't seem to have any aphids that I can see. I'm going to try the spray thing too though just in case. Probably need hardcore chemicals for the lawn though - the hills are everywhere and each is teeming - eek!